The top GOP lawmakers blasted the FISA court for appointing an Obama-era DOJ official who had previously denied that the FBI had done anything wrong in its handling of a spy warrant against Carter Page.
The top Republicans on the House Committee on Oversight and Reform wrote a scathing letter on Thursday to the judge in charge of the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Court regarding his appointment of an Obama administration lawyer who has denied that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has abused its spy powers.
The letter from Reps. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Mark Meadows, R-N.C., blasted James Boasberg, who heads the court that approves federal spy warrants, for tapping David Kris to advise the spy court on how to address the findings of DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz. Kris is a former Obama Department of Justice (DOJ) official who falsely claimed that the FBI had done nothing wrong in surveiling Trump campaign officials during and after the 2016 presidential campaign. In a nearly 500-page report issued late last year, Horowitz detailed myriad instances in which the FBI violated the law and its internal policies in how it sought permission to secretly spy on Trump campaign affiliates.
Jordan and Meadows noted to Boasberg that Kris denied that any Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) abuses occurred, falsely claimed that the FBI would have told the FISA court all relevant information about Christopher Steele and Carter Page, and even attacked the investigation conducted by Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., the entirety of which was corroborated by Horowitz’s findings.
Prior to the release of Horowitz’s report, the FISA court had been repeatedly informed that the FISA spy warrant application against Page was riddled with false and incomplete information. The FISA court, headed at the time by Rosemary Collyer, ignored the warnings and did nothing to address the rampant abuse of its authority.
“Mr. Kris has frequently defended the FBI’s existing electronic surveillance practices,” the lawmakers wrote. “In February 2018, as the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) prepared to release a memorandum of findings about FISA abuses, Mr. Kris boasted about the rigorious process for FISA warrants.”