IG Horowitz says FBI's Trump probe was a failure by 'the entire chain of command'

Justice Department Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz will told lawmakers Wednesday the FBI’s investigation into alleged ties between Russia and the Trump campaign was a failure by the bureau’s “entire chain of command.”

Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Mr. Horowitz said the FBI’s application to monitor a Trump campaign aide was riddled with errors and omissions, and the brass should have better managed the agents.

“It is incumbent upon the entire chain of command, including senior officials to take the necessary steps to ensure that they are sufficiently familiar with the fact and circumstances and potentially undermining a FISA application in order to provide effective oversight consistent with their level of supervisory responsibility,” Mr. Horowitz said.

He said that managers and supervisors who were briefed on the Russia probe failed to conduct proper oversight.

In addition, Mr. Horowitz said that he did not receive “satisfactory explanations” for why agents withheld potentially exculpatory information that could have cleared the Trump aide, Carter Page, of wrongdoing.

“We found that offered explanations for these serious errors did not excuse them or the repeated failures to ensure the accuracy of information presented to the [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court],” Mr. Horowitz said.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham said what started off as a few irregularities into the Carter Page wiretap application became “a criminal conspiracy” to defraud the FISA court, illegally monitor an American citizen and open an investigation into a sitting president.