NBC's Pete Williams reports that IG Horowitz is opening new investigation: 'Screwed up at every level'

NBC News justice correspondent Pete Williams did not mince words Monday when reporting on the much-anticipated report from Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz that detailed the FBI's abuses of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Although Horowitz ultimately determined the FBI was not politically biased in opening their investigation into the Trump campaign, Horowitz identified 17 instances in which the FBI made "significant errors or omissions" in their FISA applications to surveil Trump campaign associate Carter Page.

Characterizing the report's conclusions about the FBI, Williams said the report essentially found that the FBI "screwed up at every level."

"What it says is the FBI basically repeatedly screwed up at every level, failing to pay enough attention to potential problems with [Christopher] Steele, failing to tell the Justice Department," Williams said on "NBC Nightly News."

"And it says at one point that the FBI decided to seek this FISA warrant, even at the risk of being criticized for doing it later, because, the report says, FBI officials said they had to get to the bottom of a potentially serious threat to national security," Williams continued. "But the inspector general report says the FISA application was in many ways inaccurate, incomplete, or unsupported. It says, for example, that the FBI failed to look at some of the problems in Steele's past work that was never sufficiently addressed."

Finally, Williams noted the report states that Horowitz is extremely concerned about the FBI's FISA abuses because, if they did not follow legal protocol in obtaining a surveillance warrant against a presidential campaign's aide, then to what lengths is the FBI going to obtain surveillance warrants against average Americans?

In fact, Horowitz is "so concerned about these problems" that he is opening a new investigation.

"We learned today the inspector general is now opening a new investigation into how the FBI gets these FISA warrants on American citizens," Williams reported.

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