Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler, the House Judiciary Committee chairman who has drawn up articles of impeachment accusing President Trump of abusing his power, last year falsely accused a Trump campaign aide of being a Russian spy who helped Moscow interfere in the 2016 election — an accusation the Justice Department’s watchdog declared unfounded in his newly released report.
Nadler made the accusation in a letter distributed on Capitol Hill in early 2018. In the same document, he also defended the FBI for obtaining a highly invasive FISA warrant to wiretap the Trump aide, Carter Page. The watchdog now concludes that this warrant, renewed three times, was obtained under false pretenses.
The Democratic leader — who’s expected to argue the impeachment case before the Senate next month — dismissed as “a conspiracy theory” the president’s characterization of the FBI spying as an “abuse” of the government’s surveillance powers.
Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz found the FBI did in fact abuse its authority, including withholding exculpatory evidence from its spy warrant on Page and subsequent renewals — including one in which the evidence was falsified by an FBI lawyer whom Horowitz referred for criminal investigation.
Capitol Hill sources say the inspector general’s scathing report uncovering FBI misconduct undercuts Nadler’s credibility as a prosecutor for the impeachment case.
I mean, to the extent that he had any before, yeah.
h/t GR