Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey GrahamLindsey Olin GrahamTrump to attend California fundraiser with Oracle chairman Overnight Health Care: Nevada union won’t endorse before caucuses after ‘Medicaid for All’ scrap | McConnell tees up votes on two abortion bills | CDC confirms 15th US coronavirus case Biden on Graham’s push for investigation: ‘I don’t know what happened’ to him MORE (R-S.C.) is requesting interviews with a slew of current and former Justice Department and FBI officials as part of his panel’s probe into the department’s handling of the investigation into Russia’s election interference and the Trump campaign.
Graham sent a letter to Attorney General William BarrWilliam Pelham BarrBarr has tapped outside prosecutor to review case against Flynn: NYT Senate Dems blast Barr for ‘clear violation’ of duty in Stone case, urge him to resign The Hill’s 12:30 Report: Trump insists he can tweet about cases in rare break with Barr MORE on Friday asking that he make 17 officials, many of whom are identified only by title, available for interviews.
“As you are aware, the committee is continuing to investigate matters related to the Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s handling of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation, including the application for, and renewals of, a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act [FISA] warrant on Carter Page,” Graham wrote in the letter, according to a copy obtained by CBS News.
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Graham notes in his letter that the committee will “additionally be directly contacting former Department officials to schedule transcribed interviews.”
Graham has said he plans to call former FBI Director James ComeyJames Brien ComeyRaising the Barr isn’t always the best way to combat corruption CNN’s Toobin warns McCabe is in ‘perilous condition’ with emboldened Trump Bull meets china shop: Roger Stone controversy follows a familiar pattern MORE, former Deputy Attorney General Rod RosensteinRod RosensteinDOJ won’t charge former FBI Deputy Director McCabe Rosenstein says he authorized release of Strzok-Page texts Journalist alleging Obama administration spied on her seeks to reopen case MORE, former Deputy Attorney General Sally YatesSally Caroline YatesBiden: ‘I sure would like Michelle to be the vice president’ Rod Rosenstein joins law and lobbying firm Biden would consider Republican for VP ‘but I can’t think of one right now’ MORE and former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabeAndrew George McCabeBarr has tapped outside prosecutor to review case against Flynn: NYT The Hill’s 12:30 Report: Trump insists he can tweet about cases in rare break with Barr DOJ won’t charge former FBI Deputy Director McCabe MORE to testify as part of his investigation.
Graham, a top ally of Trump’s, has vowed he will use his gavel to look into the origins of the Russia investigation and the decision to surveil Page, a former campaign aide.
“I’m going to get to the bottom of the FISA work process because it was an abuse of power of the Department of Justice, the FBI,” Graham told CBS News on Sunday.
Graham added he would be doing “oversight of the FISA warrant system that failed.”
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Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz released a damning report late last year on the Page warrant application process. Horowitz wrote that there was no evidence of political bias in the decision to open the investigation and that the bureau had an “authorized purpose” for the probe. But he also found 17 “significant inaccuracies and omissions” throughout the FBI’s investigation.
Horowitz, during testimony before the Judiciary Committee, declined to say if he thought the FISA warrant applications on Page would have been accepted if the court knew everything the inspector general found during his investigation.
He also specifically said he personally would not have submitted the FISA warrant applications as they were originally drafted and submitted by the FBI.
“It had no business going in,” Horowitz said.
A FISA court judge took the rare step of publicly criticizing the FBI late last year, calling the bureau’s handling of the Page application as “antithetical to the heightened duty of candor described above.”
“The frequency with which representations made by FBI personnel turned out to be unsupported or contradicted by information in their possession, and with which they withheld information detrimental to their case, calls into question whether information contained in other FBI applications is reliable,” federal Judge Rosemary Collyer wrote in an order.
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