Attorney General Bill Barr, U.S. Attorney for Connecticut John Durham, FBI Director Christopher Wray and President Donald Trump have each released statements about the release of the Justice Department’s inspector general’s report into the Russia investigation. Those statements are available below.
Nothing is more important than the credibility and integrity of the FBI and the Department of Justice. That is why we must hold our investigators and prosecutors to the highest ethical and professional standards. The Inspector General’s investigation has provided critical transparency and accountability, and his work is a credit to the Department of Justice. I would like to thank the Inspector General and his team.
The Inspector General’s report now makes clear that the FBI launched an intrusive investigation of a U.S. presidential campaign on the thinnest of suspicions that, in my view, were insufficient to justify the steps taken. It is also clear that, from its inception, the evidence produced by the investigation was consistently exculpatory. Nevertheless, the investigation and surveillance was pushed forward for the duration of the campaign and deep into President Trump’s administration. In the rush to obtain and maintain FISA surveillance of Trump campaign associates, FBI officials misled the FISA court, omitted critical exculpatory facts from their filings, and suppressed or ignored information negating the reliability of their principal source. The Inspector General found the explanations given for these actions unsatisfactory. While most of the misconduct identified by the Inspector General was committed in 2016 and 2017 by a small group of now-former FBI officials, the malfeasance and misfeasance detailed in the Inspector General’s report reflects a clear abuse of the FISA process.
FISA is an essential tool for the protection of the safety of the American people. The Department of Justice and the FBI are committed to taking whatever steps are necessary to rectify the abuses that occurred and to ensure the integrity of the FISA process going forward.
No one is more dismayed about the handling of these FISA applications than Director Wray. I have full confidence in Director Wray and his team at the FBI, as well as the thousands of dedicated line agents who work tirelessly to protect our country. I thank the Director for the comprehensive set of proposed reforms he is announcing today, and I look forward to working with him to implement these and any other appropriate measures.
With respect to DOJ personnel discussed in the report, the Department will follow all appropriate processes and procedures, including as to any potential disciplinary action.
I have the utmost respect for the mission of the Office of Inspector General and the comprehensive work that went into the report prepared by Mr. Horowitz and his staff. However, our investigation is not limited to developing information from within component parts of the Justice Department. Our investigation has included developing information from other persons and entities, both in the U.S. and outside of the U.S. Based on the evidence collected to date, and while our investigation is ongoing, last month we advised the Inspector General that we do not agree with some of the report’s conclusions as to predication and how the FBI case was opened.
FBI Director Christopher Wray:
BREAKING: FBI Dir. Chris Wray “The inspector general did not find political bias or improper motivations impacting the opening” of Russia probe, “or the decision to use certain investigative tools.”@PierreTABC: “Included FISA?”
Wray: “Including FISA.” https://t.co/Xl47zHIj6X pic.twitter.com/tKxYqXbvTU
— ABC News (@ABC) December 9, 2019
Thank you very much. The IG report just came out and I was just briefed on it, and it’s a disgrace what’s happened with respect to the things that were done to our country. It should never again happen to another president. It is incredible, far worse than I would have ever thought possible. It’s an embarrassment to our country, it’s dishonest, it’s everything that a lot of people thought it would be, except far worse.
So I’m going to get some very detailed briefing, but—briefings, but they are…it’s a very sad day when I see that. Very sad day when a lot of people see that. They had no nothing, it was concocted…you say what you want, that was probably something that’s never happened in the history of our country.
…
Well, they fabricated evidence and they lied to the courts and they did all sorts of things to have it go their way. And this was something we can never allow to happen again. The report actually, especially when you look into it and the details of the report, are far worse than anything I would have imagined. What they were doing and what they would have done if I didn’t make a certain move, a certain move that was a very important move because it would have been even worse if that’s possible, and it might have been able to succeed. This was an overthrow of government, this was an attempted overthrow and a lot of people were in on it and they got caught, they got caught red-handed. And I look forward to the Durham report, which is coming out in the not too distant future—it’s got its own information, which is this information plus plus plus…and it’s an incredible thing that happened and we’re lucky we caught ’em. I think I’m going to put this down as one of our great
achievements. Because what we found and what we saw—never ever should this happen again in our country.
Leave a Reply