Report: FBI official under investigation for altering Russia document

Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee June 18, 2018 (Video screenshot)

A former FBI lawyer is under criminal investigation after allegedly altering a document related to the Obama administration's effort to obtain warrants to spy on Trump campaign adviser Carter Page in 2016, according to sources that spoke to CNN.

The finding is expected to be part of Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz's review of alleged abuses by the Obama Justice Department and FBI in its surveillance applications to the top-secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court.

Horowitz is expected to release the report Dec. 9 and testify before Congress two days later.

Later Friday, the New York Times identified the FBI lawyer as Kevin Clinesmith, who once was part of special counsel Robert Mueller's team.

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Clinesmith, who resigned two months ago after being interviewed by Horowitz's team, expressed negative opinions of President Trump in messages to colleagues, the Times said.

The paper reported Clinesmith altered an email that was used by FBI and Justice Department officials as they prepared an application to obtain a warrant to electronically surveil onetime Trump campaign aide Carter Page.

CNN reported Horowitz turned over evidence on the allegedly altered document to John Durham, the federal prosecutor who is conducting what has become -- according to the New York Times -- a criminal investigation of the origins of the Obama administration's Trump-Russia collusion investigation.

When Republicans were in the majority, the House Intelligence Committee found in an investigation that the FBI and Justice Department presented as primary evidence in its surveillance application the now debunked dossier created by former British spy Christopher Steele. The House probe concluded the FISA court was not informed that the dossier was a political research document funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

Steele later testified under oath that the dossier's accusations of salacious behavior by Trump, based on anonymous Russian sources, were unverified. And special counsel Robert Mueller refuted its main points and could not verify any of its claims.

CNN said the alterations were "significant enough to have shifted the document's meaning." But the Washington Post has subsequently reported it did not change Horowitz's finding that the FISA application had a legal basis.

President Trump, in a lengthy interview Friday on "Fox & Friends," said the upcoming Horowitz report will confirm his claim that the Obama administration spied on his campaign.

"What you're going to see, I predict, will be perhaps the biggest scandal in the history of our country, political scandal," the president said.

"I think you're going to see things that are going to be incredible if it's done right," he said, noting he's allowed Attorney General William Barr "to handle everything."

"I could get very much involved. But I purposely don't," he said.

Trump said the Democrats "tried to overthrow" the president.

See President Trump's interview Friday with "Fox & Friends":