they' their windows. the hail makes it look like a strin spring snowstorm. >> hello everybody. severe weather pummelling portions of the country yesterday and today. in the carolinas and mexico and western parts of texas we could be looking at more large hail and strong winds and tornadoes in these areas. thunderstorms are firing up this afternoon and evening hours. as we head into the afternoon the first half of the weekend we have a holiday weekend and across texas and mexico we could be seeing strong to severe thunderstorms. heads up if you live in san angelo and lubbock, texas. you could be looking at severe weather on saturday and sunday. it could be a very slow moving weather pattern out here across the plains states. we are expecting areas of heavy rain. locally more than 4-6 inches of
rain is possible in texas, oklahoma, also parts of missouri. flash flooding could be an issue into the weekend and anna and ainsley take a look at the temperatures for today heating up across parts of the southeastern united states. temperatures into the upper 80s, 90s widespread in florida and it's going to stay warm to kickoff the week on saturday out there in the southeast. the northeast cool in the low 70s. let's head over to you. >> maria molina thank you very much. >> brand new information about the massive beef recall. we have learned the beef tainted with e coli was shipped to stores in ten different states, florida, illinois, indiana, kentucky, michigan michigan, ohio, pennsylvania, tennessee, wisconsin and north dakota. included on the list gordon food service marketplace, georgio's italian dell kau tess sant and butch el food mart.
it will has the number 2574 b. nearly 2,000 pounds of beef from wolverine packing company after people in 11 states got sick. for a full list you can head to "fox & friend "fox & friends first" -- foxandfriendsfirst.com. the administration breaking its silence about the war hero locked up for over a p month over a simple mistake. what is the state department saying this morning? >> although they are not going into extreme detail the state department acknowledged john kerry raised it in meetings in mexico city. this as u.s. lawmakers are getting more involved and bringing attention to andrew tomarese has been jailed in mexico since the first of april after accidentally crossing the mexican border with firearms in his car. at the time he told agents he
was not only logged but he volunteered the information about the legally obtained and owned guns. officials say there has been progress. >> since his arrest he has been visited 11 times by consulate m officers. we have been very engaged and the secretary did raise this issue yesterday during his meeting, but i don't have anything to update you on beyond that. >> the critics say representative duncan hunter tried to bring national attention to the case. they say it is a good development but it is still not enough. many argue it is time to move forward calling for the administration to move more aggressively. >> i think it now moves this case to an entirely different and much more appropriate level. the basic function of the state department that can't do anything else is help protect americans overseas forget international agreements that get you noble peace prizes.
the foreign ministry has to protect citizens. >> it was may 9th. he does have a hearing coming up. we will stay tuned. anna, back to you. elizabeth prann, thank you so much. >> breaking news from syria. at least 20 people are dead in an attack by a rebel group. 11 civilians including a child were killed at mortar hit. a third seven year term for president assad. although opponents say the election is a facade. >> in the wake of a nationwide shortage of
u.s. just blocked to the senate. senate democrats say they want more time to go over the three-page document. meantime the head of the largest federal employee union calling for more money to fix the system. pentagon spokesperson jd gordon says it doesn't makes a difference. >> they have plenty of money to do their job. there's no sense of urge again t see /* -- urgency at the va. having this government gone wild type mentality in the va is hurting our veterans and it's not fair. our veterans deserve a lot better than this. >> 33 percent blaholder rick
shinseki responsible. 17 percent say it's our president's fault. the president now is how do we fix our problems for the veterans? adam kin singer and columnist charles krauthammer weighing in on this. >> how do you attack the problem right now? you give everybody on the list a voucher to go anywhere they want and they will get their care within days. if the budget won't hold it you do a separate appropriations. >> how about a hospital administrator to come in a ceo of the company somebody who knows how to fix the backlog and get what's done. >> how about eric holder the attorney general of the united states convening a lot of grand juries. >> gone from incompetent which is bad to criminality. i want to prosecute the people who come up with a secret waiting list that is wrong illegal and ir reprehensible for
the veterans of our country. >> one step closer to banning the nsa from spying on americans. vote to go restrict the agency from collecting and storing phone records. it still allows the nsa to get court permission to get lan line if it is part of an interrogation. >> after being rushed to the hospital paul mccartney expected to make a full recovery. the 71-year-old beatle was forced to cancel his entire japan tour for what his publicist says is a virus. he has been receiving treatment. his out there tour is expected to resume june 14th in texas. >> before you break out the chips and dips this memorial day weekend, a popular dip being recalled over fears of deadly listeria. >> check your fridge everybody. 7 tons of humus recalled over
fears of deadly wisteria. many of the archer farms humus as well as trader joes and giant eagle brands. it is a voluntary recall. it comes after a single tub tested positive for the bacteria in texas. no sicknesses have been reported but it can be deadly. more deadly than salmonella and e coli especially for pregnant women. do toyota recalling 30,000 cars in three separate recalls in the u.s. the first 370,000 minivans sold in cold water states. road salt can core road the spare tire under the vehicle and the tire can fall off. the secondary call more than 10,000 2013 lexus.
highlander and hybrid suv's because the car may not properly calculate the size of the front passenger when firing the air bag. ebay personal information may be up for sale. data said to be stolen from the hack attack now making its way on-line. the good news is that the information put on the data bases is real. we seem to be okay after that hack attack. >> thanks lauren. have a great weekend. 11 minutes after the hour. no arrests in the terror attack at benghazi. the secret waiting list allegedly. why are the washington redskins at the top of the prior the l-- priority list for congress. they are taking out almost all of the games in field day. good idea for the wussification of america? we report, you decide. >> if you are preparing to hit
the road this weekend here are the new gasoline prices 3.64 is the average today. clear [male vo] inside this bag exists
this very second. this exact moment. [woman] that's good. i know right? cheers to that. gevalia. 150 years of rich, never bitter coffee. i'm d-a-v-e and i have copd. i'm k-a-t-e and i have copd, but i don't want my breathing problems to get in the way my volunteering. that's why i asked my doctor about b-r-e-o. once-daily breo ellipta helps increase airflow from the lungs for a full 24 hours. and breo helps reduce symptom flare-ups that last several days and require oral steroids, antibiotics, or hospital stay. breo is not for asthma. breo contains a type of medicine that increases risk of death in people with asthma. it is not known if this risk is increased in copd. breo won't replace rescue inhalers for sudden copd symptoms and should not be used more than once a day. breo may increase your risk of pneumonia, thrush, osteoporosis,
and some eye problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking breo. ask your doctor about b-r-e-o for copd. first prescription free at mybreo.com >> a man charged with kidnapping. garcia's lawyer claims his client didn't do anything wrong. he says the alleged victim who is now 25 is lying because the couple is separating. garcia is accused of abducting his then girlfriend's daughter in 2004 forcing him to marry her and have a baby. she just alerted police this week after finding her sister on facebook. michael j. charged with the murder of his wife. if convicted he faces 50 years in prison. jace who played a police officer on "the shield"" was in court
yesterday. the couple's two sons were in the house at the time of the shooting but police aren't sure if they witnessed the shooting. he told the emergency dispatcher he had shot his wife. >> 50 united states senators urging the nfl to change the name of the washington redskins. in a letter sent to commissioner roger godell senate majority leader harry reid and 49 other democrats said the team name mocked natety americans and compares it to donald sterling as racist remarks. the despicable comments made by sterling opened up a national conversation about race relations. we believe this conversation is an opportunity for the nfl to take action to remove the racial slur from the name of one of the marquis franchises. fox news contributor jim gray says there is no way the name bh will change. >> i don't think the league is going to do anything.
the folks i have spoken to through out the league across the board are more irritated with congress with an eight percent approval rating. the one thing that sports fans hate they hate when politics gets involved in sports. >> the nfl response the team name has never used in a disrespectful way. here is another reason to raise your glass this weekend. red wine is apparently good for your teeth. a brand new study finds it helps protect us from getting cavities. researchers say the grape seed extract and wine stop the growth of bacteria which damage your teeth over time. >> that's the long-term. short term red teeth not good. >> it's an iconic american company but harley davidson making an unamerican claim about riding with the stars and stripes on the back of their bikes. >> it is where the wild things are. some paddle borders get too
close for comfort with one of the largest animals in the world. ♪
narrative for the attack that left four americans dead. a story at odds with conclusions reached by the people on the ground. >> the united nations approving sanctions against boko haram saying the terrorist group is creating chaos in nigeria. they abducted 304 girls last month. the sanctions are an important acce step to support nigeria and hold the murderous leadership accountable. they are assisting with surveillance hoping to find the group. >> islamic terrorists verses christians leading many to renew their plea for president obama to fill a gaping hole in the roster of ambassadors. >> shannon green goes ini'd to get the answers. >> as religious persecution continues around the world many are asking questions about why the administration isn't doing
more. >> rae pub can senator roy blunt to the growing chorus of voices demanding to know when the president will nominate a new ambassador at large for a international freedom. from christian churches bombed and parishioners killed in the mid eels to wore shirps being harassed jailed and beaten in places like north korea and china. and boko haram and a death sentence for a pregnant sudanese woman simply because she is christian. minorities are under attack. >> we are a super power in this place of history which we occupy seoully. we have the responsibility to stand up for the needs of those around the world. >> president obama first nominated someone to the post a year and a half into his first term. susan johnson cook was elected in 2011. president obama noted u.s. efforts to protect religious
minorities around the globe. >> i look forward to nominating our next ambassador at large for international religious freedoms to help lead these efforts. months later still no nominee. >> the white house and state department are, woulding to nominate someone as soon as possible. >> we neglect this issue in the geopolitical callous at our considerable grow. >> the vast majority of deadly conflicts around the world are based on intersection of religion and politics the u.s. can no longer appear to be disengaged on the issue. says he believes if the president were serious he could name a nominee and get the person confirmed quickly. >> # 24 minutes after the hour. all students are inwithers. that's the message from officials at a michelle elementary school about their annual field day event. >> a letter was sent home to parents at north hill saying in
part the need for athletic ability and competitive urge to win will be kept to a minimum. the real reward will be the enjoyment and good feelings of participation. >> is that fair? experts are split on this issue. >> it is success shaming. i don't know why any one would want to bring this abuse on a child teaching them winning isn't a healthy good thing. >> we are not trying to shame those children that may not be as athletically inclined as the others. >> folks, what do you think? is forcing kids to curb their urge to win contributing to the wussification of america? >> send us a twitter or facebook or foxnews.com to share. >> the juice trying to squeeze another chance out of the justice system. why this time he deserves a day
in court. >> as you pack up for the memorial day weekend there's a reason to rethink your destination. the best speech in america just named. >> take a live look outside at our plaza where "fox & friends" summer country series about to kickoff with country star sara evans.
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>> extreme weather every where from twisters tearing apart homes to massive hail forcing a plane to make an emergency landing. will she let up for the three-day weekend? >> i am sorry, sort of. marc cuban stirring up more controversy about apologizing for just some of his comments. >> a car stuck on the track. the women behind the wheel with only seconds to spare. the surprising ending to the crash you have to see to believe. "fox & friends first" continues right now.
>> little marvin gaye this morning. it is friday we thank our veterans out there. it is may 23rd, anna. i am ainsley earhardt. >> i am anna kooiman in for heather childers. 31 minutes past the hour. extreme weather pounding the country. >> a u.s. air buys flight making an emergency landing because of hail. >> a tornado leaving a trail of damage. homes completely torn apart and reduced to piles of wood. >> in the u.s. drivers near denver, colorado having a hard time seeing out of their windows during this intense storm. the hail makes it look like more of a spring snowstm. >> will the weather cooperate for memorial weekend? >> maria molina is outside where the summer concert series is about to kickoff.
>> a lot of weather, but the american concert series kicks off today and conditions through out the summer every friday on 48th and 6th. today we have sara evans and of course free barbecue. great news across parts of new york city. we want to take a look at the areas that are expecting severe weather because across the carolinas and across parts of texas and new mexico you could be looking at severe weather. as we continue into the weekend saturday and sunday we have a chance for more severe storms across texas and parts of mexico. those states are going to be looking at several days of not only possible severe weather but heavy rain. flash flooding across the southern plains will be a concern. 1230 not just there but parts of mexico. there is possibility to see flooding out there for member cal day weekend. temperature wise we have temperatures heating up across parts of the southeast well into
the 90s across the state of florida. that is very widespread in the state. also saturday and sunday. >> you want to be warm down there. >> for your family if you are packing up and heading out aaa says you better be on the road by 9:00 a.m. to avoid the traffic. doug luzader is cruising around the nation's capital. doug, what are you hearing? oo we are heading for the dc beltway which isn't always that great of an experience. aaa may be right. traffic not too bad. it is still early in the morning. if you are getting ready to hit the road or heading to the airport today you may be in for sticker shock. they hope the economy will get a boost. >> the plane is more packed
today and if the nations highway seems more tedious you can thank this. winter. >> it plablanketed the country t is driving the hot demand for summertime travel. >> aaa says 600,000 more americans will be traveling over this weekend than the year prior. >> even the president was talking travel yesterday meeting at the white house with tourism industry ceo. his pitch continued at the baseball hall of name cooperstown new york. >> it translates into jobs and economic growth. when visitors come here they don't just check out the home they rent cars, they stay in hotels, they eat in restaurants. >> the president is talking about making life easier for air travelers and for foreign visitors. of course it is easy for him to
travel aboard air force one for one thing it doesn't cost him anything. for the rest of us it is pretty expensive. air fair is up hotel prices are up. gas prices expected to be steady through the summer. gas praises have been more and that's a drain on the economy each an every day. >> doug luzader live. >> such a cool live shot. >> the u.s. marine jailed in mexico, the administration finally breaking its silence about the war hero locked up for more than a month ore a simple mistake. elizabeth prann is live in washington. what's the state department saying about this? oo the state department acknowledged secretary of state john kerry did raise the issue during his meetings this week in mexico city.
u.s. lawmakers across the board many are getting involved in the situation. he has been jailed in mexico since the first of april after accidentally crossing the mexican border with firearms in his car. officials say there has been progress. >> the consulate and embassy talked to numerous mexican officials including the authorities at the prison and mexican foreign ministry about the case. we have been very engaged. >> critics say representative dunc such as duncan hunter tries to bring national attention to the case. it is not enough. they call for the administration to move more aggressively. >> i think he should call on the authorities over there including the president of the country and make this a priority. again, they are going to argue they have their own judicial system they have to work there
but this gentlemen doesn't fit the profile of anybody who is dangerous. >> tahmooressi's last visit by any one in the states waudz may 9th. >> have a great memorial day weekend. >> you, too. >> fox news alert in syria. 20 people are deaden in an attack by a rebel group. 11 civilians including a child were hit after a mortar hit a campaign event. next month election is expected to bring a third seven year term for the president. his opponents say the election is a complete farce. >> the electric car returning at the wake of a nationwide shortage of lethal injection drugs. they will allow the state to electrocute death row inmates if prisons can't get the drugs if they are scars or too many
boycotts. lawmakers want to bring back the firing squad in utah. both will have bills in the legislature. >> the road to restoring accountability at the va stall. a republican attempt to pass the bill making it easier to fire officials responsible for the recent healthcare scandal in dozens of hospitals in the united states just blocked in the senate. senate democrats say they want more time to go over the three-page document. they are planning to review the legislation and hold a hearing when the senate returns from recess next month. >> lawyers filing another appeal to the nevada supreme court over his conviction in a 2007 armed robbery. his trial was biased by notoriety after the acquittal in the death of his wife's and his wife's friend. >> a couple of paddle borders in california, the men were in the san francisco bay when two gray whales popped up out of the
water. one bumped into the side of the board and splashed him a bit. they can grow up to 50 feet long and weigh 40 tons. amazingly the two didn't get hurt at all. >> hang 10 the list of the best beaches in the united states are out. honolulu comes in at number one. florida and saint georges island and saint park in the florida panhandle are in the top three. two other hawaii beaches round out the top five. they are based on cleanliness, safe conditions and amenities. >> maybe we need to do a were ro on that. >> 39 minutes after the top of the hour. a fast moving train slams into a car stuck on the tracks with the driver still inside. an outcome you won't believe. >> bon jovi banned from bars. why the rock star is getting the boot?
worse spot. it slammed into the car at 35 miles an hour. >> marc cuban apologized to trayvon martin's family abofter making comments about black kids wearing hood des. >> we are all prejudiced in one way or another. if i see a black kid in a hood de it's late at night i am walking to the other side of the street. if i am on that other side of the street there's a guy that has tattoos all over his face, white guy, bawled head tattoos every where, i am walking back to the other side of the street. >> starting a social media firestorm in the fallout after the racist comments made by donald sterling. some branding cuban a racist. he says everyone has quote prejudices and bigotry on some level but offered an apology for his choice of words. in hindsight i should have used different examples. i didn't consider the trayvon
martin family. beyond apologizing the martin family i stand by the words and substance of the interview. >> can a company blame old glory for voiding our warrantee? harley davidson says yes. lawmaker david dean says harley davidson voided the repair warrantee because of the patriotic flag he let fly from the back of his chopper. the company says the bike was not made to handle the wind resistance for multiple flags at high besides. therefore the claim on his power train was denied. before you grill out this memorial day weekend we now know which stores sold beef contained wi -- contaminated with e coli. >> if you are grilling burgers be sure you know the source of the ground beef. the food safety inspection service is recalling 1.8 million pounds of ground beef for fear it is contaminated with e coli.
so where is the beef? ten states including florida, illinois, pennsylvania, ohio, michigan, indiana, wisconsin, tennessee, kentucky and north dakota. among the large er retailers selling the potentially contaminated meat the agency named gordon food service marketplace, blairsville seafood market and barger foods. check out "fox & friends".com for more information. it is all on the web site. >> 46 minutes after the hour. a 6th grader gets the graduation gift of a lifetime. why this memorial day weekend is one he will never forget. >> the hottest woman in the world, hold tight, the answer is straight ahead. >> we are not telling you yet. >> speaking of hot we have famous dpaif's right here. it is the first friday in the summer. that means we are going to
kickoff our all american summer concert series. today we start with sara evans. she is in the green room right now. if you are in the neighborhood 48th and sixth avenue stop by. also stop by the va in baltimore to try to get answers for the vets. also wynona judd today, geraldo rivera, we have chris wallace. it's fleet week so if you are in the neighborhood stop on by 48th and sixth avenue. we are going to buy you breakfast if you like barbecue. [ male announcer ] people all over the world know us, but they don't yet know we're a family. we're right where you need us. at the next job, next adventure or at the next exit helping you explore super destinations and do everything under the sun.
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here we go. are you with me? hey, maria. are you with me? >> i passed out. >> she is going to hate us for showing this again. that was our maria molina flying with the blue angels in march. quite a wild ride. >> today the blue angels will fly again after budget cuts grounded them last year. >> wnyw in long island. is it going to be the same for you? good morning. >> good morning. any excuse to use that maria molina video; right? we found another excuse today. i am sitting in a b-17 bomber. there are about 14,000 of these manufactured. there are only ten of them still flying. we will be seeing one of them, the one i'm sitting
in now flying this weekend at the bethpage show. that will take place at jones beach. we mentioned the blue angel as it relates to maria. but the blue angels will be returning this year. they made a thunderous return as they flew in. this is always a huge draw here in new york. hundreds of thousands of people expected this weekend to see planes like the one i have the honor of sitting in right now. that is the latest. live from farming dale, new york. >> be careful, robert. it looks like bon jovi's plan to buy the buffalo bills is hitting some resistance. ♪ ♪ >> that rocker who reportedly wants to buy the
new york team and move them to toronto is being banned by local businesses. a tpwraoup calling themselves the 12th man thunder started a petition to make buffalo a bon jovi-free zone. more than 80 businesses have agreed to ban and more than 7,000 people signed the petition to keep the bills in buffalo. >> guys, this is the story you have been waiting to hear. maxim released its annual hot 100 list. so who made the cut? number three, katy perry, number two scarlet johannson and the one who snagged the number one spot, victor victoria's secret swanepol. >> one school is taking out almost all the games on field day. good idea? we report, you decide. >> a baby falls out a
window and survives. the amazing catch. you have to see it to't it's great for watching game film and drawing up plays. it's got onenote, so i can stay on top of my to-do list, which has been absolutely absurd since the big game. with skype, it's just really easy to stay in touch with the kids i work with. alright, russell you are good to go! alright, fellas. alright, russ. back to work! captain: and here's a tip. bellman: thanks, captain obvious. when you save money on hotel rooms, it's just like saving money on anything else that costs money. like shoes, textiles, foreign investments, spatulas, bounty hunters, javelins...
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friends" first.com. if you're hitting the road this holiday weekend, you should be on the road, they say, by 9 a.m. otherwise be prepared for a lot of traffic according to triple a. they say more than 36 million of you are going to hit the road. >> time to look at the good, the bad, and the ugly. first the good. two heartwarming reunions. a sixth grader in colorado gets a graduation surprise. his big brother, a senior airman, returning home for the first time in three years. he was stationed in italy. a marine reunited with his war buddies. one says they were inseparable while in afghanistan in 2010. a police officer in russia gets run off the road while trying to stop a drunk driver. the guy ran the cop car, flipping it off the road into a ditch. the officer wasn't hurt badly. finally the ugly. surveillance cameras in china capture the moment a one-year-old is caught
after falling from a two-story building. the baby had gotten through an open window and slipped. luckily this man with a great pair of hands happened to be walking by and caught that baby. >> earlier we were telling you about a michigan elementary school not allowing winners at their annual field day event. >> officials sent a letter home to parents saying in part the need for athletic ability and the competitive urge to win will be kept to a minimum. the real reward will be the enjoyment and good feelings of participation. >> so we asked you, is sports and kids, to curb their urge to win contributing to the wussification in america. >> dan says if they win, congratulate them. if they lose tell them they did good for at least trying just like the real world. >> waylon says wrong. if there is no drive to compete what are they going to do later in life to reach their goals? >> what thanks to everyone who
consensus reached after multiple days and meetings among officials. we reviewed department policies and concluded assistant director pre step's 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 didn't find documentary or testimonial evidence that indicated political bias or improper motivation influencing his decision to open the investigation. while the information in the fbi's 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 activities of individuals associated with a national major campaign for party president. was a discretionary judgment left to the fbi. as we point out in our report, there was no requirement that department officials be consulted or even notified of that decision prior to the fbi making that decision. consistent with this policy, the fbi advised supervisors in the department's national security division of the investigation days after it had been opened. as we detail in our report, high level department notice and approval is required in other circumstances where investigative activity could substantially impact certain civil liberties. that notice allows senior department officials to consider the potential constitutional and prudential implications in
advance of those activities. we concluded that similar notice should be required in circumstances such as those present here. shortly after the fbi opened the crossfire hurricane investigation and condu, the fb conducted several monitored recorded meetings between fbi confidential human sources referred to as chss and individuals affiliated with the trump campaign including a high-level campaign official who is not the subject of the investigation. we found that the chs operations received the necessary approvals under fbi policy, that an fbi assistant director, mr. pre step knew about and approved of each operation even in circumstances where what was only required was first level supervisory agent approval and that the operations were permitted under department
and fbi policy because their use was not for the sole purpose of monitoring activities protected by the first amendment or the lawful exercise of other rights secured by the constitution or laws of the united states. we did not find documentary or testimonial evidence that political bios or improper motivation influenced the fbi's decision to conduct those chs operations. additionally, we found no evidence that the fbi attempted to place chss within or report on the trump campaign or recruit members of the trump campaign as chss. however, we were concerned that under applicable department and fbi policy, it would have been sufficient for a first-level fbi supervisor to authorize the sensitive domestic chs operations undertake inin crossfire hurricane and there's no applicable department or fbi policy requiring the fbi to notify department officials of a
decision to task a confidential human source to con sensely monitor, in other words record, conversations with members of a political campaign. just in terms of that, it's worth noting that had in the midyear investigation which was the clinton email investigation or in this investigation, the fbi could have at the supervisory advisory level authorize an undercover -- authorized a confidential human source to have a con sensely monitored conversation with either of the presidential candidates with no notice to the department of justice or any lawyer in the department of justice. in crossfire hurricane where each of the operations had the potential to gather sensitive campaign information protected by the first amendment, we found no evidence that the fbi consulted with department officials before conducting those operations and no policy, as i just noted, requiring them to do so.
we concluded current department and fbi policies are not sufficient to ensure appropriate oversight and accountability when such operations potentially implicate sensitive, constitutionally protected activity and that requiring department consultation at a minimum would be appropriate. we make a recommendation to that effect. one investigative tool which the department and the fbi policy does expressly require express advance approval by a senior department official is the seeking of a court order under fisa. when the crossfire hurricane team first proposed seeking a fisa order targeting carter page in mid august 2016, fbi attorneys assisting the investigation considered it a, quote, close call, closed quote and the fisa order was not requested at the time. however, in september 2016, immediately after the crossfire hurricane team received
reporting from christopher steal considering page's election acts for russian 06 fishls, the department was ready to move forward to obtain feis zoo author to surveil page. the steele reporting pushed fisa over the line in terms of establishing probable cause and we concluded that it played a central and essential role in a decision to seek a fisa order. fbi leadership supported relying on steele's reporting to seek a fisa order after being advised of concerns expressed by a department attorney that steele may have been hired by someone associated with a rival candidate or campaign. surveillance authority under fisa can significantly assist the government's efforts to combat terrorism, clandestine intelligence activity and other threats to the national
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
fbi policies and procedures have established important safeguards to protect the fisa application process from irregularities and abuse. among the most important are the requirements in fbi policy that every fisa application must contain a, quote, full and accurate, closed quote, presentation of the facts and that agents must ensure that all factual statements and fisa applications are, quote, scrupulously accurate, closed quote. these are the standards for all fisa applications regardless of the investigation's sensitivity, regardless -- it is incumbent upon the fbi to meet them in every application. nevertheless, we found that investigators failed to meet their basic obligations of ensuring that the vice is a applications were scrupulously accurate. we identified significant inaccuracies and omissions in each of the four applications,
seven in the first application and a total of 17 by the final renewal application. for example, the crossfire hurricane team obtained information from steele's primary sub source. in january 2017 that raised significant questions about the reliability of the steele reporting. this was particularly noteworthy because the fisa applications relied entirely on information from the primary subsource's reporting to support the allegation that page was coordinating with the russian government on 2016 u.s. presidential election activities. however, the fbi did not share this information with department lawyers, and it was, therefore, omitted from the last two renewal applications. all of the applications admitted information that the fbi obtained in august 2017 -- sorry -- august 2016 from another u.s. government agency
detailing its prior relationship with carter page including that carter page had been approved as an operational contact for that other agency from 2008 to 2013, that page had provided information to the other agency concerning his prior contacts with certain russian intelligence officers and that an employee of that other agency assessed that carter page had been candid with them. the fbi never followed up on that information. as a result of these seven significant inaccuracies and omissions, relevant information was not shared with and consequently considered by department lawyers and the fisa court. the fisa applications made it appear as though the evidence supporting probable cause was stronger than was actually the case. we also found basic fundamental and serious errors during the completion of the fbi's factual
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
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
scrutiny. the circumstances reflect a failure as we outline in the report, not just by those who prepared the applications, but also by the managers and supervisors in the crossfire hurricane chain of command including fbi senior officials who were briefed as the investigation progressed. we believe that in the fbi's most sensitive and high priority matters, and especially when seeking court permission to use an intrusive tool such as a fisa order, it's incumbent upon the entire chain of command at the organization including senior officials to take the necessary steps to ensure that they are sufficiently familiar with the facts and circumstances supporting and potentially undermining a fisa application in order to provide effective oversight consistent with their level of supervisory responsibility. such oversight requires greater familiarity with the facts than we saw in this review where time
and again during our oig interviews fbi managers, supervisors and senior officials displayed a lack of understanding or awareness of important information concerning many of the problems that we identified. that is why, as you'll see in the report, our final recommendation was to refer the entire chain of command that we outline here to the fbi and department for consideration of how to assess and address their performance failures. additionally, in light of the significant concerns we identified, the oig announced this week we were initiating an audit that will further examine the fbi's compliance with the woods procedures in fisa applications that target u.s. persons, not only in counterintelligence investigations but also more importantly in counterterrorism investigations. the oig report made a number of other recommendations to the department and the fbi.
we believe that implementation of those recommendations including those that seek individual accountability for the failures identified in our report will improve the fbi's ability to more carefully and effectively utilize its important national security authorities like fisa while also striving to safeguard the civil liberties and privacy of impacted u.s. persons. the oig will continue to conduct rigorous oversight of these matters in the months and years ahead including the recommendations that we made in this week's report. that concludes my statement. i'd be pleased to answer any questions the committee may have. >> thank you very much for your team and thank you for your service to the country. the fbi -- former fbi director james comey said this week that your report vindicates him. is that a fair assessment of your report? >> you know, i think the activities we found here don't vindicate anybody who touched
this. >> let's run a clip here. this is what comey said in 2018. it would be nice to have sound. do we have sound? never mind. i'll read it. director comey, the reporter is asking him, can i ask you a question on fisa abuse. it's a major issue for the republicans. do you have the total confidence in the dossier when you used it to secure a surveillance warrant and also in the subsequent renewals? this was asked in december of 2018, about a year ago. comey, i have total confidence that the fisa process was followed, that the entire case was handled in a thoughtful, responsible way by doj and the fbi. i think the nation -- i think the notion that fisa was abused here is nonsense. would it be fair to say that you
take issue with that statement? >> certainly our findings were that there were significant problems -- >> when comey speaks about fisa, you shouldn't listen? >> you should listen to mr. horowitz. he's not vindicated and to be concerned about the fisa warrant process is not nonsense. christopher steele, is it fair to say he had a political bias against donald trump? >> given who he was paid for, there was a bias that needed to be disclosed to the court. >> does it seem that he personally had a bias, not just because he's on the payroll of the democratic party? >> we found in the course of this and heard that he was desperate to prevent mr. trump's election. >> again, this is the guy that provides the dossier that gets the warrant over the top against carter page. he's paid for by the democratic party and he personally believes it's bad for donald trump to
win. he's marketing the dossier which is a bunch of garbage to anybody and everybody. to me that's important. is that important to you? >> any evidence of bias is supposed to be disclosed to the court and to the department lawyers. >> okay. so let's play this out. in january 2017 when they figure out the primary sub source and talk to the russian guy that provided steele all the information, what should the fbi have done at that moment? >> two things. reconsidered internally where things stood, and most importantly, told the lawyers at the justice department who they were asking to help them get a vi fisa. >> there are five people in that interview, correct? >> correct. >> are you going to make sure those five people are known to the higher ups. >> all part of the referral i mentioned earlier. >> did they have a duty to report to their supervisors and eventually to the court
exculpatory information. >> absolutely. >> they did not. >> they did not. >> why? >> that's the question i can't specifically answer for you. >> can you say it wasn't because of political bias? >> on decisions regarding those fisa matters, i do not know their state of mind at this point. >> fair enough. we're talking about actions now. i'm trying to figure out what would motivate people. do you think comey and mccabe should have known? >> that's a challenging question as we explain in the report, there were multiple brief innings up the chain including to the director and deputy director. we don't have a clear record of what precisely they were told. you know, as information flows up stream -- >> would you be surprised if it didn't make it up the system? >> i'm not going to surprise. >> did struck know? >> mr. struck transitions off on
this matter in january of 2017 oochs. it's not -- i might have to go back and look. >> in february he mentioned that steele can't verify. >> correct. >> pretty clear to me. so the court should have been told they were not. >> how did they describe this meeting to the court in the warrant application? >> in the second and third -- in the second and third renewals, the last two applications, they told the court they had interviewed steele's primary sub source upon whom steele relied in writing the reporting and they found the primary subsource to be credible. they did not tell the court or the department lawyers any of the information which would have allowed them to know, if you found the primary subsource credible, you couldn't also have found the steele report credible. >> did they mislead the court? >> that was misleading to the
court and -- >> they did two things in january 2017. they failed to report obviously exculpatory information. and when they did report to the court about the interview, they lied about it. >> let me add, also, that a year later, in june of 2018 when the department sent a rule 13 letter to the course informing them of other information that had not been provided to the court, the department still didn't know about the primary sub source information. so when the department in its letter said that it still stood behind the fisa application -- >> interesting, very interesting. >> -- they reference the primary subsource again and the fact the fbi found that -- >> so are these the best and brightest we have? >> well, certainly the fbi -- the actions of the fbi agents on this were not -- >> so mccabe hand picks these
people. are they representative of the department as a whole in your view? >> i certainly hope that that is not the way others are following these practices. >> yeah, me, too. okay. let's fast forward to june of 2016. mr. klein smith. who is he? >> i'm going to defer on speaking about people who we don't name specifically in the report. >> tell me about the guy that altered the email from the cia. >> there was a lawyer in the office of general counsel of the fbi who was the line attorney working with the agents and counterparts at the national security division on the fisa. and that individual in june of 2017, as the last application was being prepared and
immediately following mr. page, carter page, going to news outlets after word of the fisa hit the news media and said to the news media i was someone who worked with u.s. intelligence agencies, not someone who worked against them, lawyers and agents went and said weave got to figure out what's the story, is that what happened? the lawyer, the ogc attorney for the fbi reached out to a liaison at the other government agency that was at issue, asked the question is, was plfrmt page a source or contact of some sort for your organization. the report back and the email referenced the august 2016 memorandum that that agency had provided to the fbi that i mentioned in my opening statement, the fbi did no followup on and said what that
liaison's general recollection was, that mr. page was or is someone who is still -- who had a relationship with the entity, with the other government agency, but that the lawyer should go look at the report for confirmation. the lawyer then had a conversation with the fbi agent who was going to be the affiant, the person who swore out that final application, fisa application. the agent told us and as detailed in here, was concerned about what he learned about what page said publicly and wanted a definitive answer, as he put it, as to whether page -- >> because if the agent -- if carter page was actually telling the truth, it changes one of the predicates to consider him a foreign agent. >> that was the concern of the agent. it was going to be the agent who would be swearing out -- >> if true, it would be helpful
to mr. page. >> true it certainly could have and may well have been very helpful to mr. page. but at a minimum, without any doubt, it should have been known, followed up on -- >> what did his lawyer do? >> when the lawyer had the discussion with the agent and the agent said i want to see it, do you have it in writing, the lawyer said he did and he forwarded the liaison's email but altered it to insert the words "and not a source" into the email. >> he doctored it. >> he doctored the original email from the liaison. >> it made it look like the cia denied knowing mr. page. >> it flatly stated he was not a source. >> just imagine, folks, you're representing somebody as a defense attorney and they do this to one of your clients. i hope somebody pays the price for this, whether you like trump or not.
why did mr. klein smith, you haven't said it, i'll say it, what motivated him to do that? >> it is unknown as to precisely why he did it. >> this is the viva la resistance guy. >> i was going to mention we reference in here the text messages you mention and we have not made a determination, but rather as we note in here, when we learn this, we notified the attorney general and the fbi director and referred it -- >> you did a great job. the old adage, if you wake up and the lawn is wet, you can assume it rained. if you've got a guy who hates trump's guts from day one, thinks pence is stupid and everybody who voted for trump is an idiot and you give him power over trump, maybe you're making a mistake. or again, maybe all these people who had these biases did nothing about it. maybe. maybe not. it doesn't really matter. we know what they did. is it fair to say that after
january 2017 when the guy who gave steele all the information disavows the dossier, not only they should have told the court they should have slowed down, do you think the second and third warrants had a legal basis after that point? >> you know, we don't reach that conclusion and i'm not going to -- >> would you have submitted a warrant application as a lawyer? >> let me put it this way. i would not have submitted the one they put in. >> okay. >> no doubt about it. it had no business going in -- >> what i want you to know is in january 2017, the whole foundation for surveilling carter page collapses, exculpatory information is ignored, they lie to the court about what the interview was all about. is that a fair summary about january 2017 -- >> i'll -- they certainly misled -- it was misleading the the court. >> fair enough. in january, about six months later, when they find more
information that could be helpful to mr. page, they lie about it. do you feel like mr. page was treated fairly by the department of justice and the fbi? >> i don't think the department of justice fairly treated these fisas and he was on the receiving end. >> you would not want to be on the receiving end, would you? >> i would not want agents or anybody failing to put forward all the information they're obligated to tell the cower. i was in ausa -- >> i would be very comfortable with you investigating anybody because i think you know the difference between getting somebody and trying to find the truth. that's what this is all about. the counterintelligence investigations, what's the purpose of a counterintelligence investigation? >> it's to identify potential threats to the nation. >> okay. this was opened up as a counterintelligence investigation, right? >> correct. >> we know the russians were
screwing around with the democrats, right? that's one of the concerns. it was the russians who hacked into the dnc, got their emails. >> correct. >> it's okay for everybody to be concerned, what are the russians up to. i get that. it's okay to look at what's the standard to start one of these things? >> there are two types of investigations, one has relatively low thresholds. >> let's assume the relatively low threshold was met. would it be fair to say if you stop there in looking at your report you're making a mistake? >> you would be making a mistake. there's 400 pages here for a reason. >> there's a mountain of misconduct. please don't ignore it. so my point is if this is a counterintelligence investigation, who are they trying to protect? who should they be trying to
protect? >> well, if it's a -- the threat outlined in the friendly foreign government information, you would be looking to protect the election process. >> right. >> which would include. >> the candidate. >> the campaign, the candidate and the american people. >> okay. so did they ever brief hillary clinton about efforts to foreign influences involving her campaign, do you know? >> i've heard that but i don't know for a fact. >> they did. good for them. and they stopped it. was there ever a defensive briefing given by the fbi, department of justice to donald trump about the concerns? >> there was not. >> what would you call a counterintelligence investigation that never had a protective element? >> i'm not sure, sorry, mr. claire man. >> if without eventually trying to protect the entity being
influenced, is it legitimate? >> it would depend on each fact and circumstance. >> here is what i'm trying to tell you. if you open up a counterintelligence investigation to protect somebody, you should do it. did they ever try to protect donald trump from foreign influence? >> they did not brief him. we lay out on page 55 -- >> as a matter of fact, when they went in and gave a vanilla briefing the russians are out there, you better beware, didn't they have an fbi agent do a 302 on the defensive briefing itself? >> they sent one of the supervisory agents from the crossfire hurricane team to the briefing, and that agent prepared a report to the file of the briefing. >> about what trump said. >> about what mr. trump said and what mr. flynn said. >> so when we get defensively briefed tomorrow, would it be okay for fbi agents to open up 302s on what we said? >> we have very significant
concerns about that, and i would note that in director wray's response he underlined that that would not occur going forward. >> to those who can set aside how you feel about trump for a minute, under the guise of protecting the campaign from russian influence, they never lift a finger to protect the campaign. every time they had information that the people they suspected were working for the russians, it went the other way and they kept going. when they did generically brief candidate trump, they sent an fbi agent in to do a 302. if this doesn't bother you, you hate trump way too much. was that fbi agent spying on donald trump when he went in there? >> it was a pretext meeting that i'm not going to -- the process by which they have to do these
meetings. >> if you don't have a foundation -- >> let him answer the question. >> i'm sorry. go ahead. do you need to say anything else. >> i'm sorry. >> the incident, the event, the meeting was a briefing, and the fbi considered and decided to send that agent there to do the briefing. the agent was actually doing the briefing, but also using it for the purpose of investigation. >> okay. i hope that doesn't happen to us tomorrow. i'll be really pissed if it does. okay. let's play this out. they never told trump about the concerns. is it fair to say there came a point to where surveilling carter page became unlawful? >> i will let the court decide that. the court has this report and will make that decision. >> let's put it this way. if you don't have a legal foundation to surveil somebody and you keep doing it, is that
bad? >> absolutely. >> is that spying? >> it's illegal surveillance. it's not court authorized -- >> whatever illegal surveillance means, they did it. so all this stuff that they didn't illegally surveil trump's campaign, they did because they had no legal basis after the january 2017 data dump by the russian guy to believe that the dossier was reliable. they alter exculpatory information in june of 2017 that would have further proven that carter page is not a russian agent who was actually working with the cia. let me ask you directly, do you believe carter page was or ever was an agent of the russian government trying to do harm to his country? >> i'm going to refer to the evidence we found here which is that -- >> thank you. >> they, the fbi at the end of
these fisas told us they had found no evidence to corroborate the allegations -- >> it's not that clean, folks. they knew and they ignored it and they continued to surveil him. why? why did they doctor the email. the people who continued getting warrants after they knew it wasn't legitimate had a buy yos that wreaked. how this thing was opened i don't know, but i can tell you mr. durham has a different view. i respect your view that there may have been a laufrl predicate. one of the people pushing this was peter struck from day one. we have a task at hand to hold people accountable, climate change our laws, save the fisa court if we can. i hope this chapter in american history is never repeated. finally, if you report this 434-page report says lawful
investigation with a few irregularities, you're doing a great disservice to the american people. thank you very much. >> thank you, mr. chairman. as we spoke, inspector general, we pointed out your office spent 19 months and interviewed 100 witnesses. your report concluded that the fbi had an adequate predicate reason to open the investigation on the trump campaign ties with russia. could you quickly define that predicate. >> so the predicate here was the information that the fbi got at the end of july from the friendly foreign government that reflected a meeting that the friendly foreign government had with mr. papadopoulos in may. >> who was the friendly government? >> we don't mention that in the report. so i'm going to stick -- >> is that classified? >> my understanding that is still classified.
>> thank you. >> as i sit here, i'm only going to speak to what's in our report. >> okay. go ahead. >> as i mentioned in my statement, the comment was mr. papadopoulos made a suggestion that there had been a suggestion to the trump campaign that the russian government could provide information that would be damaging to candidate clinton and then president obama. >> your report saying you didn't find documentary evidence of improper motivation played a role. >> that's correct. >> you didn't find a deep state conspiracy against candidate or president trump. >> as to the opening, we found no bias, no testimonial evidence on that. >> no rags nate neal for a deep
state. >> we looked at mr. pre stap as i noted was the decision maker. we didn't find evidence in his emails or texts in having engaged in any bias or having any bias. >> fbi director wray provided a written response of your findings, these include the key finding that there was an authorized purpose and actual factual predication for the investigation. by contrast, attorney general barr expressed his doubt about the legitimacy about the legitimacy of the fbi's investigation in press statements. did attorney general barr provide any evidence that caused you to alter this key finding that the fbi investigation had an adequate predicate? >> no. we stand by our finding. >> thank you. during your investigation
attorney general barr stated that spying on the trump campaign did occur. as you said, your investigation found no evidence that the fbi placed any confidential source within the trump campaign or tasked any confidential source to report on the trump campaign. that's correct, right? >> that's correct. >> further, no evidence that political bias or improper motivations influenced the decision to use confidential sources as part of the investigation. >> that's correct. >> did your office ask attorney general barr and u.s. attorney john durham to share whatever evidence they might have that might be relevant for your investigation? >> we asked mr. durham to do that. >> what about attorney general barr? >> and attorney general barr. >> thank you. nothing they could provide altered your office's conclusion that the fbi did not place spies in the trump campaign?
>> none of the discussions changed our findings. >> tasked by attorney general barr to also investigate the origins of the russia investigation stated and i quote, last month, we advised the ig that we do not agree with some of the reports conclusions as to predication and how the fbi case was open. what's your reaction to that? >> i was surprised by the statement that i didn't know was going to be released on monday. we did meet with mr. durham as i mentioned. we provided him with a copy of the report as we did others through our factual accuracy review process. we met with him in november with regard to that. we did discuss the opening.
we didn't necessarily agree about the opening of a full counterintelligence investigation which is what this was. there is also an investigative means by which the fbi can move forward with an investigation. it's called a preliminary investigation. there are two types of investigations, full and prel prelimina preliminary. they opened the full here. he said during the meeting that the information from the friendly foreign government was in his view sufficient to support the preliminary investigation. as we note in the report, investigative steps such as confidential human source activity that occurred here are allowed under a preliminary investigation or under a full investigation. >> did either barr or durham present anything that altered your findings? >> no. >> i wanted to ask you, since we
have the author of the whistle-blower legislation very proudly sitting here, you previously told this committee that whistle-blower rights and protections have been one of your highest priorities since becoming ig. as you know, there have been calls for the ukraine whistle-blower to be identified publicly even though that person was not a direct witness to the events. so what is your view? should the ukraine whistle-blower's confidentiality be breached and that person identified publicly? and why not? >> so whistle-blower protections have been one of my highest priorities. i've appreciated working with all the members of the committee, particularly senator grassley. we wrote a letter recently as the ig communities, quoting his statement on the issues and the importance of whistle-blowers and whistle-blowers have a right to expect complete, full confidentiality in all circumstances. it's in the law, in the ig act,
that congress wrote and it's a very important provision. >> thank you. in a public hearing before the house intelligence committee, deputy secretary of state george kent testified that politically associated investigations or prosecutions against opponents of those in power undermine the rule of law. do you agree with that? do politically motivated investigations undermine the rule of law? >> i agree -- any politically motivated investigation undermines the rule of law. >> thank you very much. did you find any evidence that president obama or anyone else in the white house asked the united states government to investigate then candidate trump or his campaign? >> we certainly didn't see any evidence of that in the fbi's files or the department's files which was our mandate here and our authorized jurisdiction. >> you have a policy recommendation regarding the use of confidential human sources. i'd like to ask a few questions
about it. your investigation found that the use of confidential human sources was consistent with existing rules. correct? >> correct. >> the use of confidential human sources here was not solely to gather first amendment information. >> correct. that's the standard currently in the rules. >> you found no evidence of the decision to use confidential human sources was motivated by political bias. is that correct? >> correct. >> with regard to your policy recommendation, what, if anything, do you believe should be changed and why? >> so, as i mentioned in my opening statement, i think we were surprised to learn and concerned to learn that in an investigation of any political national party political campaign, the confidential human source usage could be approved by only a first level supervisor. in this instance, as we note here, some of them were approved at the assistant director level,
but they could have been approved at just the line supervisor level. for an investigation of a major party presidential campaign of either side, of any side, that's concerning to us, particularly since there was not a requirement that any department lawyer, whether at the national security division, the criminal division, the deputy attorney general's office, the attorney general's office needed to be notified at any point in time. >> did you give interviews about your investigation while it was on going? >> i'm sorry. did i? >> did you give interviews during the investigation? >> myself? no. i do not do that. >> did anybody on the ig team? >> no. and it would have been entirely inappropriate for them to do so. >> i'd just like to clear this up. what are the dangers of discussing an investigation that's on going? >> so i actually wrote and we wrote a 500-page report about
that that we issued last year on the midyear investigation and among other things, criticized what occurred last year with regard to the handling of that investigation. on going investigations are -- need to be protected from outside influence. you don't know as an investigator or you shouldn't conclude as an investigator until you are done with the investigation, you shouldn't be reaching your conclusions until that point. so giving preliminary ideas, advice, guidance, statements, can be misleading and you should not be leaching final conclusions until you get to the end of the investigation. >> there is a lot of mis information about struck and page. prs has attacked former fbi officials as a way to undermine the investigation. for example, the president tweeted that, and i quote, how
can the wicked witch hunt proceed when it was started, influenced and worked on by peter strzok and lisa page who exchanged text messages critical of candidate trump. your investigation found that while lisa page attended some of the discussions regarding the opening of the investigations, she did not play a role in the decision to open crossfire hurricane. you also found that while strzok was directly involved in the decisions to open crossfire hurricane, he was not the sole or even the highest level decision maker to any of those matters. that decision, as i understand it, was made by fbi assistant director pre stap as you have indicated and after multiple days of discussions of meetings. most importantly you found that
the decision had a proper factual basis and there is no evidence that, quote, political bias or improper motivation indplunsfluenced it. so based on your investigation, personal, political views expressed in text messages did not motivate the opening of the investigation of ties between trump campaign advisers and russia. is that correct? >> that's correct. ultimately we concluded those text messages which we found last year were entirely inappropriate, didn't ultimately play the role in mr. pre stap's decision to open the investigation. >> so your investigation also uncovered text messages between other fbi employees expressing support for candidate and president trump, correct? >> that's correct. >> so fbi employees held personal political views that were both favorable and
unfavorable toward the candidate at that time. >> that's correct. as we note here, and we noted in last year's report, we did not find text messages were inappropriate solely because people expressed a view as to which candidate they supported or didn't support in an election. what concerned us, the text messages we outlined last year and reference again in this year's report to certain individuals is the connection between their views and their work on the investigation. >> what do you believe are the most important points that this 400-plus page report brings forwa forward? >> i think there are several as you might expect in a 400-page report. >> that's why i still have time.
>> first it was opened with the proper predicate, plfrmt pre stap who was not one of the text message persons and senior to those people. it should cause everybody to give pause as to whether it's to provide accountability over decisions. and finally, that the fisa process here was not used appropriately properly and the rules were not followed. >> that concludes my questioning. i want to say thank you to you and your staff. i'm very grateful to the inspector general -- >> i would yield the balance of my time to senator leahy. >> we're going to have a vote at 12:00. we will try to get through
senator grassley and maybe senator leahy and take a break for lunch and come back about 30 minutes. >> as senator graham pointed out earlier, senator leahy and i have worked on trying to put in some protections in fisa, the u.s.a. freedom act and so on. but the fbi accepted all of your findings, is that correct? >> that's correct. >> that includes where you raised questions about the use of fisa? >> correct. >> the five investigations that you reviewed, the only application for a fisa warrant was with respect to carter page.
is that correct? >> that's correct. >> out of the five. >> the 17 hours affecting the carter page fisa application came after and thus did not impact the launch of the broader russia investigation which became the special counsel's investigation. am i correct in that? >> that's correct. those occurred in october and later. >> it was not -- >> not in august when the matter was opened. >> so that came after -- the special investigation came after. in the mueller report, how many pages did the mueller report refer to carter page? >> i don't recall the exact number, but it wasn't a large number. >> i do know because i read it. it was seven pages. that was out of 448 pages.
so barely mentioned. i'm not trying to minimize fbi's mistakes here, but keep it in context. the fbi's errors in carter page's case do not undermine the unanimous assessment that russia and not ukraine interfered in our election. is that correct? >> we describe in the report the information about russia's -- the conclusions about russia's meddling in the 2016 election. >> i remember in one of the political events, mr. trump said, russia, if you're listening, take a look at this. the trump campaign seemed to welcome and exploit it. none of these errors -- correct me if i'm wrong -- minimize the legitimacy of the dozens of indictments and convictions that
resulted from the special counsel's russia investigation. is that correct? >> we make very clear here that the errors and serious problems we identify are concerning the carter page fisa and the people in that chain of command. we don't make any findings to any parts of crossfire hurricane which was a far broader investigation. >> the reason i mentioned that that i don't want to undermine the mueller investigation. i believe they do not undermine the mueller investigation. am i correct? >> our review was not of the mueller investigation. our review was of the fisas that were obtained and of the opening of the investigation and the additional question we got about mr. orr's activities and the confidential human source use. >> you found -- you did a 19-month interview. is it correct that you found no evidence that the investigation was motivated by anti-trump
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
current department rules on who can authorize an investigation and who has to be notified? >> they followed all the rules with regard to that. >> does it refute the claims made by some that there's a deep state involved? >> it finds that it was a properly predicated investigation based on the rules of the fbi. >> did you find anything where the fbi planted spies in mr. trump's campaign? >> we found no use of confidential human sources in placing them in the campaign or trying to put them in the campaign. >> i've used up five minutes that are left. >> you'll get your ten minutes. >> i took her beginning five minutes. >> i want to let senator grassley go. >> has anybody been prosecuted or charged with anything with
this russia investigation? >> on this matter that i'm handling? >> yeah. >> no one that i'm aware of. >> following up on a question that senator feinstein asked, did the obama administration or president obama himself, is the one i'm interested in, know about the counterintelligence investigation? >> i don't know the answer to that definitively. our authority was over the fbi and to look at the fbi and the department activities. >> in january 2018, chairman graham and i wrote to the fbi and the department referring christopher steele for investigation of potentially lying to the fbi. we told the fbi and the department that what the fbi told the court about steele's media context didn't match with what he told the british court. did -- four questions in regard to that. did the fbi ever ask steele
whether he was a source for the september 2016 yahoo news article that cited western intelligence sources, quote, unquote? if not, why not? >> they did not ask that question despite having the opportunity to do so. and we got a variety of explanations including that, as to some of these issues, that they didn't want to offend him or jeopardize their relationship with him. >> question two, on october 11th, draft of the vice is a application stating fbi believes steele was the source of the yahoo news article but it was taken out in the october 14th draft. why did the fbi originally say steele was the source and what factual basis did the fbi have to change that and tell the court that steele was not a source? >> this is what was so
disturbing about that event, which is the initial application said, as you noted, that the fbi assessed that steele was the direct source or was a direct source, and on october 14th the drafts changed to the exact opposite. what we found is the fbi had no basis for the first statement, no evidence in their file -- it turned out the first statement was, in fact, the accurate statement. the point is they had no evidence to support that. when they flipped that, they had no evidence to support that either. that's the kind of issue that under the basic woods procedures, the factual accuracy procedures, had someone been doing their job and following up, they would have seen that and found that. of course, had they bothered to ask mr. steele, they might have found out which of the two versions was true. >> maybe they weren't interested in doing their job. question three, chairman graham and i sent our referral to the fbi and doj on january 4, 2018.
The attorneys submitted Bolsonaro’s request to the Supreme Court on Monday, the same day The New York Times published security camera footage revealing that the former president spent two nights at Hungary’s embassy in Brasilia.
Actress Jacqueline Fernandez can now leave the country without prior permission after Delhi's Patiala House Court revised her bail conditions in relation to a Rs 200-crore money-laundering and extortion case.
Fernandez has been a co-accused in the case filed by the ED, however, she has been made a witness in the predicate offence case registered by the EOW of the Delhi police | Latest News Delhi
you are handling the investigation and you have a client who's not to get indicted. when the indictment comes in the client says thank you so much you didn't accomplish, quiet blames the lawyers. usually the problem is the quiet, the client not the lawyers. that's one possibility, he's honestly upset that they didn't do their job. when they in fact could have. the second is that once you file a notice of appearance, once he was a lawyer up here in a criminal case not just in the investigation. when you say i am representing donald trump in a criminal case could not withdraw without court permission. and a lot of times judges will say you are in. so what do people do, they do something which i referred to when i was a baby prosecutor and somebody said, well i'm not
when the indictment comes in the client says thank you so much you didn't accomplish, quiet blames the lawyers. usually the problem is the quiet, the client not the lawyers. that's one possibility, he's honestly upset that they didn't do their job. when they in fact could have. the second is that once you file a notice of appearance, once he was a lawyer up here in a criminal case not just in the investigation. when you say i am representing donald trump in a criminal case could not withdraw without court permission. and a lot of times judges will say you are in. so what do people do, they do something which i referred to when i was a baby prosecutor and somebody said, well i'm not yet in the case and someone said why not? he said i'm waiting for mr. green. and i didn't know what that meant and mr. green is a reference to money. and it's just sort of a euphemism that certainly was used in brooklyn all the time. so here you can imagine the two defense lawyer saying look, if i'm going to stay in the case