An FBI official is under criminal investigation for allegedly altering a document related to the surveillance of onetime Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
The FBI official, who has not been identified and may no longer work for the government, is being scrutinized by U.S. Attorney John Durham as part of his criminal investigation into the origins of the Russia investigation, according to CNN.
Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz uncovered the document as part of his investigation into alleged Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act abuses, which concluded in September, and has been in contact with Durham. The Connecticut-based prosecutor’s administrative review turned into a criminal investigation in October, giving him the power to impanel a grand jury and hand down indictments.
No charges relevant to the situation appear to have been filed in court. A Justice Department representative did not immediately return a request for comment.
Horowitz’s team interviewed the FBI official, who admitted to making a change to the document. Unclear is how much sway the document had in the FBI’s effort to obtain warrants approved by the FISA Court to electronically surveil Page, but the change to the document was substantive enough to twist its meaning.
“If there was an FBI agent sworn to uphold the Constitution who can be proven to have altered the document in connection with a legal proceeding, including the obtaining of a FISA warrant, that’s really serious. It doesn’t get a lot more serious than that,” former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said Thursday evening on CNN.
