Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham released 11 transcripts of interviews during the investigation into Crossfire Hurricane.
Graham blasted former FBI Director James Comey and others in charge of the investigation into supposed collusion between President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia.
Graham described Crossfire Hurrican as “one of the most incompetent and corrupt investigations in the history of the FBI and DOJ.” He wrote:
“The FISA court was lied to. Exculpatory information was withheld on those being investigated. The investigators, with some notable exceptions, were incredibly biased and used the powers of law enforcement for political purposes. The subjects of the investigation had their lives turned upside down. It is my hope that counterintelligence investigations will be reined in and this never happens again in America.“The leadership of the FBI under Comey and McCabe was either grossly incompetent or they knowingly allowed tremendous misdeeds. There was a blind eye turned toward any explanation other than the Trump campaign was colluding with foreign powers. At every turn the FBI and DOJ ran stop signs that were in abundance regarding exculpatory information.“The FISA warrant applications against Carter Page were a travesty, and those who signed them have acknowledged that if they knew then what they know now, they would not have signed it.
The interviews took place between March and October of last year.
The FISA warrant on Carter Page has received quite a bit of criticism since we had knowledge of Crossfire Hurricane.
The FBI received the first warrant on October 21, 2016. The inspector general, Michael Horowitz, found that the FBI misled the FISA Court and relied on the Christopher Steele dossier.
The transcripts confirmed what the inspector general said in his report: evidence showed the FBI had an “adequate basis” to begin a collusion probe.
The interviewees claimed they had relevant information to ask for a warrant on Page, but the transcripts show them either being told by counsel not to answer the question or use vague descriptions.
One agent left Crossfire Hurricane because the FBI denied his request to validate the information in Steele’s dossier.
The agent known as Supervisory Special Agent 1 said after the Mother Jones article came out on October 31, 2016, he asked for a validation review through the Director of Intelligence.
Bill Priestap, the assistant director of counterintelligence, denied his request.
The agent wanted an enhanced validation because it was something they have always done:
I recognized the significance of his reporting, the use in a FISA application. I had questions about out intel validation was ongoing in the Counterintelligence Division, and all of that contributed to my professional disagreement.
The agent wanted deeper validation because Steele “had a subsource network that provided him the reporting.” He said it was important to identify the source network so they could “have probable cause.”
Priestap and former FBI deputy director of counterintelligence Peter Strzok told the agent that it was “turned off” because of leaks and wanted to keep everything in the investigation within counterintelligence.
The agent did not agree with the decision and left the case.
Overall, it confirmed what Graham and everyone else knew:
“There was no ‘there’ there. The investigation was pushed when it should have been stopped and the only logical explanation is that the investigators wanted an outcome because of their bias.“Former FBI Director Comey and his deputy Mr. McCabe, through their incompetence and bias, have done a great disservice to the FBI and DOJ, and the senior DOJ leadership who signed off on the work product called the Crossfire Hurricane investigation have created a stain on the department’s reputation that can only be erased by true reform.
Graham will no longer occupy the chairmanship of the committee after the inauguration. No one knows if anything more will come from these transcripts or investigation.
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