[The Federalist] When the Department of Justice inspector general released his report on Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act abuse, coverage focused on the top-line findings contained in the executive summary. Then the news cycle whizzed by, leaving many details discussed throughout the 480-page tome unexplored.One significant gap in media coverage concerns the potential complicity of former FBI Director James Comey in the FISA abuse‐a possibility the IG report hints at in several spots. The first suggestion that something was amiss with Comey’s conduct came early in Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report, when the IG’s office spoke of the methodology underlying the FISA investigation.
"Certain former FBI employees who agreed to interviews, including Comey and Baker, chose not to request that their security clearances be reinstated for their OIG interviews," read the IG report. "Therefore, we were unable to provide classified information or documents to them during their interviews to develop their testimony, or to assist their recollections of relevant events."
Taken alone, this perfunctory comment might have meant little, but the IG report would stress this point several more times throughout its 400-plus-page analysis of FBI misconduct.
CONSIDER THE BRUCE OHR CONTRADICTIONS
For instance, according to the IG report, Baker said "he obtained more information regarding Ohr’s interactions with Steele during a Crossfire Hurricane leadership meeting with Comey and McCabe in spring 2017." Baker further stated that "he learned that Ohr was providing to the FBI information that Ohr had received from Steele," and, in Baker’s view, "this [was] not good."
But Comey told the IG "he had no knowledge of Ohr’s communications with members of the Crossfire Hurricane investigative team and only discovered Ohr’s association with Steele and the Crossfire Hurricane investigation when the media reported on it." Comey’s claims, though, conflicted with both Baker’s statements, and "notes taken by Strzok during a November 23, 2016 Crossfire Hurricane update meeting" that Comey attended.