Lindsey Graham Accuses FBI Of “Massive Criminal Conspiracy”

Sen. Graham's accusation of the "massive criminal conspiracy" by the FBI came during his opening statement prior to Horowitz's testimony today.

Fox News has more details on Graham's accusation against the FBI after the release of the IG report:

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham accused the FBI officials who investigated the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia of a “massive criminal conspiracy” in a fiery opening statement Wednesday for a hearing where the Justice Department's top watchdog testified.

In a freewheeling speech to kick off the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on FBI abuses, the committee chairman said federal investigators made more than a few missteps -- and took the law into their own hands.

“What has been described as a few irregularities becomes a massive criminal conspiracy over time to defraud the FISA court, to illegally surveil an American citizen and keep an operation open against a sitting president of the United States -- violating every norm known to the rule of law,” Graham said.

The more than 40-minute unscripted speech came before the long-anticipated testimony of Michael Horowitz, the Justice Department inspector general who investigated the origins of the Russia probe into the Trump campaign.

Horowitz’s report, released Monday, found no intentional misconduct or political bias surrounding the FBI’s launch of the probe, which was called “Crossfire Hurricane,” and efforts to seek a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant to monitor Trump campaign aide Carter Page.

However, the report faulted the FBI for numerous errors in the FISA application process, identifying at least 17 “significant inaccuracies and omissions” in the application and renewals for Page’s FISA warrant.

The Hill also stated:

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) ripped the FBI's investigation into Trump campaign associates on Monday, arguing it was a "criminal enterprise" and showed a system that "got off the rails."

 

"I believe there will be no debate among reasonable minded people ... about how the system not only got off the rails but, in my view, became a criminal enterprise to defraud the FISA [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] court, to deny American citizen Carter Page his constitutional rights and to continue an operation against President Trump as president of the United States that I think was fundamentally flawed and unlawful," Graham said during a press conference.

 

His remarks to reporters followed the release of Justice Department inspector general Michael Horowitz's findings from a two-year investigation into the FBI's decision to open up a probe during the 2016 campaign into Trump associates.

Graham brushed off divisions between Horowitz and Attorney General William Barr about whether there was enough information to initiate the 2016 probe, saying that "lawyers can reasonably disagree."

 

"Let's assume for a moment it started out OK; it sure as hell didn't end OK," Graham added.

 

The South Carolina Republican, who has emerged as one of Trump's most vocal defenders on Capitol Hill, accused the FBI of going back "to the good old days of J. Edgar Hoover" and that FBI officials "made stuff up."

"If I was Mr. Carter Page, I'd hire me a lawyer and I'd sue the hell out of the United States," Graham said.

 

Horowitz, in his report, concluded that the FBI's decision to open an investigation was not motivated by political bias. He also concluded that the FBI had “an authorized purpose” to launch a probe to “obtain information about, or to protect against, a national security threat or federal crime, even though the investigation also had the potential to impact constitutionally protected activity.”