‘Yeah, I briefly chased the pee tape’ — New York Times reporter talks Steele dossier, Horowitz report and more

The headline on the front page of the New York Times on Nov. 23 read, “Report Is Said To Clear F.B.I. Of Bias Claims,” by Adam Goldman and Charlie Savage.

The “report” is the result of a nearly two-year investigation, overseen by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz, probing the origins of the U.S. government’s Russia investigation and its various activities. When the actual Horowitz report came out on Dec. 9, it validated the New York Times headline: The decision to open the investigation was “in compliance with Department and FBI policies, and we did not find documentary or testimonial evidence that political bias or improper motivation” played a role in the decision. It also validated other parts of the Times’s preview as it bore in on the FBI’s efforts to seek warrants under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act for former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page — a process that, as the Horowitz report indicates, was shot through with omissions and incompetence.