This is no surprise, from what we’d assumed before and heard as Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz testified before the House. Horowitz testified Wednesday before the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee and said that the FBI should have considered shutting down its surveillance of Trump adviser Carter Page far earlier than it did.
The DOJ's inspector general says the FBI should have considered whether to end surveillance of Trump campaign aide Carter Page far earlier than it did https://t.co/2v4LDwxBeL pic.twitter.com/6vxlEmPqc4
— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) December 18, 2019
Now why would that be?
CNN reports:
The Justice Department’s inspector general said Wednesday that the FBI should have considered whether to end surveillance of Trump campaign aide Carter Page far earlier than it did, after learning that allegations of collusion against him might not be credible.
The inspector general, Michael Horowitz, told the Senate Homeland Security Committee that FBI investigators should have thought about scaling back the wiretaps and surveillance of Page in January 2017. Instead, the government surveillance continued until September 2017.
“If you’re getting information that isn’t advancing, and in fact potentially undercutting, or simply undercutting your primary theme or theory as was happening here… you’d look at the Carter Page file and say, should I keep going on this?” Horowitz told the Senate committee, explaining that the FBI wasn’t finding much to corroborate allegations that Page was working with Russia.
The government continued to spy on Page until Sept. 2017 even though it wasn’t finding much. And across the hallway in the House of Representatives, Democrats are still brining up Russian collusion as a reason to impeach the president.
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How clear things seem only in hindsight.
— Patrick “The Ghost of Christmas Pleasant” Horne (@phorne96) December 18, 2019
Where are the arrests and media apologies?
— Peter Dilecto (@realtruthkings) December 18, 2019
You should have "considered" running this story 18 months ago. https://t.co/EQRZyXUTMq
— Cranial I/O Error (@Cranial_IOError) December 18, 2019
The media spent 3 years on a hoax.
— KJR Molon (@KjrMolon) December 18, 2019
What a joke.
— Evets 2 (@evets_2) December 18, 2019
Wow. Shoulda, woulda, coulda is now breaking news. What have we come to?
— Shaun (@theshaunlar) December 18, 2019
"Considered"??? They KNEW there was NO legal basis to begin surveillance in the first place – and LOTS of Constitutional, statutory and DOJ guidelines screaming NOT to begin or continue once begun. FIFY
— Red Rider (aka Kirk Weir) (@Drivedabizness) December 18, 2019
Surveillance = Spying
The FBI Spied on the Trump campaign! Who authorized this? Lynch? Biden? Obama?
Stay Tuned! More to come with Bill Barr and John Durham!#Durham #Barr #TRUMP2020Landside ??— Oscar R Sanchez (@OscarRSanchez) December 18, 2019
Obama Admin spied illegally on a rivals campaign. That is actually grounds for impeachment and is criminal.
— MNItalian2 (@cf42850830) December 18, 2019
CNN adds:
In an extraordinary order publicly released on Tuesday, the FISA court slammed the FBI its handling of the Page warrants and ordered the agency to explain how it’s going to prevent these errors in the future. The court gave the FBI a January 10 deadline to respond. FBI Director Christopher Wray previously said he was implementing at least 40 corrective measures.
Related:
IG Michael Horowitz ‘not sure’ the Carter Page FISA warrants were producing useful information https://t.co/FWHr2YxUwO
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) December 11, 2019
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