The Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General review released 9 December 2019 found that the FBI opened an investigation on 31 July 2016 known as Crossfire Hurricane. The OIG news release and report describe the opening as following information from a Friendly Foreign Government and a decision by then–Assistant Director Bill Priestap. That is an official finding about the Bureau’s paperwork. An FBI opening is not a court.
Horowitz referred to a friendly-foreign-government official, not to Alexander Downer by name. ABC News (10 Dec 2019) reported that the official quoted in the report said Papadopoulos “suggested the Trump team had received some kind of suggestion from Russia that it could assist this process with the anonymous release of information during the campaign that would be damaging to Mrs Clinton (and President Obama).” Identification of that official as Downer comes from later news and from Downer’s own interviews. Do not write that the OIG printed his name.
The same ABC piece quoted Attorney-General William Barr, speaking to The Australian, saying Downer “did the right thing in supplying that information” and that the FFG “has acted at all times just as we would hope a close ally would.” That is Barr’s comment. It is not a Horowitz caption. Durham later wrote a different assessment of what the Bureau possessed at opening. That is a later post.