Former Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley has been asking for weeks: Where is the Department of Justice Inspector General report about FISA abuse and the origins of the Russia probe?
The final version was supposed to be made public in June. It's now November. It's been reported Inspector General Michael Horowitz is working to get the report out before Thanksgiving, but we aren't holding our breathe.
The lengthy delay is raising questions among lawmakers about how the report may be edited and whether allies of James Comey at the FBI are involved.
If FISA Inspector General Horowitz report doesn’t come out next week when they said it would then I will be very disappointed & left to wonder WHAT THE GAME IS?? Is someone at FBI or DOJ tying IGs hands??
— ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) November 12, 2019
To all the leakers in DOJ tell me IF the Horowitz report will EVER come out. I don’t want a prediction on WHEN. I’ve had enough of those disappointments. Tell “IF”
— ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) November 13, 2019
According to reports, Horowitz has asked those interviewed or investigated as part of the report to review it. This is typically one of the final stages before publication. In September, Horowitz announced the investigative portion of the process was finished and sent the report to DOJ for redactions.
"We have now begun the process of finalizing our report by providing a draft of our factual findings to the Department and the FBI for classification determination and marking. Once we receive the marked document back from the Department and the FBI, we will then proceed with our usual process for preparing final draft public and classified reports, and ensuring that appropriate reviews occur for accuracy and comment purposes," Horowitz said at the time.
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Last month Grassley expressed concern the report was being "deep sixed" ahead of its release.
All of the delays and excuses why the Horowitz IG FISA report isn’t public yet after several months of anticipation of its issues leads me to the suspicion it’s going to be “deep six” by the deep state
— ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) October 22, 2019
When the report is finally released, it is expected a number of people will be referred for criminal prosecution.