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Sin. Lindsey Graham, RS.C., has announced new information showing that the Justice Department and the FBI "missed all the indicators" during the investigation into electoral interference in Russia and possible collusion with the campaign Trump.
During an interview on Fox News, the South Carolina Republican also criticized the impending publication of evidence relating to former Trump campaign partner, George Papadopoulos, and to the former British spy Christopher Steele.
On Thursday, President Trump granted Attorney General William Barr the "power to declassify information" on the origins of the federal inquiry into possible links between the Trump campaign and Russia. Trump also asked the intelligence community and other agencies to cooperate with Barr in his efforts.
Graham said on Friday that "there will be transcripts coming soon," as well as new documents showing investigators "that they knew early" that Papadopoulos was not working with the Russians.
Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his conversations with London professor Joseph Mifsud, who reportedly told Papadopoulos that the Russians had damaging information about Hillary Clinton, Trump's Democratic rival in the 2016 elections. The FBI officially opened the Trump-Russia investigation, dubbed "Crossfire Hurricane" ("Hurricane Crossfire") in July 2016, after Australian diplomat Alexander Downer informed them that Papadapoulos had told him that the Russians had extreme dirt on Clinton.
Republicans are skeptical about the origins of the investigation. Former representative Trey Gowdy recently claimed that there were unpublished transcripts of recorded conversations between FBI informants and Papadopoulos that "could potentially change the game".
Graham said "that a lot of information" would be published showing that the investigators had been "warned" that Steele was a "bad guy" and that "you can not trust him."
Steele's unaudited file, which was shared with the media and the entire US government in 2016, was a key component of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and mandate renewal applications for the former Trump campaign partner , Carter Page. Steele had been hired by Fusion GPS, which was paid for by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee through the Perkins Coie law firm.
In addition to sharing her case with the FBI, Steele personally informed Kathleen Kavalec, head of the State Department, about this in October 2016, prior to the first FISA application. In his notes, Steele admitted that he was encouraged by his client, the Clinton campaign and the DNC, to publish his research before the 2016 election.
Graham made a general presentation of the various actions that he thought Barr, the DOJ's Inspector General, Michael Horowitz, himself participated in "the investigation of the investigators". He said that "Barr will look at the case from a criminal point of view" while "Horowitz will tell us about the FISA warrant and the internal behavior of the Justice Department and the FBI." Barr asked US lawyer John Durham to conduct the review and said that the FISA Abuse Inquiry from Horowitz would be completed in May or June.
"I want to provide you with the raw material so as not to jeopardize our national security," said Graham about what he planned to do as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. "And I'm going to look at everything to make sure it never happens again."
Graham added, "I want to make sure we have rules that you can not just open a counter-intelligence investigation on a presidential candidate without having a good reason."
Graham also criticized the reform of the FISA process itself, stating, "I'm going to make sure that the FISA laws allow for the detection of the moment when someone pours into the court a pile of garbage." Republicans say the FBI has not checked the record before using it. and that the office has concealed key facts from the Foreign Intelligence Watch Court, while the Democrats have defended the FBI's actions.
The recently released Congressional testimony of former FBI Assistant General Counsel Trisha Anderson describes the "unusual" way in which the FISA page was handled by the highest-ranking government officials before going to court. of FISA, including the involvement of former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, former Deputy Attorney General. Sally Yates and former FBI General Counsel Jim Baker.
"We need it [FISA] Graham, said Graham. But the fact is that if you can do justice to yourself for political ends, then it's not good for our democracy. "
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