CNN opted against airing Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the FBI’s Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) abuses during its investigation of the 2016 Trump campaign.
The move was highlighted by Ari Fleischer, White House press secretary for President George W. Bush, in a tweet: “CNN is not taking the Senate Horowitz hearing live. Unbelievable. A perfect example of how bias works. It’s not just what they cover. It’s what they don’t cover.”
Rather than broadcast the hearing, The Federalist’s Sean Davis noted that CNN featured commentary from anchor Jim Sciutto, one of the network’s more prominent promoters of the now-debunked theory that the 2016 Trump and Russia criminally conspired in the last presidential election.
Horowitz will testify in the Senate on Wednesday to detail his report this week that found no evidence of bias in FBI efforts to investigate the Trump campaign as part of the Russia inquiry.
The report Monday answered accusations from President Donald Trump that the bureau acted improperly in its surveillance of former campaign adviser Carter Page, as it related to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
“He will deliver a detailed report of what he found regarding his investigation, along with recommendations as to how to make our judicial and investigative systems better,” said panel Chairman Sen. Lindsey Graham.
Horowitz’s report, however, said there were aspects of the FBI’s surveillance activities that were rife with errors. It specified 17 inaccuracies in three FISA applications that may have inflated the bureau’s justification for surveillance against Page.
Horrowitz noted that the FBI’s efforts were “in compliance with department and FBI policies,” and that he didn’t find “documentary or testimonial evidence” that showed the bureau acted with political bias or improper motivation.”
FBI Director Christopher Wray described the report as “constructive criticism that will make us stronger as an organization” — a characterization that drew criticism from President Trump.
“I don’t know what report current Director of the FBI Christopher Wray was reading, but it sure wasn’t the one given to me. With that kind of attitude, he will never be able to fix the FBI, which is badly broken despite having some of the greatest men & women working there!” the president tweeted of Wray’s comments.
In a Tuesday interview with NBC News, Attorney General William Barr was highly critical of the Russia probe and slammed the corporate press as “completely irresponsible” for pushing the Trump-Russia collusion narrative.
“I think our nation was turned on its head for three years, I think based on a completely bogus narrative that was largely fanned and hyped by a completely irresponsible press,” said Barr.
“I think that there were gross abuses of FISA. And inexplicable behavior that are intolerable in the FBI,” he added. “And the attorney general’s primary responsibility is to protect against the abuse of the law enforcement and intelligence apparatus. And make sure that it doesn’t.”
The UPI contributed to this report.