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Trump Says Forthcoming Report on Russia Probe to Be Biggest Scandal in US History

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - President Donald Trump predicted on Friday that a forthcoming Justice Department watchdog report on the origins of Russia probe will be the biggest scandal in the history of the United States.
Sputnik
“You have a FISA report coming out which the word is, it’s historic,” Trump said. “The information that we have now is beyond belief already but what they have coming out, I hear, is historic... What you are going to see, I predict, will be perhaps the biggest scandal in the history of our country.”

On Thursday, Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz said in a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham that he will release on December 9 a report on the origins of the Trump-Russia collusion investigation.

In addition, Horowitz will testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on December 11 on the findings of his own investigation into how the Justice Departments and FBI handled the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant process to initiate surveillance of the Trump campaign in the 2016 presidential election.

In May, US Attorney General William Barr initiated an inquiry into the origin of the Trump-Russia collusion probe. According to the White House, Trump authorised the US intelligence community to engage in the investigation into surveillance activities of his campaign in 2016.

The investigation into allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia was opened by the FBI in July of 2016, four months ahead of the presidential election.

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In May 2017, Trump dismissed then-FBI Director James Comey, under whose leadership the probe was initiated, and Special Counsel Robert Mueller was appointed to lead the investigation.

Mueller released a report on his findings last April and said no evidence was found of alleged collusion.

While Trump has characterized the probe as a political witch hunt to reverse the result of the 2016 election, Russian officials have said the allegations were made up to excuse the election loss of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton as well as deflect public opinion of actual instances of election fraud and corruption.

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