This archive report was first published on 9 December 2019.
Published on December 9, 2019, a long-awaited watchdog report by the Justice Department's inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, found that the F.B.I. had adequate reason in 2016 to open an investigation into the Trump campaign's ties with Russia.
However, Attorney General William P. Barr sharply criticized the F.B.I.'s decision to open the Russia investigation, undercutting a major finding in the report. In a statement, Mr. Barr said, 'The inspector general's report now makes clear that the F.B.I. 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.'
Mr. Barr's statement was backed by John H. Durham, a federal prosecutor appointed by Mr. Barr to run a separate criminal investigation into the origins of the Russia investigation. Mr. Durham said, 'Last month, we advised the inspector general that we do not agree with some of the report's conclusions as to predication and how the F.B.I. case was opened.'
The statements from the Justice Department's top official and one of his key investigators gave Mr. Trump's supporters ammunition to dispute one of the key findings in the report that excoriated the F.B.I.'s handling of a wiretap application used in the early stages of its Russia investigation.
