GOP rep predicts watchdog report on alleged FISA abuses will find ‘problems’

Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas) predicted the watchdog report on the alleged Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) violations by those investigating the Trump campaign will find “problems” that validate the allegations.

Ratcliffe told Maria Bartiromo on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” that he expects Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s internal report into the origins of the investigation into connections between Russia and President Trump’s campaign will come out the first week of December.

The Texas representative said the report’s length suggests the report will be “damning.”

“It doesn’t take an inspector general 500 pages to say that everything was done correctly and properly and I can’t tell you everything that’s in there, but what I can tell you is that I know that the inspector general’s going to have to find that there were things that were done wrong, that there was exculpatory information that wasn’t provided to the FISA court,” he said.

Ratcliffe claimed the House Democrats are speeding the impeachment inquiry to beat the release of the inspector general’s report 

“That’s why we have eight witnesses and five hearings this week and we’re not doing any of the work is because they know that the inspector general report is likely to be damning about the origins of the 2016 investigation into the Trump campaign, the role that the Obama-Biden administration officials played in that,” he told Bartiromo.

The independent investigation has been looking into whether the FBI violated its policies when applying for a warrant to surveil a former Trump campaign aide ahead of the 2016 election. Attorney General William Barr said the report was “imminent” last week.

The Department of Justice launched its own administrative review into the Russia probe, which has shifted to a criminal investigation, The New York Times reported last month.