The Justice Department's inspector general has found no evidence that the FBI tried to place undercover agents or informants inside Donald Trump's presidential campaign in 2016, though the agency was "careless and unprofessional" in pursuing a wiretap of former adviser Carter Page, The New York Times reported Wednesday.
The Times cited "people familiar with a draft" of the report by Inspector General Michael Horowitz, which is to be released Dec. 9, though the newspaper added that "the people familiar with the inquiry cautioned that the draft report was not final.
"The New York Times has not reviewed the draft, which could include other significant findings," the report said.
But while Horowitz found the FBI did not take "politically motivated" actions in pursuing the Page wiretap, "he unearthed errors and omissions" when agency officials applied for the surveillance warrant from the secret FISA court, the Times reports.
In one instance, Horowitz referred his findings to prosecutors for potential criminal charges. That involved an altered document for the Page warrant in 2017 by a Justice Department lawyer, Kevin Clinesmith, 37, according to the Times.
Horowitz is expected to testify on his report before the Senate Judiciary Committee after it is released — and President Trump told Fox News last week that he considered the report to be "historic."
According to the Times, the inspector general is expected to sharply attack top FBI officials for how they handled some aspects of its investigation, called "Crossfire Hurricane" and begun in July 2016 after the agency learned that Russia had offered negative information on Democrat Hillary Clinton to a Trump campaign aide, George Papadopoulos.
"The draft contained a chart listing numerous mistakes in the process," the Times reports.
A Horowitz spokeswoman declined to comment.
President Trump has long slammed the Russia investigation as a "witch hunt" — and Russia special counsel Robert Mueller ultimately lacked evidence to charge any Trump associates with colluding with Russia in the election.
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