The Justice Department's inspector general released a much anticipated report on the FBI's Russia probe today.
The inspector general found that the probe was legally justified and unbiased. But the report also cites significant errors in surveillance warrants.
Here are some of the key takeaways
- Legal and unbiased origin of the probe: In no uncertain words, the inspector general says there was no political conspiracy to undermine Trump's 2016 campaign.
- Conspiracy theories debunked: The report essentially rebuts more than two years of talking points by Trump and Republicans about a deep-state effort to derail his campaign. There were no FBI spies planted in Trump Tower, for instance. And the famed dossier by ex-British spy Christopher Steele was not the reason the investigation was launched, the IG report states. Inspector general Michael Horowitz specifically says that Peter Strzok, a former senior counterintelligence officer, and Lisa Page, a former FBI attorney, whom Trump has repeatedly vilified and mocked in crude ways, did not act out of bias or unduly influence the start of the investigation.
- Serious mistakes by the FBI: While the report doesn't back up conspiracy theories promoted by Trump and his allies, the inspector general details 17 "significant inaccuracies and omissions" in four applications for surveillance targeting Trump campaign aide Carter Page.
- Barr and Durham go on the attack: Attorney General William Barr and John Durham, the US attorney leading a separate review for Barr, are unhappy with the IG's conclusions about a lack of political bias.