Live coverage: Justice IG testifies before House on report criticizing FBI

The Hill will be providing live coverage of a second day of testimony Tuesday by Justice Department (DOJ) Inspector General Michael Horowitz.

Hearing concludes after seven hours

5:10 p.m.

The hearing wrapped up seven hours after it began.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) declared that his committee will continue to pursue the handling of the Clinton investigation until they are satisfied that the FBI has “cleaned house.”

– Katie Bo Williams

GOP rep. asks IG to examine if FBI officials changed forms detailing investigative activity, interviews 

4:50 p.m.

Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, asked the inpector general to investigate the forms, known as 302s, that are used by the FBI to record investigative activity.

Although not exclusively, the forms tend to cover the results of interviews.

“There is growing evidence that 302s were edited and changed and it gets back to … those particular interview sessions and those 302s. It is suggested that they were either changed to prosecute or not prosecute individuals. And that is very troubling,” Meadows told Horowitz.

“We have been getting those kinds of referrals and as often happens when we issue reports like this, we get other information coming to us. We are intending to follow-up on that,” Horowitz replied.

When making this point, Meadows also highlighted one of his GOP colleague’s questions about why the FBI didn’t record their interviews with key witnesses — which Horowitz said was standard procedure. 

Reporter Sara Carter, a Fox News contributor, had first brought up altered 302s during her appearance with host Sean Hannity in January.

“There are indicators right now that [FBI Deputy Director Andrew] McCabe may have asked FBI agents to actually change their 302s. Those are interviews with witnesses. So basically, every time an FBI agent interviews a witness they have to go back and file that report,” Carter told Hannity, a vocal Trump supporter.

– Olivia Beavers

GOP rep. presses Horowitz on whether he shielded FBI, DOJ in report

4:36 p.m.

Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) questioned Horowitz on whether he might have felt it is his duty to shield the FBI and DOJ in the event that he did find evidence that political bias had impacted the bureau’s investigative decisions.

“If your report had concluded that the evidence showed that improper considerations including political bias of FBI agents did directly affect certain investigative decisions, do you think that would’ve risked eroding the American people’s trust in our justice system and the people’s faith in our institutions?” Johnson asked.

“It could’ve had, I guess, even a greater impact. I think this has an impact, standing alone,” Horowitz replied.

“Would you agree that it stands to reason that a man in your position might be tempted to rationalize a report that political bias did not affect the Clinton investigation as somehow serving a greater good of not completely undermining the country’s faith in our FBI?” Johnson continued.

Horowitz, however, defended his report’s findings, saying he and his team used their best judgment to make the assessment, which concluded no direct influence on the investigation from bias on the team.

“I look at this evidence and my team looks at this evidence — based on our judgments, our best judgments on this. We don’t pull our punches because of concerns of how it would seem or appear,” the inspector general replied.

“I think anybody who tells me that having just completed an investigation where I called the former FBI director ‘insubordinate’ and issued a report about the deputy director lying under oath — I don’t think anyone can accuse us of pulling our punches on that,” Horowitz continued.

He noted that they produced a lengthy 500-page report so that the public could make their own judgments about their findings.

– Olivia Beavers

Dem claims during hearing Republicans are going to try to fire Rosenstein on Friday

1:16 p.m.

In a outburst during the hearing, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) claimed Republicans are planning a Friday attempt to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, the top Justice Department official overseeing the Mueller probe.

Jackson made the claim after interrupting GOP Rep. Jim Jordan’s (Ohio) line of questioning with a “parliamentary inquiry” that asked whether their hearing was dealing with the inspector general’s report or Republicans’ attempt to undermine Robert Mueller’s Russia probe.

“Is it not appropriate to raise the question as to what is the germaneness of the gentleman’s line of questioning and whether or not we are dealing with the report of Mr. Horowitz or we are dealing with the Republicans’ attempt to undermine the Mueller investigation. And as well, to fire Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein, which they are planning to do on Friday,” she said.

Jordan had been asking Horowitz to examine why officials, who brought the controversial “Steele dossier” to the secretive surveillance court, did not disclose who had funded the memos at the time they were looking to obtain FISA warrants on Trump campaign aides. Republicans have charged that the “Steele dossier” initially prompted the Russia investigation, and that it proves fundamental bias because the information was partially funded by Democrats. 

Gowdy did not recognize her inquiry, and Jordan resumed his questioning.

– Olivia Beavers

Jordan: Why didn’t we see ‘We’ll stop it’ text sooner? 

Horowitz: Treatment of Clinton was not consistent with FBI policy and practice 

11:47 a.m. 

– Julia Manchester

Goodlatte pushes Horowitz on Obama White House interviews

Top Judiciary Dem questions why GOP continues to attack Clinton

11:10 a.m.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, blasted his Republican colleagues for their continuous attacks on Hillary Clinton.

“Why is it that, no matter how many times we litigate this question, House Republicans can think of nothing better to do than endlessly investigate Hillary Clinton for the same conduct?” Nadler asked in his opening remarks.

“Why is it that after the Department of Justice and the FBI concluded it should not charge Secretary Clinton with a crime, rather than accepting the conclusion as we would in most criminal cases, the Judiciary and Oversight majorities launched an investigation into the Department of Justice and the FBI?” he added.

Nadler suggested conservatives’ intense focus on Clinton has impacted their ability to govern.

“Why is it that, here and now, in June of 2018, we are still talking about Hillary Clinton’s emails at all? I suspect it has something to do with the way Republicans have squandered their opportunity to govern, and the consequences of abdicating that responsibility.”

– Olivia Beavers

Judiciary chair says Congress must cover what IG report does not: the Clinton decision

10:50 a.m.

House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) says the public deserves to know what the report did not include, citing Horowitz’s “refusal” to look at whether a given decision was the “most effective.”

“It is critical for the public to also hear what was not included in the report due to the IG’s refusal to question ‘whether a particular decision by the BFI and DOJ was the most effective choice,’” Goodlatte read in his opening remarks.

This includes the “questionable interpretation” by DOJ and FBI officials of the law surrounding mishandling of classified information, Comey’s draft letter exonerating Clinton weeks before he had interviewed her, “indiscretions” involving FBI agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page that were “not handled appropriately at the time FBI management learned of them,” as well as ties between top FBI officials and the Clintons. 

Horowitz in his report said the inspector general’s office did not weigh in on a particular decision because “our role as an OIG is not to second-guess valid discretionary judgments made during the course of an investigation, and this approach is consistent with the OIG’s handling of such questions in past reviews.”

“The question we considered was not whether a particular investigative decision was the ideal choice or one that could have been handled more effectively, but whether the circumstances surrounding the decision indicated that it was based on considerations other than the merits of the investigation. If a choice made by the investigative team was among two or more reasonable alternatives, we did not find that it was improper even if we believed that an alternative decision would have been more effective,” the report says.

“Thus, a determination by the OIG that a decision was not unreasonable does not mean that the OIG has endorsed the decision or concluded that the decision was the most effective among the options considered.”

– Olivia Beavers

– Julia Manchester 

Gowdy hammers FBI and DOJ in fiery opening remarks

10:17 a.m.

The House Oversight and Government Reform committee chairman launched into a fiery open statement condemning top officials at the FBI and DOJ for acting out of bias and animus.

“This inspector general’s report should conjure anger, disappointment and sadness in everyone who reads it. This IG report lays bare the bias, the animus, the pre-judging of facts by senior FBI agents and senior attorneys,” Gowdy said.

“And attempts to minimize and mitigate this bias are so antithetical to what we want and deserve in our law enforcement officers,” he continued.

Gowdy also hammered on the “dangerous shifting of the burden” where those affected by bias have to prove how that bias negatively affected them.

He added that the conduct of these officials clearly shows bias.

“These agents were calling her president before they were even interviewed. They were calling for the end of the Trump campaign before the investigation even began. They were calling for impeachment simply because he happened to be elected. That is bias.”

– Olivia Beavers

Protesters right off the bat 

9:57 a.m.

Justice Department Inspector General (IG) Michael Horowitz is testifying Tuesday before House lawmakers on a critical report from his office that faulted the FBI for its actions during the 2016 presidential race.

His joint hearing before the House Judiciary and House Oversight and Government Reform committees comes just one day after senators grilled him for hours on his report’s findings, which were deeply critical of FBI and DOJ leadership.

The report released last week found former FBI Director James Comey deviated from department norms with his decisionmaking. It also criticized a senior counterintelligence agent for texts that revealed a bias against President Trump, but the report did not find evidence that political bias influenced the FBI’s decisions in its investigation into then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private server.

– Olivia Beavers