Previous post
Next post
The abuse of the FISA system goes well beyond Carter Page’s case. Inspector General Michael Horowitz made that very clear in his memo to FBI Director Christopher Wray.
“Horowitz launched the review after finding in a December report that the FBI improperly withheld information from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court when seeking surveillance orders against 2016 Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
Horowitz’s office reviewed 29 cases involving US residents between 2014 and 2019 and found insufficient documentation in every case to support claims in court papers.”
Read the above again. EVERY SINGLE case he reviewed had errors of some kind. Every single one. The IG conducted a survey of eight FBI field offices and numerous cases. Then they narrowed the search to 29 cases that had FISA warrants issued. From the memo:
“”As a result of our audit work to date and as described below, we do not have confidence that the FBI has executed its Woods Procedures in compliance with FBI policy. Specifically, the Woods Procedures mandate compiling supporting documentation for each fact in the FISA application. Adherence to the Woods Procedures should result in such documentation as a means toward achievement of the FBI’s policy that FISA applications be “scrupulously accurate.” Our lack of confidence that the Woods Procedures are working as intended stems primarily from the fact that: (1) we could not review original Woods Files for 4 of the 29 selected FISA applications because the FBI has not been able to locate them and, in 3 of these instances, did not know if they ever existed; (2) our testing of FISA applications to the associated Woods Files identified apparent errors or inadequately supported facts in all of the
25 applications we reviewed, and interviews to date with available agents or supervisors in field offices generally have confirmed the issues we identified; (3) existing FBI and NSD oversight mechanisms have also identified deficiencies in documentary support and application accuracy that are similar to those that we have observed to date; and (4) FBI and NSD officials we interviewed indicated to us that there were no efforts by the FBI to use existing FBI and NSD oversight mechanisms to perform comprehensive, strategic assessments of the efficacy of the Woods Procedures or FISA accuracy, to include identifying the need for enhancements to training and improvements in the process, or increased accountability measures.””
Let’s unpack that shall we?
Woods Procedures are in place to ensure that detailed documentation is provided to ensure the case for ISSUING a FISA warrant is the correct one. FOUR cases did not have Woods Files attached, and for three of them a Woods File never existed! Yet, the judge ok’d the warrants anyway??!!
Furthermore, to find that the FBI and NSD oversight mechanisms regarding Wood Procedures or FISA accuracy was…non-existent? WOW.
Remember last year when the media was trying to tell us that President Trump was wrong. The FBI and FISA court were not the bad guys here?
Nice big fat stinking rake you stepped on there Chris!
Lawfare blog points out that we aren’t told how serious the errors are, nor that we should speculate as to if those errors would’ve made the case for NOT approving a FISA application.
You know what? ANY error in a FISA warrant should’ve been grounds for dismissal! Furthermore the fact that at least four cases had zero Woods Procedure documentation attached should’ve absolutely meant that the FISA application should’ve been thrown out! In my opinion, these findings call into question the efficacy and veracity of every single FISA application and warrant that has been issued in the last six years.
Not only that, but these findings call into question anything and everything that James Comey has said about the process.
Unsure how to use twitter now. Don’t know enough to tweet about #Covid19. Don’t want to tweet about Trump. Instead I will try to spread things useful, comforting, or distracting (rather than contagious) during a really hard time. Today I’ll start with my social distance selfie. pic.twitter.com/HtP0oPep0e
— James Comey (@Comey) March 27, 2020
Will lying scrubby face be called on the carpet for this? He absolutely should be. Another one who needs to provide answers is Andrew McCabe.
Keep in mind, the errors and omissions found in the Carter Page FISA warrants were more than enough to have shown that A. Carter Page should not have been under surveillance, and B. The Steele Dossier was a load of crap.
With this new information, will Christopher Wray have MORE regrets? Will he come up with a NEW Fix-it checklist?
#FISA DOJ statement “No one was more appalled than the Attorney General at the way the FISA process was abused. This abuse resulted in one of the greatest political travesties in American history” @KerriKupecDOJ @CBSNews pic.twitter.com/ALdLezKcJx
— Catherine Herridge (@CBS_Herridge) March 31, 2020
Well, at least the FBI is “appalled.” That’s something I guess.
Here’s my idea regarding this new news about the FISA abuse:
Any pending FISA application must not proceed, nor should a judge even consider approving any warrant until ALL documentation and Woods Procedures are adhered to.
All FBI agents involved the above cases should be fired.
The judge(s) who approved those warrants should be removed from the FISA court forthwith.
Those are the only checklists the FBI and FISA court needs right now.
Welcome Instapundit Readers!
Feature Photo Credit: kalhh via Pixabay, cropped and modified
GWB says: Yep. We need to shut down this court and stifle its abusers.
GWB says: BTW, this sort of abuse is precisely why I side with the anti-red-flaggers. I do think we should have red-flag laws. But it HAS to prevent this sort of abuse, or provide a remedy for it that holds the abuser personally responsible*. And the FISA court should be handled the same way – either provide a method for true due process (like hiring an asshole ACLU type to act as defendant’s counsel, pointing out problems and holding FBI feet to the fire) or provide a way to personally hold abusers responsible.
(* I advocate a 4-12 hour requirement for a due process hearing, and an additional procedure for determining abuse if the due process hearing finds for the defendant, than happens within 4-12 hours. And criminal penalties for actual abuse.)
Scott says: And this news surprises NOONE that’s been paying attention… Good post Nina, and spot on GWB
[…] Ain’t Hell: Wednesday FGS, also, USS Theodore Roosevelt Has COVID-19 Outbreak Victory Girls: FISA Abuse Goes Beyond Carter Page Case Volokh Conspiracy: District Court Finds Bump Stock Ban May Constitute A Taking Weasel Zippers: […]
Milwaukee says: Yes, fire the agents involved and strip them of their pensions. Likewise for the judges. All members of the bar involved need to be permanently disbarred. Judges also need lose their pensions.
Bevo Francis says: In any bureaucracy, the people devoted to the benefit of the bureaucracy itself always get in control and those dedicated to the goals the bureaucracy is supposed to accomplish have less and less influence, and sometimes are eliminated entirely.[42]
He “Pournelle” eventually restated it as:
…in any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people: those who work to further the actual goals of the organization, and those who work for the organization itself. Examples in education would be teachers who work and sacrifice to teach children, vs. union representatives who work to protect any teacher including the most incompetent. The Iron Law states that in all cases, the second type of person will always gain control of the organization, and will always write the rules under which the organization functions.[
Rick Caird says: Christopher Wray should be immediately removed. He has never taken the damage and fraud in the FBI as a serious matter. He is only interested in the coverup.
Mike says: “All FBI agents involved the above cases should be fired.” And their pensions should be revoked.
Simple as That says: All of these people need to be in jail. The FBI agents, the lawyers involved, the judges involved, and Roberts who supposedly provides oversight to it. All of them are corrupt and all of them must be forcibly removed from power.
9 Comments