Consensus reached after multiple days and meetings among officials. We reviewed Department Policies and concluded Assistant Director pre steps exercise of description in opening the investigation was in compliance with those policies. We also reviewed, as we detail in the report, the emails, Text Messages and other documents of those involved in that decision, particularly mr. Pre steps. We didnt find documentary or Testimonial Evidence that indicated political bias or improper motivation influencing his decision to open the investigation. While the information in the fbis possession at the time was limited, in light of the Throw Threshold established by department and fbi predication policy which, by the way, is not a legal requirement but a prudential one in the fbi and Department Policies, we found that Crossfire Hurricane was opened for an authorized
investigative purpose and with sufficient factual predication. This decision to open Crossfire Hurricane which involved the activitie
security. at the same time, the use of this authority unavoidbly raises civil liberty concerns. fisa can be used to surveil u.s. persons and in some cases the surveillance will foreseeably collect information about the individual s constitutionally protected activities such as carter page s legitimate activities on behalf of a presidential campaign. moreover, proceedings before the foreign intelligence surveillance court, which is responsible for ruling on applications for fisa orders are ex-parte, meaning that unlike most court proceedings, the government is the only party prrcht for the proceedings and fisa orders have not been subjected to scrutiny through subsequent proceedings like search warrants and wiretap applications, potentially through the criminal process. in light of these concerns, the fisa statute and department and
accuracy reviews known as the woods procedures, designed to ensure that fisa applications contain a full and accurate presentation of the facts. department lawyers and the court should have been given complete and accurate information so they could have meaningfully evaluated probable cause before authorizing the surveillance of a u.s. person associated with a presidential campaign. that did not occur. and as a result, the surveillance of carter page continued even as the fbi gathered information that weakened the assessment of probable cause and made the fisa applications less accurate. we concluded that investigators did not give appropriate consideration or attention to facts that cut against probable cause, and that as the investigation progressed and more information tended to undermine or weaken the assertions in the fisa applications, investigators did not reassess the information
political bias. is that correct? we found no information that the initiation of the investigation was from political bias. it gets more i raise that, and did you conclude that there s a legitimate basis to investigate ties between trump campaign advisers and russia? we concluded the fbi had the predication to open it on july 31, and the subsequent sub files they opened about ten days later or so. some of that came from without naming the trusted foreign ally. correct. the information came from the friendly foreign government. did you find the fbi exceeded
supporting probable cause. further, the agents and supervisory agents did not follow or even appear to know certain basic requirements in the woods procedures. although we did not find documentary or testimonial evidence of intentional misconduct, we also did not receive satisfactory explanations for any of the errors or omissions we identified. we found and as we outline here, are deeply concerned that so many basic and fundamental errors were made by three separate hand picked investigative teams on one of the most sensitive fbi investigations after the matter had been briefed to the highest levels within the fbi, even though the information sought through the use of fisa authority related so closely to an ongoing presidential campaign, and even though those involved with the investigation knew that their actions would likely be subjected to close