It's no coincidence that Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz has said his extensive report on potential abuses of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) is almost complete alongside the news that a DOJ review into the origins of the probe of Russia's alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election is now a criminal investigation, Rep. John Ratcliffe said Friday.
"Republicans put out a memo that said that Obama administration officials in the Department of Justice and the FBI appeared to have abused the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and court to obtain surveillance on Carter Page," the Texas Republican told Fox News' "Fox and Friends."
"Democrats put out a memo saying that's a bunch of nonsense ... I think that these two things are related, that the work done by Michael Horowitz could result in criminal referrals, even though the report hasn't been released."
Regardless, prosecutor John Durham had to let Horowitz finish his report, said Ratcliffe.
"I think when people read the inspector general's impending report, it will be very clear why the Durham investigation has now moved to a criminal probe, which will allow him to impanel a grand jury and bring in witnesses and ultimately, perhaps, bring criminal charges," said Ratcliffe.
He agreed that it's possible that the report could show if there were laws broken at the Department of Justice or the FBI, or if there was coordination with the Obama White House, based on text messages and testimony already released.
The New York Times reported the investigation raises alarms that Trump is using the Department of Justice to go after his enemies, but Ratcliffe said that was going on with the Obama administration.
"All of those questions began to occur before Donald Trump was ever elected president, when he was candidate Trump," said Ratcliffe. "The things that we're looking at took place and can be verified before Donald Trump ever put his hand on the Bible and became our president."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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