FBI lawyer suspected of altering document

WASHINGTON >> An FBI lawyer is suspected of altering a document related to surveillance of former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, a person familiar with the situation said Friday.

President Donald Trump, who has long attacked as a “hoax” and a “witch hunt” the FBI’s investigation into ties between Russia and his 2016 presidential campaign, immediately touted news reports about the accusation to allege that the FBI had tried to “overthrow the presidency.”

The allegation is part of a Justice Department inspector general review of the FBI’s Russia investigation, one of the most politically sensitive probes in the bureau’s history. That election interference probe was ultimately taken over by special counsel Robert Mueller and resulted in charges against six Trump associates and more than two dozen Russians accused of interfering in the election. Inspector General Michael Horowitz is expected to release his report on Dec. 9.

The inspector general report — centered in part on the use of a secret surveillance warrant to monitor the communications of a former Trump adviser — is likely to revive debate about an investigation that has shadowed Trump’s presidency since the beginning. It will be released amid a House impeachment inquiry into Trump’s efforts to press Ukraine’s leader to investigate Democratic rival Joe Biden at the same time as military aid was being withheld from the country.