Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz told the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday that he was surprised that Attorney General Bill Barr and U.S. Attorney John Durham have been publicly challenging the conclusions of his lengthy investigation into the origins of the FBI's probe into contacts between the Trump campaign and Russian agents.

When asked by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) to comment on Barr and Durham's remarks on his investigation, Horowitz said he saw no basis for them to challenge his findings.

"I was surprised by the statement," he said. "I didn't necessarily know it was going to be released on Monday. We did meet with Mr. Durham, as I mentioned... We did discuss the opening issue. He said he did not necessarily agree with our conclusion about the opening of a full counterintelligence investigation, which is what this was."

Libertarian columnist Jacob Sullum of Reason Magazine has tried to keep an open mind about impeachment hearings against President Donald Trump -- but he has found himself confounded time and again by the president's defenders completely misstating or misrepresenting basic facts.

In his latest column, Sullum calls out Republican lawyer Stephen Castor for making a "jaw dropping" argument that Trump never asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate his political opponents, despite the fact that the White House's own readout of the now-infamous July 25th call shows he did exactly that.