Horowitz concluded that the FBI made 17 significant errors or omissions in its applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to surveil Page. That official, Victor Podobnyy, was known as a Russian diplomat to the United Nations but was in fact a Russian intelligence agent, according to U.S. officials. U.S. intelligence officials had already determined that Russian intelligence hackers had stolen the files; now the Russians appeared to be using them to try to influence the election. That tip led senior FBI officials in Washington to open its investigation of Papadopoulos, and take over the inquiry of Page. Rather than hire a lawyer, Page decided to speak out, giving media interviews and asking lawmakers to dig into his case.

Source: Washington Post December 14, 2019 22:30 UTC