Justice IG to testify next month on alleged 2016 surveillance abuse 

Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz will appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee next month to testify on a forthcoming report on alleged surveillance abuse during the 2016 campaign. 

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who oversees the panel, announced on Monday that Horowitz will appear publicly on Dec. 11.

{mosads}Graham’s decision to schedule the hearing is the latest sign that Horowitz’s report is nearing its release. The GOP senator said earlier this month that he expected it within weeks.

“I appreciate all the hard work by Mr. Horowitz and his team regarding the Carter Page [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] warrant application and the counterintelligence investigation of the Trump campaign,” Graham said in a statement. 

He added that he expected Horowitz to give a “detailed report” of his findings as well as make “recommendations as to how to make our judicial and investigative systems better.”

“I look forward to hearing from him. He is a good man that has served our nation well,” Graham added. 

The watchdog’s office announced in a March 2018 statement that it would “examine the Justice Department’s and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) compliance with legal requirements, and with applicable DOJ and FBI policies and procedures, in applications filed with the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) relating to a certain U.S. person.”

“As part of this examination, the [Office of the Inspector General] also will review information that was known to the DOJ and the FBI at the time the applications were filed from or about an alleged FBI confidential source,” the statement continued.

While the individual was not named in the announcement, the person is widely known to be Carter Page, the former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser who was investigated in connection with the FBI’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.