JUDY WOODRUFF: The origins of the investigation into President Trump's campaign and Russia
were under the microscope today on Capitol Hill.
The inspector general for the Department of Justice sat for a daylong hearing about his
recent report examining accusations of political bias in the FBI and how the bureau conducted
itself in the early months of the probe.
William Brangham reports.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Before the Senate Judiciary Committee today, diametrically opposed views
about one of the most controversial and sensitive FBI investigations in recent history.
SEN.
DIANNE FEINSTEIN (D-CA): There is no deep state.
Simply put, the FBI investigation was motivated by facts, not bias.
SEN.
LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): The system failed.
People at the highest level of our government took the law into their own hands.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The sole witness today was Michael Horowitz, the Department of Justice's
inspector general.
He detailed the findings of his over 400-page examination of Crossfire Hurricane, the initial
FBI investigation into Russian election meddling and what role the Trump campaign may have
been playing.
Horowitz quickly dispelled one of President Trump's main theories: that the FBI launched
the probe to derail his campaign.
MICHAEL HOROWITZ, Justice Department Inspector General: We didn't find any documentary or
testimonial evidence that political bias or improper motivation influenced the FBI's decision
to conduct those CHS operations.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Horowitz also said that text messages from Peter Strzok, a key FBI
official in the probe who repeatedly wrote derogatory things about candidate Trump, also
had no bearing.
SEN.
DIANNE FEINSTEIN: Based on your investigation, personal political views expressed in text
messages didn't motivate the opening of the investigation of ties between Trump campaign
advisers and Russia; is that correct?
MICHAEL HOROWITZ: Ultimately, we concluded that those texts messages, which we found
last year were entirely inappropriate, didn't ultimately play the role in Mr. Priestap's
decision to open an investigation.
SEN.
DIANNE FEINSTEIN: Thank you.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: But Horowitz went on to detail numerous cases of errors and omissions
by FBI officials, particularly with regards to so-called FISA warrants used to surveil
Trump campaign aide Carter Page.
MICHAEL HOROWITZ: Nevertheless, we found that investigators failed to meet their basic obligations
of ensuring that the FISA applications were scrupulous -- scrupulously accurate.
We identified significant inaccuracies and omissions in each of the four applications,
seven in the first application, seven in the first application and a total of 17 by the
final renewal application.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Horowitz testified that these applications relied heavily on the controversial
Steele dossier, a set of unproven allegations compiled by former British spy Christopher
Steele, and paid for, in part, by lawyers working for Hillary Clinton's campaign.
Horowitz said his investigation showed that FBI agents had evidence that Steele's information
was questionable, but they hid those findings.
MICHAEL HOROWITZ: We are deeply concerned that so many basic and fundamental errors
were made by three separate handpicked investigative teams on one of the most sensitive FBI investigations.
The circumstances reflect a failure, we outlined in the report, not just by those who prepared
the applications, but also by the managers and supervisors in the Crossfire Hurricane
chain of command, including FBI senior officials who were briefed as the investigation progressed.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM: Former FBI Director James Comey said this week that your report vindicates
him.
Is that a fair assessment of your report?
MICHAEL HOROWITZ: I think the activities we found here don't vindicate anybody who touched
this.
SEN.
MIKE LEE (R-UT): Every American really should be terrified by this report.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Republicans continually portrayed Horowitz's investigation as a deeper,
damning indictment of the FBI and the DOJ.
SEN.
TED CRUZ (R-TX): These are not typos.
These are not small, inadvertent errors.
These are grotesque abuse of power.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: But Democrats stressed that these actions didn't betray a larger culture
within the agency, and that the broader Russia investigation did find extensive wrongdoing.
SEN.
CHRIS COONS (D-DE): I just thought it was worth repeating that the Mueller investigation
produced 37 indictments, guilty pleas and convictions, and none of those are called
into question by your report; is that correct?
MICHAEL HOROWITZ: We don't address that at all.
SEN.
RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-CT): I didn't find any conclusion that the FBI meddled or interfered
in the election to affect the outcome.
MICHAEL HOROWITZ: We didn't reach that conclusion.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Given that there's a separate ongoing investigation into the Russia probe
being run by U.S. attorney John Durham, it's clear that the scrutiny of the FBI is nowhere
near over.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm William Brangham.
JUDY WOODRUFF: We will have more on that story after the news summary.