FBI Director Christopher Wray had nothing but praise Tuesday for Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz as the DOJ’s watchdog wraps up his investigation into the bureau’s involvement in alleged abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act related to the Steele dossier.
Wray, who was testifying in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, was exceedingly complimentary toward Horowitz, telling Chairman Lindsey Graham that he is “hard-hitting,” “independent,” “objective,” “fair,” “professional,” and “thorough.”
“I have no reason to doubt the integrity or the quality of the investigation he has underway,” Wray added.
The 412 pages of redacted FISA documents released in 2018 show that the Justice Department and the FBI relied heavily on Steele’s dossier, which made a series of salacious and unverified allegations regarding Trump and Russia. Steele put his research together in 2016 at the behest of Fusion GPS, which had been hired by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee through the Perkins Coie law firm. The FISA Court did not reveal that Steele received funding from a Democratic presidential campaign.
Horowitz launched his inquiry in March of last year, interviewed Steele in June, and will reportedly be releasing his report in late summer or early fall.
Additionally, President Trump granted Attorney General William Barr broad declassification authority to investigate the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation. Barr selected U.S. Attorney John Durham to be his right-hand man in this effort. Wray indicated that he was willing to cooperate in all of these investigations of the investigators.
“When it comes to the counterintelligence investigation of the Trump campaign, is anybody providing kind of a deep-dive on what happened there? Is that part of Mr. Horowitz’s charter?” Graham asked Wray on Tuesday.
“Well, I think I would let Inspector General Horowitz speak for himself about the scope of his investigation. But, as you know, the attorney general is doing a review, or has commissioned some people to do a review, and I think that’s part of his job,” Wray answered. “And it’s part of mine to get some of those questions answered.”
