INEVITABLE

Trump: I’ll Be ‘Disappointed’ if DOJ Watchdog Report Says FBI Had Enough Info to Investigate Campaign

The report is expected to confirm that the FBI had sufficient evidence in July 2016 to launch an investigation into Trump campaign members.

President Trump said that he would be “disappointed” by one of the key findings of the Justice Department’s inspector general report slated to be released on Dec. 9—that the FBI had sufficient information in July 2016 to launch an investigation into Trump campaign members. That expected conclusion clashes with Trump’s unsubstantiated claim that intelligence agents “spied” on his 2016 presidential campaign. The president said to reporters on Tuesday in London in response to a Washington Post article about Attorney General William P. Barr’s disagreement with the DOJ watchdog’s conclusion: “Perhaps he’s read the report,” adding, “I think he’s quoted incorrectly. I do believe that because I’m hearing the report is very powerful, but I’m hearing that by reading lots of different things, not from inside information. It’s really from outside information.” 

Barr said that Inspector General Michael Horowitz does not have enough information to support his report’s central conclusion. The New York Times reported that a draft of the upcoming release found that there was no evidence that the FBI surveilled the Trump campaign itself, and that investigations into Trump aides were not illegal.