I HOPE THIS IS WRONG: Whitewash? IG Report on FISA Abuses by Obama Administration Will Disappoint the Right

Multiple media outlets are reporting that Justice Department Inspector General David Horowitz’s report on abuses by Obama-era officials in obtaining FISA warrants to spy on the Trump campaign will almost certainly disappoint those who believe that political bias colored the FBI’s investigation.

The IG report is due out December 9, but already it appears that there will be no recommendations for indictments of major officials who were in charge of the investigation.

Andrew McCarthy at NRO:

CNN adds that some of the witnesses interviewed expect the IG’s report will “find mistakes in the FBI’s handling of the FISA process, but that those mistakes do not undermine the premise for the FBI’s investigation.” The network describes that premise as the conclusion “that Russia interfered in the 2016 election.”

McCarthy thinks that Horowitz is missing the point if his criticisms stop there.

Of course, that only relates half the story — the uncontroversial half. The FBI’s full premise was that the Trump campaign was complicit in Russia’s election interference.

What is in issue is whether there were adequate grounds for suspicion of a Trump–Russia criminal conspiracy — enough to justify the FBI and the Justice Department in taking the fraught step of investigating the incumbent administration’s political opposition during a presidential campaign, exploiting such powerful counterintelligence measures as FISA warrants, the deployment of informants, and collaboration with foreign intelligence services against Americans who worked on the Trump campaign — the kinds of investigative techniques reserved for hostile foreign powers and terrorist organizations.

Indeed. While a prosecutor might be able to indict a ham sandwich, getting a FISA warrant should be a lot more difficult. It isn’t. Just a handful of the thousands of warrant applications over the years have been denied by a FISA court judge.

Read the rest from Rick Moran HERE.

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