Inspector general testifies about Russia report

By Meg Wagner, Mike Hayes and Zoe Sottile, CNN

Updated 4:57 p.m. ET, December 11, 2019

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11:08 a.m. ET, December 11, 2019

Graham: Russia, not Ukraine, hacked the Democrats in 2016

From CNN's Marshall Cohen

Sen. Lindsey Graham said Russia – not Ukraine – was responsible for hacking the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta in 2016.

“They opened up a counterintelligence investigation in July (2016),” Graham said. “We know the Russians are messing in our election. And it was the Russians, ladies and gentlemen, who stole the Democratic National Committee emails, Podesta's emails and screwed around with Hillary Clinton. It wasn’t the Ukrainians. It was the Russians. And they're coming after us again. So, to be concerned that the Russians are messing with presidential campaigns was a legitimate concern.”

Some context: This aligns with assessments from the US intelligence community, including the FBI, CIA and NSA, that it was Russia. But President Trump has repeatedly rejected and contradicted those conclusions, and has promoted unfounded theories that Ukraine framed Russia for the hacks, and that Ukraine is hiding the DNC servers.

12:43 p.m. ET, December 11, 2019

Top Democrat on committee: "There is no deep state"

Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the committee, said the inspector general's report “conclusively refutes” prior claims by Trump and Attorney General William Barr.

This “was not a politically motivated investigation,” she added. "There is no deep state.”

What the report itself says: The report essentially rebuts more than two years of talking points by Trump and Republicans about a deep-state effort to derail his campaign.

There were no FBI spies planted in Trump Tower, for instance. And the famed dossier by ex-British spy Christopher Steele was not the reason the investigation was launched, the IG report states.

The IG's office found that the FBI did not try to recruit members of the Trump campaign as informants, and did not to try infiltrate the campaign itself — either by instructing sources to get hired onto the campaign, or by sending sources into campaign spaces to collect information.

10:38 a.m. ET, December 11, 2019

What some senators are saying outside the hearing

From CNN's Ali Zaslav and Suzanne Malveaux

Several senators spoke to CNN this morning outside of today’s Senate Judiciary hearing.

Here's what they have to say about the FBI and Attorney General William Bar.

Senator Dick Durbin: Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, said, “Attorney General William P Barr has become a partisan tool of this administration.” When asked about what he thinks of the Trump administration rejecting the DOJ watchdog report, the Illinois Democrat said, “Well of course they reject it, because it doesn't play into their scenario and their explanation.”
Senator Chris Coons: Coons, a Democrat from Delaware, said “it’s striking“ that Trump is personally attacking FBI director Christoper Wray because he was nominated by him. He added, “I think this is a moment where the FBI director is standing for the thousands of men and women who serve every day in the FBI and is honoring his oath of office, which is to the Constitution, not to the President.“
Senator John Kennedy: Kennedy, a Republican from Louisiana, said the actions of the “rogue FBI agents” makes him “sick to his stomach” and makes him want to “heave.” He added these agents should be held accountable and that’s one of the questions he’s going to ask the inspector general today: whether these agents are still there and how if at all they are going to be held accountable.

10:49 a.m. ET, December 11, 2019

Sen. Graham in opening statement: "The system failed"

From CNN's Tammy Kupperman

Sen. Lindsey Graham, the Senate Judiciary Chairman, said in his opening statement at today's hearing that what happened “was not a few irregularities,” but rather “the system failed."

"Trump’s time will come and go, but I hope we understand that what happened here can never happen again. Because what happened here is not a few irregularities, what happened here is the system failed. People at the highest level of our government took the law in their own hands."

Graham criticized the way the media has reported on the IG report, saying, “You clearly didn’t read it. If that’s your takeaway that this thing was lawfully predicated, and that’s the main point, you miss the entire report.”

He claimed that the Clinton campaign was briefed on election interference by the FBI and his committee will receive a defensive briefing tomorrow, but complained that the FBI “never made any effort” to brief Donald Trump about “suspected problems” within his 2016 campaign.

10:09 a.m. ET, December 11, 2019

The hearing has started

Senate Judiciary Chair Lindsey Graham just gaveled in today's hearing. The committee will hear from Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz.

10:14 a.m. ET, December 11, 2019

3 key lines the inspector general will say in his opening statement today

In his written testimony submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Justice Department inspector general Michael Horowitz will reiterate his conclusion that the FBI Russia investigation was properly opened but spotlights concerns over “significant inaccuracies and omissions” in surveillance warrant applications.

CNN obtained a copy of his opening remarks. Here are the key lines:

“Nevertheless, we found that members of the Crossfire Hurricane team failed to meet the basic obligation to ensure that the Carter Page FISA applications were 'scrupulously accurate.' We identified significant inaccuracies and omissions in each of the four applications: 7 in the first FISA application and a total of 17 by the final renewal application.”
“We do not speculate whether the correction of any particular misstatement or omission, or some combination thereof, would have resulted in a different outcome. Nevertheless, the Department's decision makers and the court should have been given complete and accurate information so that they could meaningfully evaluate probable cause before authorizing the surveillance of a U.S. person associated with a presidential campaign. That did not occur, and as a result, the surveillance of Carter Page continued even as the FBI gathered information that weakened the assessment of probable cause and made the FISA applications less accurate.”
"We are deeply concerned that so many basic and fundamental errors were made by three separate, hand-picked investigative teams; on one of the most sensitive FBI investigations; after the matter had been briefed to the highest levels within the FBI.”

10:03 a.m. ET, December 11, 2019

Lindsey Graham says he has confidence in FBI director

From CNN's Ali Zaslav and Suzanne Malveaux

Sen. Lindsey Graham, the chair of the Judiciary Committee, was asked if the President still has confidence in FBI director Christopher Wray.

Graham replied as he walked into the hearing: “I don’t know, you’d have to ask, I do.”

Some background: Inspector general Michael Horowitz, the DOJ watchdog, is testifying in front of the Senate Judiciary committee this morning about his report on alleged abuses of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

The report revealed the 2016 Trump campaign Russia probe was justified and unbiased.

9:39 a.m. ET, December 11, 2019

4 key takeaways from the inspector general's report

The Justice Department's inspector general released a much anticipated report on the FBI's Russia probe on Monday.

The inspector general found that the probe was legally justified and unbiased. But the report also cites significant errors in surveillance warrants.

Here are some of the key takeaways

Legal and unbiased origin of the probe: In no uncertain words, the inspector general says there was no political conspiracy to undermine Trump's 2016 campaign.
Conspiracy theories debunked: The report essentially rebuts more than two years of talking points by Trump and Republicans about a deep-state effort to derail his campaign. There were no FBI spies planted in Trump Tower, for instance. And the famed dossier by ex-British spy Christopher Steele was not the reason the investigation was launched, the IG report states. Inspector general Michael Horowitz specifically says that Peter Strzok, a former senior counterintelligence officer, and Lisa Page, a former FBI attorney, whom Trump has repeatedly vilified and mocked in crude ways, did not act out of bias or unduly influence the start of the investigation.
Serious mistakes by the FBI: While the report doesn't back up conspiracy theories promoted by Trump and his allies, the inspector general details 17 "significant inaccuracies and omissions" in four applications for surveillance targeting Trump campaign aide Carter Page.
Barr and Durham go on the attack: Attorney General William Barr and John Durham, the US attorney leading a separate review for Barr, are unhappy with the IG's conclusions about a lack of political bias.

9:37 a.m. ET, December 11, 2019

Inspector general will testify about Russia report today

From CNN's Marshall Cohen

Justice Department inspector general Michael Horowitz will testify today before a Senate committee about his blockbuster report on the early stages of the Russia investigation.

What the report says: The highly anticipated report concluded that the FBI was justified to open the Russia investigation in July 2016, and that top FBI officials weren't motivated by political bias against President Trump.

It also debunked some conspiracy theories that Trump has promoted for years, including his claim that US intelligence implanted spies in his campaign.

How the Trump administration has reacted: Trump and Attorney General William Barr have gone on the offensive, saying the inspector general's report reached the wrong conclusion.