The upcoming report on the counterintelligence investigation into Russia and President Donald Trumps campaign will show evidence of wrongdoing leading to a criminal investigation, Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas) speculated on Sunday.
“It doesnt take 500 pages to tell the inspector general that everything was done properly,” Ratcliffe, who is a member of the House Intelligence Committee, told Fox News.
“The IG report is going to find that there were problems,” he said.
He was referring to Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who has been investigating alleged misconduct regarding the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FSIA) warrants delivered by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. In 2016, the Department of Justice and FBI got warrants in 2016 to monitor Carter Page, a Trump adviser, but its not clear if others were monitored.
Ratcliffe then claimed that the current impeachment inquiry of Trump is an attempt to counter-signal against the potential release of the inspector generals report.
“The Democrats are racing to get to through this impeachment as quickly as possible,” he said. “Its why we have eight witnesses and five hearings this week and were not doing any of the work because they know the inspector general report is likely to be damning about the origins of the 2016 investigation into the Trump campaign and the role that the Obama-Biden officials played in that.”
He added: “I can tell you that I know the inspector general is going to have to find that there were things that were done wrong, that there was exculpatory information that was not provided to the FISA court.”
The report “is going to find that there were problems in the FISA application process and they dont want that to come out until after they impeach the president,” he said.
Trump last month predicted that the report will unveil a high degree of corruption.
“I predict you will see things that you dont even believe, the level of corruption — whether its [James] Comey; whether its [Peter] Strzok and his lover [Lisa] Page; whether its so many other people — [Andrew] McCabe; whether its President Read More – Source
