a common sense approach to a liberal world
IG interrupts ongoing audit to inform FBI it does “not have confidence” in the agency’s compliance with Woods Procedures
Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General Michael Horowitz has told FBI Director Christopher Wray that, as a result of a recent audit, he does “not have confidence that the FBI has executed its Woods Procedures in compliance with FBI policy.”
The presiding judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court, James Boasberg, issued a 19-page opinion and order on March 5, examining possible remedies for the material errors and omissions made by the FBI in its surveillance application on former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page.
According to Boasberg, the “frequency and seriousness of these errors” in the Page case, combined with the sensitive nature and high-level review of the case by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and FBI “have called into question the reliability of the information proffered in other FBI applications.”Continue Reading
On Feb. 14, 2020, the Department of Justice (DOJ) sent a letter to the attorneys for former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, notifying them that the department would not be pursuing criminal charges against McCabe for matters raised in a referral made by DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz.Continue Reading
Note: This post was originally written on February 7, 2020
While President Donald Trump’s acquittal by the Senate on Feb. 5 dominated the news this week, there were three other significant developments that received little attention.Continue Reading
AG reportedly assigns US attorney to review Ukraine information on Biden; DOJ disputes Stone sentencing recommendation
On Feb. 9, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said during an appearance on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” that he intends to call witnesses regarding the many problematic issues surrounding Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) abuses that were highlighted in the Department of Justice Inspector General’s report.Continue Reading
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Feb. 4 posed a question in the Senate that Chief Justice John Roberts refused to read out loud last week in the chamber during the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump.
In his question, Paul named a former National Security Council official widely alleged to have been the whistleblower regarding a phone call between Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, which ultimately led to the president’s impeachment in the House.Continue Reading
In a declassified Jan. 7, 2020, order released by Presiding FISA Court Judge James Boasberg, it was revealed that the Department of Justice (DOJ) has determined that two of the four FISA applications on former Trump 2016 presidential campaign adviser Carter Page were “not valid.”
The court wrote that it had received notice of “material misstatements and omissions” in the FISA applications made on Page, apparently with respect to the final two FISA renewals. The court also noted that the DOJ had made the assessment that with regard to these two applications, “there was insufficient predication to establish probable cause to believe that [Carter] Page was acting as an agent of a foreign power.”Continue Reading
DOJ internal investigation reveals the special agent was supervisor of Crossfire Hurricane, played key role in problematic FISA application
One of the special FBI agents who interviewed President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, at the White House in January 2017, played a much bigger role in the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign—known as Crossfire Hurricane—than previously assumed, a report by Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz reveals.Continue Reading
FISA Court questions whether ‘information contained in other FBI applications is reliable’
Less than a week after Department of Justice Inspector General (IG) Michael Horowitz released his investigation detailing FBI misconduct in obtaining a FISA spy warrant on a Trump 2016 presidential campaign aide, the presiding judge of the FISA Court, Rosemary Collyer, issued a Four-Page Response Order on Dec. 17, 2019.Continue Reading