DOJ inspector general finds 'numerous issues' with FBI management of secret sources

A newly released assessment from the Justice Department watchdog found "numerous issues" related to the FBI's validation processes for secret sources. The audit, published Tuesday by DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz, comes amid intense scrutiny of the Justice Department's and FBI's actions during the 2016 election.

Multiple confidential human sources were used in the counterintelligence investigation of the Trump campaign, including Cambridge professor Stefan Halper and a woman posing as his assistant, Azra Turk, who met with Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos. Horowitz was looking into whether Halper, who made contact with other Trump campaign officials, exceeded his mandate. British ex-spy Christopher Steele, whose salacious dossier on President Trump was used by the bureau to justify surveillance of the Trump campaign, was also a confidential human source to the FBI. Steele was cut off as an FBI source in November 2016, following the discovery that he had been improperly providing information to journalists while working with them, but he remained in contact with the bureau through a back channel facilitated by Justice Department official Bruce Ohr.

The partially redacted audit covers fiscal 2012 to May 2019 and is yet another critical assessment of James Comey during his tenure as FBI director, which ended abruptly in May 2017 when Trump fired him. Comey has spoken out, denying Attorney General William Barr's assertion that "spying did occur" on the Trump campaign. He wrote in a New York Times op-ed that Trump's "amoral" leadership had corrupted Barr. Confidential human sources are hired for a litany of missions, not just counterintelligence. They also collect intelligence and investigative information while being embedded in terrorist cells and violent gangs. The 63-page report on the FBI's management of validation processes determined there was a "backlog of long-term" sources of five years or more. Validation is defined as "vetting the credibility of a CHS and assessing the veracity of the information the source provides."
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/doj-inspector-general-finds-numerous-issues-with-fbi-management-of-secret-sources

Message from Inspector General Horowitz
https://youtube.com/watch?v=D_xMwVLR_kw [Embed]