Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told reporters Monday he has urged since late 2017 a review of the justification for surveillance warrants against Carter Page, a foreign-policy adviser to the Trump campaign that were based in part on a "dossier" of salacious material collected by former British intelligence worker Christopher Steele, who was hired by Democrats to investigate Trump.
“Whether or not it’s illegal, I don’t yet know,” Graham said. “What makes no sense to me is that all of the abuse by the Department of Justice and the FBI – the unprofessional conduct, the shady behavior – nobody seems to think that’s much important. Well that’s going to change, I hope.”
Graham, a former military lawyer himself, also questioned why the FBI did not warn the Trump campaign about repeated Russian efforts to influence him, as documented by special counsel Robert Mueller. Graham said his question is whether the counterintelligence investigation was opened “as a back-door to spy on the campaign.”
Republicans in the House of Representatives spent months investigating similar questions when they controlled the chamber last year, producing incendiary messages in which FBI agents professed their disdain for Trump, but no direct evidence that the Justice Department's conduct was motivated by political considerations. The department's Inspector General also is conducting a review of the Russia investigation.
“I still to this day am at a loss to explain why nobody went to President Trump to tell him that there may be some people in your orbit that are connected to the Russians and working with the Russians,” Graham said. “How did it fail and break down here? What it a ruse to get into the Trump campaign? I don’t know, but I’m going to try and find out.”
Graham outlined his priorities after Barr summarized the conclusions of Mueller's 22-month investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election. Barr said Mueller found no Trump campaign conspiracy with Russia. Mueller made no decision on whether Trump obstructed justice, but Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein found insufficient evidence to pursue an obstruction charge.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...estigate-fbi-probe-trump-campaign/3266643002/