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  Horowitz Report Chapter 8 Section I

       Omissions in the FISA Applications, as NSD Reported to the FISC in July 2018
      see https://www.justice.gov/storage/120919-examination.pdf
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CHAPTER EIGHT

MISSTATEMENTS, OMISSIONS, AND ERRORS IN THE FISA RENEWAL APPLICATIONS

As we describe in this chapter, the three Carter Page renewal applications contained a number of factual representations that were inaccurate, incomplete, or unsupported by appropriate documentation, based upon information in the FBI 's possession at the time the applications were filed. On July 12, 2018, approximately one year after the final FISA renewal application, the National Security Division( NSD) sent a letter to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court( FISC) advising the court of certain factual omissions in the Carter Page FISA applications that came to NSD 's attention after the last renewal application was filed. The information, which had been in the FBI 's possession, included certain statements made by George Papadopoulos to FBI confidential human sources( CHSs), information provided to the FBI by Department attorney Bruce Ohr 's as a result of Ohr 's conversations with Christopher Steele, and admissions Steele made in court filings in foreign litigation regarding his interactions with the media. We found no evidence that officials in NSD had been told of this information or were aware of these omissions at the time the four FISA applications were filed with the court. Further, we found no evidence suggesting that the senior Department officials who approved the various FISA applications-Deputy Attorney General( DAG) Sally Yates( the first application and first renewal), Acting Attorney General Dana Boente( the second renewal), or DAG Rod Rosenstein( the third renewal)- were aware of these issues at the time they signed the FISA applications.

We also detail instances not described in the July 2018 letter to the FISC, but identified by the OIG during the course of this review, in which factual assertions made in the three renewal applications were inaccurate, incomplete, or unsupported by appropriate documentation, based upon information in the FBI 's possession at the time the applications were filed. These included inconsistencies between Steele 's reporting and information provided by his Primary Sub-source to the FBI; information provided to the FBI by another U.S. government agency about Page 's prior relationship with that agency; information concerning Steele 's past work-related performance; information regarding the connection between Steele 's reporting and the Democratic Party, the Democratic National Committee( DNC), and the Hillary Clinton campaign; information from the FBI 's human source validation report concerning Steele; denials by Joseph Mifsud to the FBI; and information about Carter Page 's lack of involvement in the change in the Republican Party platform concerning Russia and Ukraine. We found no evidence that Yates was aware of these issues at the time she approved the first FISA renewal application. We found that Boente was also unaware of these issues when he approved the second renewal application, with one exception concerning information regarding the ties between Steele 's reporting and the Democratic Party. Boente recalled knowing the information at the time he approved the second renewal. We found that Rosenstein was unaware of the issues we identified at the time he approved the third renewal application. With respect to the ties between Steele 's reporting and the Democratic Party, Rosenstein told us he believes he learned that information from news media accounts, but did not recall whether he knew it at the time he approved the third renewal.

I. Omissions in the FISA Applications, as NSD Reported to the FISC in July 2018

Under Rule 13( a) of the FISC Rules of Procedure, the government has an obligation to correct any and all misstatements or omissions of material fact in its submissions to the court. Although the Rules do not define or otherwise explain what constitutes" material'' facts or omissions, the FBI 's Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and Standard Minimization Procedures Policy Guide( FISA SMP PG) states that a fact or omission is" material'' if it is relevant to the court 's probable cause determination. According to NSD supervisors, NSD will consider a fact or omission material if the information is capable of influencing the court 's probable cause determination, but NSD will err on the side of disclosure and advise the court of information that NSD believes the court would want to know.

On July 12, 2018, about 1 year after the last Carter Page FISA application was filed with the FISC, the NSD Assistant Attorney General submitted a letter to FISC Presiding Judge Rosemary Collyer under Rule 13-LCB- a), advising the court of certain factual omissions in the Carter Page FISA applications. These omissions included:

1. Statements made by George Papadopoulos to FBI CHSs in September and October 2016 denying that anyone involved in the Donald J. Trump for President Campaign was coordinating with Russia in the DNC hack or release of emails;

2. Information Department attorney Bruce Ohr provided to the FBI in November and December 2016 relevant to Steele 's motivations and reliability; and

3. Admissions Steele made in April and May 2017 regarding his interactions with the news media in the summer and fall of 2016.

According to NSD supervisors, the Rule 13 Letter was initially prompted by NSD 's receipt and review of the Ohr information in late January 2018. At about the same time, the FBI advised NSD and the Office of the Deputy Attorney General( ODAG) of admissions Steele made in court filings in foreign litigation in April and May 2017 concerning his media contacts. Later, in May 2018, while a draft of the letter was under review, NSD learned of Papadopoulos 's September 2016 denial from ODAG, which ODAG had recently identified during a review of FBI documents. Then, in June 2018, NSD learned of Papadopoulos 's October 2016 denial from the FBI, after asking the FBI to recheck its files for any other information that should be disclosed to the court.

In the Rule 13 Letter, NSD stated that, after the filing of the Carter Page FISA applications, NSD became aware of additional information relevant to the applications, and that some of this information was subject to Rule 13( a). The letter did not specify which information the government believed was material and therefore subject to Rule 13( a), and which information it believed was not. However, the letter stated that some of the additional information had been discussed publicly and that the government was providing all of the information" out of an abundance of caution'' to ensure that the court had a complete understanding of the additional information. The letter concluded by asserting that" even considering the additional information regarding Papadopoulos '[ s]

conversations with[ an FBI CHS] and others, and regarding[ Steele], the applications contained sufficient predication for the Court to have found probable cause that Page was acting as an agent of the Government of Russia.''

According to NSD supervisors, as of October 2019, NSD had not received a formal response from the FISC to the Rule 13 Letter. According to then Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart Evans, in his experience, although not in every case, there have been occasions in which the FISC has responded to Rule 13 letters, either by issuing a supplemental order, asking the government for more information, or holding a hearing. On January 31, 2019, Evans told the OIG that NSD had advised FISC Presiding Judge Rosemary Collyer that, through participation in OIG interviews, NSD Office of Intelligence( 01) officials learned of additional information that was possibly material to the Carter Page FISA applications, and that NSD planned to wait until after the OIG completed its review and provided its findings to the Department before determining whether to submit another Rule 13 letter to the court. NSD supervisors told us that they believe the court may be waiting for the completion of the OIG 's review, and the submission of any potential supplemental filings by NSD, before taking responsive steps, if any.

A. Papadopoulos 's Denials to FBI Confidential Human Sources

In Chapter Five, we described how the first Carter Page FISA application did not include statements Papadopoulos made to an FBI CHS in September 2016 that were in tension with other information included in the application. Specifically, in September 2016, Papadopoulos told the CHS that, to his knowledge, no one associated with the Trump campaign was collaborating with Russia or with outside groups like WikiLeaks in the release of emails. We were advised by NSD that it did not know about this denial by Papadopoulos until May 2018, after ODAG found the information while reviewing documents in response to Congressional information requests. Upon learning the information, NSD incorporated Papadopoulos 's denial into the Rule 13 Letter.

As described in Chapter Five, Case Agent 1 told us that he did not recall whether he advised the OI Attorney about Papadopoulos 's denial in September 2016 but that, if he did not, it may have been an oversight. He also told us that the Crossfire Hurricane team 's assessment was that Papadopoulos 's denial to the CHS was a rehearsed response, and Case Agent 1 did not view the information as particularly germane to the investigation of Carter Page. However, Evans told us that because Papadopoulos 's denial was inconsistent with the theory that Papadopoulos had received( or was aware of) an offer from the Russians involving the release of emails, there was no question in Evans 's mind that the information was material and would have been disclosed to the court had NSD known about it at the time of the FISA applications.

After NSD incorporated Papadopoulos 's statements into the Rule 13 Letter, and before the final letter was submitted to the court, the FBI advised NSD of similar, previously undisclosed statements made by Papadopoulos to a CHS after the first Carter Page FISA application was filed but before the renewal applications. Specifically, in October 2016, when asked if the Trump campaign was involved in the DNC email hack, Papadopoulos told the CHS that the campaign was not involved and that it would have been illegal to have done so. Papadopoulos also said that he did not think Russia was" playing'' with the election or had any interest in it. Case Agent 1 received a document with these Papadopoulos statements included in it a few days after the October 2016 meeting( well before Renewal Application No. 1 was filed). Case Agent 1 told us that he was familiar with this CHS meeting at the time and probably reviewed the summary of the interview containing these statements, but Case Agent 1 said he did not recall why the statements were not shared with OI or included in the subsequent renewal applications. He said that the information would not have been purposely withheld from OI, but it may have been accidentally omitted from the information provided to OI for the renewal application.

In the Rule 13 Letter, NSD advised the court of these statements and added that Papadopoulos told the CHS in October 2016 that[ REDACTED]. The letter further stated that by March 2017, Papadopoulos had denied any campaign involvement in the release of DNC emails on WikiLeaks during interviews conducted by the FBI and that those denials were included in Renewal Application Nos. 2 and 3.

The Rule 13 Letter stated that NSD would have included Papadopoulos ' denials to the FBI CHSs in the Carter Page FISA applications had NSD known about them at the time. The letter further stated that, even if the information had been included in the FISA applications, it was the government 's position that the" totality of information submitted in these applications concerning Page 's activities was sufficient to support the Court 's finding of probable cause that Page was acting as an agent of a foreign power.'' The letter included a footnote advising the court that Papadopoulos had been charged and pled guilty to making false statements and omissions that impeded the FBI 's investigation. Evans told the OIG that the government 's position was based in part on the fact that the FFG information concerning Papadopoulos was only one of many different pieces of information that supported the court 's probable cause determination as to Carter Page. Further, according to Evans, this new information concerning Papadopoulos 's denials was" cumulative'' in that Renewal Application Nos. 2 and 3 had already advised the court that Papadopoulos had denied informing the FFG of any campaign involvement in the release of DNC emails on WikiLeaks during interviews with the FBI.

B. Information the FBI Received From Bruce Ohr Concerning Steele and His Reporting

In Chapter Nine, we describe the relationships and communications Ohr had with Steele and Glenn Simpson whose company, Fusion GPS, hired Steele to conduct the research on Trump 's ties to Russia. We also describe the information Ohr passed to then Deputy Director Andrew McCabe in mid-October 2016 about Steele and his reporting, as well as the information Ohr passed to the Crossfire Hurricane investigative team beginning in November 2016 and continuing until the Special Counsel 's appointment in mid-May 2017. At the time of these communications, Ohr was an Associate Deputy Attorney General( ADAG) and Director of the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force( OCDETF) within ODAG. However, as we describe in the next chapter, Ohr 's interactions with Steele and Simpson were outside Ohr 's areas of responsibility, and he did not advise anyone in ODAG that he was meeting with Steele, Simpson, or the FBI about Steele 's election reporting.

As described in Chapter Nine, the FBI interviewed Ohr on multiple occasions in 2016 and 2017 and those interviews were memorialized in FD-302s. Of particular relevance to the Carter Page FISA renewal applications, during the first interview of Ohr on November 21, 2016, which was attended by FBI officials overseeing the Crossfire Hurricane investigation-including Deputy Assistant Director( DAD) Peter Strzok, the Chief of the Counterintelligence Division 's( CD) Analysis Section 1( Intel Section Chief), and SSA 1 -andby the FBI 's Office of the General Counsel( OGC) Unit Chief, Ohr advised the FBI of the following:

• Ohr met with Steele in July and September 2016 during which Steele advised Ohr of Steele 's election reporting and who had hired him;

• Simpson, who hired Steele, was himself hired by a lawyer" who does opposition research,'' and Steele 's reporting was going to Hillary Clinton 's presidential campaign, an identified State Department official, and the FBI;

• Simpson was passing Steele 's reporting to" many individuals or entities,'' and at times Steele would attend meetings with Simpson;

• Steele was" desperate that Donald Trump not get elected and was passionate about him not being the U.S. President;''

• Steele and Simpson could have met with Yahoo News or the author of the September 23 news article jointly, but Ohr did not know if they met jointly; and

• Ohr never believed Steele was" making up information or shading it.'' Further, during subsequent interviews on December 5 and 12, 2016, Ohr advised members of the Crossfire Hurricane team that:

• Simpson directed Steele to speak to the press, which was part of what Simpson was paying Steele to do. Ohr did not know whether speaking with Mother Jones was Simpson 's idea or not; and

• Simpson asked Steele to speak to Mother Jones as it was Simpson 's" Hail Mary attempt.''

None of the Carter Page FISA renewal applications included any information obtained from Ohr during the course of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation, even though the interviews described above took place before Renewal Application No. 1 was filed in January 2017. In the Rule 13 Letter, NSD advised the court that NSD officials were not aware of the FBl 's interviews of Ohr at the time of the renewal applications, and we found no documentation indicating otherwise. Further, Evans, the OI supervisors, and the OI Attorney who drafted the applications told us that they were not aware at the time of the renewal applications that Ohr had provided information to the FBI related to the Crossfire Hurricane investigation. Similarly, Yates, Boente, Rosenstein, and the ODAG officials who reviewed the renewal applications told us that they were also not aware that Ohr had provided the FBI with information related to the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.

As described in Chapter Nine, handwritten notes of an FBI briefing Boente received in February 2017 indicate that the FBI advised Boente and others at that time-including Evans, then Acting Assistant Attorney General Mary McCord, then Deputy Assistant Attorney General George Toscas from NSD, ADAG Tashina Gauhar, ADAG Scott Schools, and Principal ADAG James Crowell-that Ohr knew Steele for several years and remained in contact with him, and that Ohr 's wife worked for Simpson as a Russian linguist. However, none of these handwritten notes-which include separate notes taken by Boente, Schools, and Gauhar-stated that the FBI had interviewed Ohr or that Ohr had provided the FBI with information regarding Steele 's election reporting or Steele 's feelings toward candidate Trump. Schools told us that he recalled a meeting in which the OGC Unit Chief referenced Ohr having contact with Simpson, but Schools was not sure if it was during this February 2017 briefing or another briefing. Further, he said that it was a" passing reference,'' and he never would have imagined that Ohr was having regular contact with the Crossfire Hurricane team and providing the information that appeared in the FD-302s. Boente and the other attendees of the February 2017 briefing told the OIG that they did not recall the FBI mentioning Ohr at any time during the investigation, and that they did not know about the FBI 's interviews with Ohr at the time of the FISA applications. According to Gauhar, she was surprised to find a reference to Ohr in her notes, and, regardless, she" would never have dreamt'' back then what she knows now concerning the extent of Ohr 's interactions with Steele, Simpson, and the FBI on Steele 's election reporting. According to Gauhar, she first learned of Ohr 's connections to the Crossfire Hurricane investigation from media reports in early January 2018. She said that around this same time, Schools gave her a copy of a January 4, 2018 letter from Senators Grassley and Graham to the Department, which referenced the FBl 's interviews of Ohr. Emails reflect that on January 8, Gauhar forwarded this letter to Evans, and 2 days later Evans forwarded the letter to OI. According to Evans, this was the first time he learned about Ohr 's interactions with the FBI on the Crossfire Hurricane investigation. Evans also said that when he consulted with the OI supervisors and OI Attorney who had worked on the Carter Page FISA applications, he learned that Oh r 's involvement was" a surprise to all of us.'' Shortly thereafter, Evans requested and obtained the FD-302s documenting the Ohr interviews, and days later OI completed a first draft of the Rule 13 Letter.

Handwritten notes taken during a meeting in late January 2018 indicate that OGC 's Deputy General Counsel Trisha Anderson told Gauhar, Evans, and OI supervisors that it had been reported to her that the FBl 's New York Field Office( NYFO), which at the time had responsibility for the Carter Page investigation, had reviewed the FD-302s contemporaneously with Renewal Application No. 1 and decided that the information from Ohr was not relevant to the Carter Page FISA request. The notes further stated that the case agent handling the FISA request had been focused at that time on information relating to Carter Page 's own activities and the FBl 's termination of its source relationship with Steele.

Case Agent 1, who, as described previously in Chapter Seven, worked with OI in preparing Renewal Application No. 1 and later assisted Case Agent 6 with Renewal Application No. 2, told the OIG that he did not attend any of the interviews with Ohr. He also said that the information coming from Ohr was not a main focus for him personally. He told us, and documents reflect, that he received information about the Ohr interviews during at least one team meeting in December 2016 and through instant messages with SSA 1 that same month. Case Agent 1 told us that he recalled hearing about Steele being" desperate'' about Trump, possibly during the team meeting in December 2016, but Case Agent 1 said he was unable to explain why that information was not included in the renewal applications. He said that he could not recall why he did not share the FD-302s of the Ohr interviews with OI. He said that he did not recall the details very well about the" desperate'' comment or the discussions the team had about it, but he remembered thinking that the comment reflected the same potential bias as political opposition research, which was already articulated to the court. He further stated that, with respect to Ohr, he was primarily concerned with whether Ohr had any additional reports from Steele that the FBI did not possess. Because Case Agent 1 understood that there were no differences in the reporting Ohr and the FBI possessed, he said his thought was" unless[ Ohr] gets more information that 's germane to the investigation,'' he was going to keep his attention focused on other aspects of the investigation.

Other FBI officials responsible for helping OI draft the renewal applications or performing the Woods Procedures were also unable to explain why the FBI did not include any information from Ohr about Steele. SSA 3, who, as described previously, performed the supervisory factual accuracy review for Renewal Application No. 1 after Case Agent 1 completed the initial review, told us that he had just joined the case at the time he performed the Woods Procedures. SSA 3 said he had not been part of any discussions about what information to include or not to include in the renewal application and did not know why information from the Ohr interviews was not included. Case Agent 6, who helped OI draft the final two renewal applications, told us that he could not explain why information from Ohr was not included in the applications. Case Agent 6 said that no one told him about the Ohr interviews when he joined the case after Renewal Application No. 1 was filed. He said that he saw the FD-302s in the case file and glanced at them, but he did not think he knew at the time about the" desperate'' comment or the information from Ohr about Steele 's media contacts. His supervisor, SSA 5, who also joined the case after Renewal Application No. 1, said that he did not recall being aware at the time he performed the supervisory factual accuracy review on Renewal Application Nos. 2 and 3 that Ohr had been interviewed by the FBI and had provided information about Steele.

The OGC Attorney did not attend the Ohr interviews or read the FD-302s, but he told us, and documentation reflects, that he attended the team meeting in December 2016 during which the first two Ohr interviews were discussed. He told us that although he recalled learning about the" desperate'' comment, he did not believe at the time that it needed to be included in the renewal applications because the comment was only Ohr 's opinion of Steele 's feelings toward Trump. In addition, he said he believed that the renewal applications already addressed Steele 's personal motivations through the new footnote advising the court of the circumstances that led to Steele 's disclosures to Mother Jones and his closure as a CHS.

The OGC Unit Chief attended the first interview of Ohr in November 2016 and heard the information Ohr provided first hand. She said that the information did not change her perspective on Steele or cause her to believe the renewal applications needed to be updated. In particular, she explained that she was given the impression during Ohr 's interview that Steele 's research led to his views about Trump being elected president, rather than the other way around. She said she was reassured by Ohr 's statements about Steele 's truthfulness. She told the OIG that she believed at the time that the FBI had provided the FISC with all necessary information concerning Steele 's potential bias and motivations through the footnotes describing the genesis of his research and the reasons the FBI eventually closed him as a CHS. For these reasons, she said it did not occur to her at the time to advise OI of the information Ohr provided, and that in any event, she would have deferred to the agents on the investigative team who were responsible for assisting OI with the application to advise OI. However, she said that given the" second-guessing'' that occurred on that point after the Ohr interviews became more broadly known, she now believes that the investigative team should have provided the information to OI at the time of the renewal applications.

In the Rule 13 Letter, NSD advised the court that some of the information Ohr provided to the FBI during his November and December 2016 interviews

goes beyond what was included in the applications. In particular, the Ohr information states specifically that the source 's work was" going to'' Candidate# 2 's[ Hillary Clinton 's] campaign. This information is consistent with, although goes somewhat further than the applications, which informed the Court, that" the FBI speculates that the identified U.S. person[ who hired Source# 1] was likely looking for information that could be used to discredit Candidate# 1 's[ Donald Trump 's] campaign.'' With respect to Ohr 's statements concerning the strength of the Source 's desire to see Candidate# 1 lose and the Source 's October 2016 media engagement, this information is additional to but consistent with the applications, already informing the Court that Source# 1 spoke with the press in October 2016, in violation of the FBI 's admonishment, and was motivated to do so because he was" frustrated'' that the FBI Director 's actions" would likely influence the 2016 U.S. Presidential election.'' The applications further stated that the FBI had suspended, and then closed its relationship with Source# 1, and then closed him as a source, due to these actions. Moreover, during the November 22nd interview Ohr also stated that in his dealings with Source# 1 he" never believed[ Source# 1] was making up information or shading it.'' Ultimately, none of the additional information altered the FBI 's assessment of Source# 1 's reliability.

According to Evans, there was no question that OI would have included the Ohr information in the renewal applications had OI been made aware of it, because of its practice of erring on the side of disclosing information to the FISC. However, Evans told us that NSD ultimately did not believe that any of the information was material to the court 's probable cause determination because the information was" largely cumulative'' of other information in the applications concerning Steele 's potential bias. He agreed, however, that the" desperate'' comment provided" another strain of potential bias'' because the" desperate'' comment pertained specifically to Steele 's own potential bias and motivations, whereas the disclosures in the FISA applications concerning the origins of Steele 's research focused on the motivation of Simpson, who hired Steele, not Steele specifically.

B. Inaccuracies Regarding Steele 's Disclosures to Third Parties and Admissions Concerning Steele 's Yahoo News Contact

In Chapter Five, we described the footnote in the first Carter Page FISA application providing the FBI 's assessment that Steele was not the direct source of the disclosure to Yahoo News in September 2016 about the FBI 's investigation of Carter Page and Page 's alleged meetings with Igor Sechin and Igor Divyekin. The basis for this assessment-that Steele told the FBI that he" only provided his information to[ Simpson] and the FBl''- was neither accurate at the time nor supported by appropriate documentation. Nevertheless, the FBI repeated this error in all three renewal applications. In the Rule 13 Letter, NSD advised the FISC of this error, noting that the FBI knew before the first application that Steele also provided his information to a State Department official and knew before the first renewal that Steele provided his information to Ohr and Senator John McCain 's

office.

The Rule 13 Letter also advised the court of additional information the FBI obtained after the first FISA application-- but that was not included in any of the renewal applications-- that further undermined the FBI 's assessment that Steele was not a direct source of the Yahoo News disclosure. Specifically, the Rule 13 Letter advised the court that in November 2016, Ohr told the FBI that it was possible that Steele and Simpson, who hired Steele, met jointly with Yahoo News, based on information Ohr learned from Steele in late September 2016. In addition, the letter advised that in December 2016, Ohr told the FBI that part of the work Simpson was paying Steele to do included speaking with the media. We found no evidence that the Crossfire Hurricane team, or any FBI officials overseeing the investigation, considered advising the court or OI of this information at the time of the renewal applications. As referenced above, FBI personnel involved in the FISA applications said they did not believe at the time that information from Ohr warranted any changes to the application.

However, by the time of Renewal Application No. 3, the FBI had learned information that more strongly indicated that Steele had directly provided information to Yahoo News around the time of the September 23 article. Yet, no revisions were made to the FBI 's assessment, contained in Renewal Application No. 3, that Steele had not directly provided the information to the press. Media reporting in late April 2017 described statements Steele made in a court filing( pertinent to a lawsuit filed against him and others in a foreign court) concerning his interactions with the media. Specifically, one article excerpted a sworn statement dated April 3, 2017, in which Steele admitted that he gave" off-the-record briefings to a small number of journalists about the pre-election memoranda in late summer/autumn 2016.'' Emails reflect that on April 26, 2017, Strzok circulated this article to the Intel Section Chief and the Unit Chief assigned to take over the Crossfire Hurricane investigation in April 2017( Unit Chief 1).

Other documentation indicates that the foreign lawsuit against Steele was discussed during a meeting with then Director James Comey on May 1, 2017. The OGC Unit Chief took handwritten notes during the meeting, which stated" did not change our assessment, no need to update FISA'' below references to the lawsuit. The OGC Unit Chief told us that she did not recall this discussion or who concluded that the FISC did not need to be updated with information from the foreign litigation. She also said that she did not recall specifically discussing or knowing prior to January 2018 that Steele admitted to talking to the media in these court filings and therefore she did not believe that the FBI advised OI of this information at the time of the Carter Page FISA applications. Comey told the OIG that he did not recall being advised of the court filings.

Approximately two weeks after the May 1, 2017 meeting, in a separate court filing submitted on his behalf, Steele admitted that he and Fusion GPS briefed journalists from five media outlets, including Yahoo News, at the end of September 2016, and also admitted the briefings involved" the disclosure of limited intelligence regarding indications of Russian interference in the U.S. election process and the possible co-ordination of members of Trump 's campaign team and Russian government officials.''

According to the Rule 13 Letter and FBI officials, although there had been open source reporting in May 2017 about Steele 's statements in the foreign litigation, the FBI did not obtain Steele 's court filings until the receipt of Senators Grassley and Graham 's January 2018 letter to DAG Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray with the filings enclosed. We found no evidence that the FBI made any attempts in May or June 2017 to obtain the filings to assist a determination of whether to change the FBl 's assessment concerning the September 23 news article in the final renewal application. However, the OGC Unit Chief 's notes suggest that on May 1, without consulting OI, and relying only upon open source reporting concerning the filings, the FBI decided that Steele 's April 3, 2017 sworn statement in the foreign litigation did not warrant any changes to Renewal Application No. 3.

We were unable to determine whether FBI personnel responsible for assisting OI on Renewal Application No. 3 were told about Steele 's admissions in the foreign litigation regarding his media contacts. Case Agent 6 and the OGC Attorney told us that they did not recall whether they were aware of Steele 's admissions in the foreign litigation before the final renewal application was filed. We are not aware of any other evidence on this point. The Supervisory Intelligence Analyst( Supervisory Intel Analyst) told us that although he was aware at the time, he did not recall making a connection between the open source reporting about Steele 's court filings and the information in the FISA application concerning Steele 's media contacts. He told us that if he had made such a connection, he would have made sure Case Agent 6 and the OGC Attorney were advised.

According to Evans, the failure to include this information in the prior FISA renewals was not the most significant error identified in the Rule 13 Letter. Evans told us that he was not sure an updated assessment would have been particularly relevant to the court 's probable cause determination because whether Steele or the people who hired him were the source of the disclosure, the applications made clear that Steele 's research was relied upon in the article. In addition, Evans said that as a result of the disclosure in the renewal applications concerning the Mother Jones article in October 2016, the court was already on notice that Steele had talked to one media organization when it approved the renewal of FISA authority.

In the Rule 13 Letter, NSD advised the court that the FBI should have updated its assessment in Renewal Application No. 3 about the source of the Yahoo News disclosure. The letter further stated that" irrespective of whether Source# 1 directly spoke with the press in connection with the September 23 News Article, or was forthright with the FBI regarding his contacts with the press in September 2016,'' for the reasons described in the letter and in the FISA applications," the FBI continued to assess that[ Steele 's] prior reporting was reliable.''
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