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and possibly illegal financial contribution to the Clinton campaign on behalf of a foreign entity as a precursor to a much larger donation being contemplated. And in a third, the Clinton Foundation matter, both senior FBI and Department officials placed restrictions on how those matters were to be handled such that essentially no investigative activities occurred for months leading up to the election. These examples are also markedly different from the FBI’s actions with respect to other highly significant intelligence it received from a trusted foreign source pointing to a Clinton campaign plan to vilify Trump by tying him to Vladimir Putin so as to divert attention from her own concerns relating to her use of a private email server. Unlike the FBI’s opening of a full investigation of unknown members of the Trump campaign based on raw, uncorroborated information, in this separate matter involving a purported Clinton campaign plan, the FBI never opened any type of inquiry, issued any taskings, employed any analytical personnel, or produced any analytical products in connection with the information. This lack of action was despite the fact that the significance of the Clinton plan intelligence was such as to have prompted the Director of the CIA to brief the President, Vice President, Attorney General, Director of the FBI, and other senior government officials about its content within days of its receipt. It was also of enough importance for the CIA to send a formal written referral memorandum to Director Comey and the Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division, Peter Strzok, for their consideration and action.[1] The investigative referral provided examples of information the Crossfire Hurricane fusion cell had “gleaned to date.”[2]

The Crossfire Hurricane Investigation

Within days after opening Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI opened full investigations on four members of the Trump campaign team: George Papadopoulos, Carter Page, Paul Manafort, and Michael Flynn.[3] No defensive briefing was provided to Trump or anyone in the campaign concerning the information received from Australia that suggested there might be some type of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians, either prior to or after these investigations were opened. Instead, the FBI began working on requests for the use of FISA authorities against Page and Papadopoulos. The effort as related to Papadopoulos proved

  1. ↑ Memorandum from the CIA to the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Re: [Redacted] CROSSFIRE HURRICANE [redacted] (Sept. 7, 2016) (sent to the Director of the FBI and to the attention of Peter Strzok, Deputy Assistant Director for Operations Branch I, Counterintelligence Division)) (redacted version) (hereinafter “Referral Memo”).
  2. ↑ The Referral Memo states that the FBI made a verbal request for examples of relevant information the fusion cell had obtained. Id. at 2. In his July 26, 2021 interview with the Office, Supervisory Analyst Brian Auten advised that on the Friday before Labor Day, which was September 2, 2016, CIA personnel briefed Auten and Intelligence Section Chief Moffa (and possibly FBI OGC Unit Chief-1) at FBI Headquarters on the Clinton intelligence plan. Auten advised that at the time he wanted to see an actual investigative referral memo on the information. OSC Report of Interview of Brian Auten dated July 26, 2021 at 7.

    Separately, we note that the masked identities used in this report do not necessarily correspond to those used in any other document such as the OIG Review.

  3. ↑ See infra §§ IV.A.3 and 4.

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