Donald Trump called the head of state’s “attempt to overthrow” the FBI surveillance of employees of his campaign headquarters during the 2016 presidential company. So he commented on the report, which was published by the US Department of Justice.

“It was an overthrow of the government, an attempt to overthrow, and a lot of people took part in it. They were caught and caught red-handed, ”said the US president, speaking to reporters.

A report released by the Justice Department refers to the investigation of Crossfire Hurricane ("Crossfire Hurricane"). It was conducted by the FBI against the Donald Trump team during the 2016 presidential election campaign. The FBI wanted to find out if the presidential candidate is connected with Russia.

However, contrary to Trump's statement, the conclusions reached by the drafter of the report, Inspector General of the Ministry of Justice Michael Horowitz, were mixed.

On the one hand, the report notes that the Justice Ministry “did not find any evidence” that the Crossfire Hurricane investigation “was dictated by political bias or improper motives.” At the same time, the Ministry of Justice has big complaints about the actions of the FBI.

“Due to the many elementary and fundamental mistakes made by three separate groups with carefully selected staff working on one of the most important FBI investigations ... serious questions arose about the work of the FBI leadership,” says Horowitz’s report.

The document indicates that FBI officers indicated incorrect or inaccurate information seventeen times both in the original application and in all subsequent appeals to the Foreign Intelligence Supervision Court in order to obtain or extend a sanction for conducting operational measures against people from Trump headquarters. So, justifying the need for surveillance, they referred to a dossier on the US president, drawn up by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele, which, according to Horowitz, is a dubious source. The most flagrant violation by the FBI is the provision of a fake letter to Trump's foreign affairs adviser Carter Page to the court.

“From the report of the inspector general, it became clear that the FBI launched an obsessive investigation of the US presidential campaign on the most subtle suspicions, which, in my opinion, are not enough to justify the steps taken,” said Minister of Justice William Barr, commenting on the findings of Horowitz.

Recall that the allegations regarding the alleged “conspiracy” of Trump and his election headquarters with Russia were investigated by the commission of special prosecutor Robert Muller for two years. It is known that he collaborated with the FBI, but it is not clear to what extent his findings are based on operational materials provided by the FBI. In any case, the conclusion reached by the Mueller commission is unequivocal: there was no conspiracy between Russia and Trump's headquarters.

Organizational Findings for the FBI

The scandal surrounding the surveillance against Trump began on May 16, 2018 with an article in The New York Times. It alleges that during the 2016 election campaign, the FBI conducted an investigation due to the suspicions of the existence of “ties” with four employees of the Trump election headquarters: Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn, George Papadopoulos and Carter Page. Operational measures were carried out against them.

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Allegedly, Carter Page was monitored. It was alleged that the FBI introduced its undercover officer to Trump's headquarters. Intercept's online publication even named him: former CIA employee Stefan Halper. He met with all four suspects.

However, the report of the Ministry of Justice reports that no data were found on the introduction of an informant to the Trump headquarters.

The US president asked the Justice Department to investigate the actions of the FBI. In the summer of 2018, the White House declassified a number of documents related to Page tracking. In particular, the text of the FBI request was published, which states that Trump’s headquarters adviser was “the target of targeted recruitment by the Russian authorities.”

Barr said that organizational conclusions will follow for specific FBI employees. What exactly will become clear after the end of the investigation, which is conducted by special prosecutor John Durham. Earlier, the head of the Ministry of Justice instructed him to study the actions of the FBI in relation to the headquarters of Trump and give them a legal assessment. Durham explained that his work was not completed and would continue even after the publication of the Horowitz report. In addition, the special prosecutor has certain complaints about the report itself. However, he did not specify that he was not satisfied with the report.

It should be noted that Trump attaches great importance to the activities of the special prosecutor. In early November, he called the Dareham investigation "the most important in American history."

Vladimir Vasilyev, the chief researcher at the Institute of the USA and Canada, noted in a RT comment that the report of the Justice Ministry does not provide legal grounds for initiating criminal cases.

“Perhaps, however, Trump’s team will try to turn him against the Democrats. Maybe Dareham will manage to establish that the FBI investigation was still politically biased, that the Democrats stood behind him, ”Vasilyev said.

An expert at the International Institute for Humanitarian and Political Studies, Vladimir Bruter, believes that the American president will try to make sure that some court proceedings are launched as a result of the report.

“However, the report only compromises specific FBI employees who have committed specific offenses. As for the rest, everything is assumed. That is, in order for there to be a high-profile process in which high-profile surnames will appear, it is necessary that the judicial authorities assume political responsibility. Whether they want to do this in the pre-election year, I’m not sure, ”Bruter said in an interview with RT.

Political implications

Not the legal but the political consequences of the report will be more significant, experts say.

“I think that this document will become a very important consolidating factor for the Republican Party,” Vasiliev believes.

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He recalled that ultimately the outcome of the impeachment vote will depend on whether or not the republican faction maintains unity.

“Democrats tried to convince the Republicans that Trump is a traitor and lawbreaker, that he was in collusion with Russia. And this report indirectly demonstrates that the Democrats themselves violated the law, that they tried, with the help of illegal methods, to influence the outcome of the elections, ”Vasilyev explains.

The report will also have a certain impact on American public opinion, the expert believes.

“This influence, of course, should not be exaggerated. But the report will remind Americans advocating impeachment that all politicians have a “snout in the gun”, not only among Republicans, but also among their Democratic prosecutors. It means that there is nothing to make a “scapegoat” out of Trump, since everyone is to blame, ”Vasiliev believes.

At the same time, Bruter notes that no matter what the accusations made by the head of state against his opponents, this will not decide the outcome of the elections.

“Trump’s anti-rating is big enough. Under these conditions, the election outcome does not depend on the FBI, not on the Ministry of Justice, but on who will be the rival of the president in the elections. If this is a fairly popular figure, if this politician succeeds in consolidating the electoral protest towards Trump, the Democrats have a chance, ”the expert concludes.