Michael Horowitz Michael Horowitz, the Department of Justice inspector general. Credit: Diego M. Radzinschi / ALM

Updated at 5:29 p.m.

The U.S. Justice Department's inspector general released a long-anticipated report Monday scrutinizing the roots of the Russia investigation, concluding that while the FBI was justified in opening a probe into whether anyone tied to the Trump campaign coordinated with the Kremlin, there were "serious performance failures" in obtaining surveillance warrants against a former Trump aide.

The department's inspector general, Michael Horowitz, spent more than a year scrutinizing the early steps of the Russia investigation, a probe Trump and his allies have derided repeatedly as a "hoax" and "witch hunt."

The 434-page report identified missteps in the beginnings of the investigation, including evidence that an FBI lawyer altered an email related to the surveillance of former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. Horowitz said his office identified 17 "significant errors or other omissions" in surveillance applications targeting Page. The numerous missteps, Horowitz added, "raised significant questions regarding the FBI chain of command's management and supervision" of the process for obtaining warrants under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA.

But that evidence did not change the inspector general's conclusion that the Russia investigation was opened on proper legal footing and not out of an anti-Trump bias.

"We did not find documentary or testimonial evidence that political bias or improper motivation influenced the FBI's decision to seek FISA authority on Carter Page," the report stated.

U.S. Attorney General William Barr disputed the inspector general's finding that the investigation was justified, ripping what he described as the FBI's "rush to obtain and maintain FISA surveillance" of Trump campaign officials.

"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," Barr said. "Nevertheless, the investigation and surveillance was pushed forward for the duration of the campaign and deep into President Trump's administration."

William Barr testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee during his confirmation hearing on January 15, 2019. Credit: Diego M. Radzinschi / NLJ

Barr's skepticism of the findings could fuel criticism that he too often sides with Trump, who has spent his presidency denouncing members of the law enforcement and intelligence communities. Previously, Barr faced scrutiny over his handling of the release of the special counsel's report and, more recently, over a speech a conservative legal group in which he defended Trump's use of executive authority.

Trump lashed out at the report's findings, saying that the revealed "an overthrow of government."

"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," he said Monday, even as the inspector general's report rejected conspiracy theories that have long swirled around the Russia investigation.

Horowitz's report detailed actions taken in 2016, before the Russia investigation was handed to Special Counsel Robert Mueller III.

In April, Mueller's team released a report summarizing the two-year investigation, which found no sufficient evidence to prove the Trump campaign conspired with Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election. In his 448-page report, Mueller documented several instances his office reviewed as part of a parallel investigation into whether Trump sought to obstruct the Russia investigation. The special counsel declined to take a position on whether Trump attempted to obstruct the probe.

Mueller, like many of the members of the special counsel team, has since returned to private practice. He rejoined Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr as a partner in October.

 

The full inspector general's report is posted below:

 

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This report was updated with additional comment about the inspector general's findings.