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IG Report Skewers FBI Over FISA Warrants

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Listen to “IG Report Skewers FBI Over FISA Warrants” on Spreaker.

On Monday, Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz released his long-awaited report on the FBI’s handling of FISA warrant requests and renewals concerning one-time Trump campaign figure Carter Page.

Horowitz concluded that there was no provable political bias that went into some 17 major errors in filing for the warrants, including the admission of obviously false information about Page and Trump and the exclusion of exculpatory information.  He also did not refer anyone for criminal prosecution.

Democrats and former FBI officials declared this a win for their position and a death blow to the idea that the Obama administration spied on the Trump campaign in 2016.

But former Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew C. McCarthy says there’s plenty in the report which is very ugly for the FBI and everyone up the chain of command.

Listen to the full podcast as McCarthy tells Greg Corombos what stood out to him in the report, what’s still to come in the investigation led by U.S. Attorney John Durham and whether Horowitz is right to be worried that the rights of everyday Americans are at great risk of being trampled if the FBI acted in such a shoddy manner in a case of great national significance.

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What We Really Learned from the FISA Warrant Application

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All sides of the Trump-Russia debate see the recently released application for a FISA warrant against a former Trump campaign figure as confirming their previously held opinions on the matter, but a former federal prosecutor says that’s because some are conflating two very different matters and reaching a faulty conclusion.

Over the weekend, the FBI released a redacted version of the FISA warrant request it sought against former Trump aide Carter Page.  The paperwork shows the FBI did rely heavily on the Steele dossier, assembled by a former British intelligence official hostile to Trump, and a footnote in the application admits the dossier was funded for months by the Hillary Clinton campaign an the Democratic National Committee.

So what does former federal prosecutor Andrew C. McCarthy see as the headline in this new information?

“That it’s a confirmation of my previously held position,” joked McCarthy, before turning serious.

“My previously held position is basically what we learned in congressional hearings over the past year-plus, which is that the FBI used the Steele dossier, which is a partisan opposition research screed, which was basically commissioned by the Clinton campaign,” said McCarthy.

McCarthy says there’s still information we don’t know, but that we also know there’s no further corroboration of the dossier in the FISA application.

“We know that that’s not there because there have been hearings.  There have been reports.  Senators (Charles) Grassley and (Lindsey) Graham, for example, put out a report on a classified memo that was declassified earlier this year which laid out not only the passages of the actual FISA warrants that were relevant but also explained what the FBI had done was rely on the credibility of Christopher Steele,” said McCarthy.

So how are all sides claiming victory after the release of the FISA warrant application?  McCarthy says it’s because many people are confusing two very different matters: whether Carter Page was someone worthy of further federal scrutiny and whether the government had built a legal case for obtaining a surveillance warrant.

Page aroused suspicion years before the 2016 campaign for trying to become a Russian agent but was dismissed by the Kremlin as an “idiot.”

“To get a FISA warrant under federal law, you have to have probable cause that an American citizen in this case is willfully acting as a clandestine agent of a foreign power.

“That is, he is quite intentionally acting to advance the interests of Russia in the United States in a clandestine way, which means under federal law is a probable violation of federal criminal law,” said McCarthy.

He believes the feds fell short of that burden.

“They didn’t have that that we can see, other than through the Steele dossier, which is why I think (former FBI Deputy Director Andrew) McCabe said that they couldn’t have gotten the warrant without the Steele dossier,” said McCarthy.

“It’s fine to say we should have been concerned about Carter Page and even that we should have investigated Carter Page.  Getting a FISA warrant on someone is a drastic step up from that,” he added.

McCarthy also believes President Trump could easily clear up all speculation about what’s still behind those redacted sections of the FISA warrant application.

“President Trump has the power…to declassify and publicize anything in the way of classified information that the government has.  Until we get this information, there’ll be a lot of this speculation that goes on,” said McCarthy.

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FBI Caught Mixing Law & Politics, Confirmation Bias Abounds, Philly Goes Insane

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Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of National Review welcome transparency about our government, most recently the disturbing revelations about the FBI’s allegedly sloppy and politically charged approach to obtaining a FISA warrant to conduct surveillance on Trump campaign figure Carter Page. They also roll their eyes as partisans on both sides react to the memo, including Democrats who see nothing wrong with the FBI allegedly using a dossier as evidence without confirming its veracity and not telling the FISA court it was paid for by Democrats and Republicans insisting this means the Mueller investigation must be shut down immediately when the memo’s author says that is not his conclusion at all. And they’re thrilled to see the New England Patriots lose the Super Bowl, but shake their heads in disgust as Philadelphia fans destroy property, flip cars, and engage in other revolting behavior.

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Toensing Reacts to McCabe Exit, Rips Politics at FBI

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Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe is abruptly leaving his position just weeks before his scheduled retirement, triggering a frenzy of speculation from the left and the right, but a former federal prosecutor says McCabe is just one part of a baffling approach to the Russia investigation by the FBI and the Justice Department.

Another Monday stunner is the revelation, reportedly in the FISA memo from the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein ordered surveillance former Trump campaign figure Carter Page based on the dossier compiled by former British agent Christopher Steele and funded for months by the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign.

Word of McCabe’s rapid exit was first reported Monday afternoon.  Democrats and many mainstream media figures quickly wondered whether President Trump forced McCabe out given some critical tweets in the past.  Conservatives quickly tied the news to FBI Director Christopher Wray viewing the highly touted FISA memo on Capitol Hill over the weekend.

So far, no concrete answers have been given, but former Deputy Assistant Attorney General Victoria Toensing strongly doubts Trump ordered this move.

“It’s all speculation as to whether it was Wray.  I can’t imagine it was Trump because Trump probably wanted him out of there months ago.  That’s my reaction.  Why now?  So little so late,” said Toensing.

Toensing notes that McCabe has amassed enough sick leave and vacation time that he can stop working now and still receive full retirement benefits, leaving her to conclude this development may have nothing to do with politics at all.

Toensing is highly critical of McCabe on multiple fronts, starting with his allegedly soft handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation.  Even though McCabe recused himself from the probe while his wife was running as a Democrat for state office in Virginia, Toensing says the failure to record Clinton’s testimony or put her under oath was inexcusable.

She is also furious over what she’s sees as McCabe’s slick manner in getting former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to talk with the FBI.

“He called Flynn’s office and said, ‘The FBI would like to talk to you,’ and made it appear like the talk was going to be about personnel and background.  Instead, the FBI showed up with Peter Strzok and surprised the general with, ‘What did you say to the Russian ambassador?'” said Toensing.

Strzok is the agent removed from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team for persistent Trump-bashing.

Toensing says the FBI’s handling of the Clinton email probe and the failure to put any guardrails on Mueller have deeply damaged the reputation of the FBI and the Justice Department.

“I’ve worked with the FBI and I’m such a great admirer of their professionalism.  I’ve worked with them as recently as the last month at the local level,” said Toensing.

“But the hierarchy came in and took over.  That’s a shame and it’s effecting their credibility.  There’s a recent poll where 49 percent of the people think the FBI is hiding information from Congress.  That’s not good.  The FBI should be wanting to get it out, not hiding it,” she said.

What hierarchy is Toensing referring to?  Specifically, she lists McCabe, former FBI Director James Comey, former President Barack Obama, and former Attorney General Eric Holder.

She says the revelations to date on “unmasking” of figures in the Trump campaign proves Obama was deeply involved in all of this.

“The new Trump administration people found evidence of the Obama White House unmasking the Trump campaign and listening in,” said Toensing.

“The Trump NSC staff found those documents and that’s how (House Intelligence Committee Chairman) Devin Nunes was called up to the White House to review documents that he them revealed and the Democrats went after him for revealing classified information,” said Toensing.

While McCabe’s departure cannot be tied to the FISA memo immediately following the reports of his departure, the memo is apparently the source for revealing that Rosenstein used the FISA powers of the United States to spy on Carter Page.

Toensing says that news demands answers.

“[Page] was an American citizen, traveling to Russia which is what he did.  This is what he did.  He had Russia as an interest.  Why was he being surveilled in any way whatsoever?” asked Toensing.

Toensing says Rosenstein has even more to answer for, including how he based a decision to keep tabs on Page based on a dossier that has at least partly been discredited.

“I would have hoped that he would have looked behind that dossier and gotten some kind of cooperation, rather than just a document by a political adversary.  I would have hoped that he would have asked, ‘What is the basis for this document saying all these things?'” said Toensing.

“I signed FISA warrants when I was at the Justice Department.  I know how to go behind the facts.  So I would have hoped he had done that,” said Toensing.

She also blames Rosenstein for allowing the Russia investigation to get diverted from its original purpose, virtually from the start.

“Whatever the Russians did to our election should have been investigated [as a counter-intelligence matter], not as a criminal prosecution.  So by setting up a special counsel to make a criminal investigation, Rod really went off the reservation,” said Toensing.

 

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