Another investigation into the FBI and Justice Department was launched by Horowitz in March 2018. This investigation targeted the FBI and Justice Department's filing of four FISA applications and renewals to surveil former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page and whether or not there was an abuse of this FISA process. A redacted version of the report of the investigation was released December 9, 2019. On November 18, 2019 Senator Lindsey Graham, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, announced that Horowitz would testify before the committee on December 11 regarding the investigation and provide recommendations on how judicial and investigative systems could be improved.[8]
On December 9, 2019, Horowitz released his report stating that the FBI found 17 “basic and fundamental” errors and omissions in its applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA Court), but did not find political bias during the investigation of Trump and Russia, nor did he find evidence that the FBI attempted to place people inside the Trump campaign or report on the Trump campaign.[9][10][11][12][13] However, in a Senate hearing, Horowitz stated he could not rule out political bias as a possible motivation.[14] The report found that the FBI had a legal "authorized investigative purpose and with sufficient factual predication" to ask for court approval to begin surveillance of Carter Page, a former Trump campaign adviser.[9]
In January 2021, the Inspector General for the Department of Justice concluded an investigation into the "zero tolerance" policy, finding that: department leaders underestimated the difficulty of implementing it, failed to tell local prosecutors and others that children would be separated; failed to understand that separations would last longer than a few hours; and failed to halt the policy after that was discovered.[17] The findings led Rod Rosenstein, who had been Trump's Attorney General at the time the policy was enforced, to admit that family separations "should never have been implemented".[18] According to an NBC News report on the investigation, "The report could provide a road map for the incoming Biden administration to investigate those responsible for a policy President-elect Joe Biden has called criminal."[19]
Review of the DOJ on the attempts to overturn the 2020 U.S. presidential election
After the New York Times report in January 2021 alleged that some officials in the Justice Department attempted to work with President Trump in order to overturn the election, Horowitz announced that he will open up an investigation regarding the allegation.[20]
Personal life
In 2000, he married Alexandra Leigh Kauffman in Leesburg, Virginia.[3] Kauffman is a former field producer for CNN covering economics and personal finance.[3]
^Hubbell, Martindale (April 2003). Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory: Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, U.S. Government Lawyers, Law Schools (Volume 4 - 2003). Martindale-Hubbell. ISBN9781561605514.
^"Watchdog: DOJ bungled 'zero tolerance' immigration policy". AP NEWS. January 14, 2021. Retrieved January 15, 2021. The report from the inspector general for the Justice Department found that leadership failed to prepare to implement the policy or manage the fallout, which resulted in more than 3,000 family separations during "zero tolerance" and caused lasting emotional damage to children who were taken from their parents at the border. ... According to the report, department leaders underestimated how difficult it would be to carry out the policy in the field and did not inform local prosecutors and others that children would be separated. They also failed to understand that children would be separated longer than a few hours, and when that was discovered, they pressed on.
