Photo: Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz
Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz
announced Wednesday he will review potential Foreign Intelligence Surveillance
Act (FISA) abuses by both the Justice Department and the FBI, following
requests from Congress and Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
The Office of the Inspector General released a statement
Wednesday outlining the start of the review.
“The OIG will initiate a review that will examine the
Justice Department’s and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s compliance with
legal requirements, and with applicable DOJ and FBI policies and procedures, in
applications filed with the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC)
relating to a certain U.S. person,” the statement obtained by Fox News read.
“As part of this examination, the OIG also will review information that was
known to the DOJ and the FBI at the time the applications were filed from or
about an alleged FBI confidential source.”
The OIG statement added that Horowitz also would “review
the DOJ’s and FBI’s relationship and communications with the alleged source as
they relate to the FISC applications.”
The statement continued, “If circumstances warrant, the
OIG will consider including other issues that may arise during the course of
the review.”
Last month, Sessions directed Horowitz to probe the
allegations of government surveillance abuse, in light of memos released on
Capitol Hill by the House Intelligence Committee about FBI and DOJ efforts to
obtain FISA warrants to surveil Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
“We believe the Department of Justice must adhere to the
high standards in the FISA court,” Sessions said in February at a news
conference. “Yes it will be investigated. And I think that’s just the
appropriate thing the inspector general will take that as one of the matters
he’ll deal with.”
House Intel Republicans released a memo in late
February detailing the DOJ's and FBI’s surveillance of Page, saying the
infamous anti-Trump dossier funded by Democrats “formed an essential part” of the
application to spy on him.
The dossier, authored by former British spy Christopher
Steele and commissioned by Fusion GPS, was funded in part by the Democratic
National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign through the law
firm Perkins Coie. It included salacious and unverified allegations about
President Trump’s connections to Russia.
The Republican memo stated that former FBI Deputy
Director Andrew McCabe testified that “no surveillance warrant would have been
sought” from the FISA court “without the Steele dossier information.”
The memo also said Steele, who worked as an FBI
informant, eventually was cut off from the bureau for what the FBI described as
the most serious of violations, “an unauthorized disclosure to the media of his
relationship with the FBI.”
The memo noted that the FBI and DOJ obtained “one initial
FISA warrant” targeting Page and three FISA renewals from the FISC. The statute
required that every 90 days, a FISA order on an American citizen “must be
reviewed.”
Former FBI Director James Comey signed three FISA
applications for Page, while McCabe, current Deputy Attorney General Rod
Rosenstein who leads the Russia probe, former Deputy Attorney General Sally
Yates and former Acting Deputy Attorney General Dana Boente signed at least
one, according the Republican memo.
Democrats, then, released a rebuttal memo.
The White House said the GOP memo raised “serious
concerns about the integrity of decisions made at the highest levels of the
Department of Justice and the FBI to use the government’s most intrusive
surveillance tools against American citizens.”
Republican lawmakers and Sessions had been pressing
Horowitz to probe the alleged FISA abuses.
Just this week, FBI Director Wray announced plans to
“double the number” of agents handing records for the House Judiciary Committee
after it subpoenaed the Justice Department for documents on FISA, the Clinton
email investigation and the firing of McCabe.
Over the last year, Horowitz has been conducting a review
of the FBI's and DOJ’s actions related to the investigation into Clinton’s use
of a private email server while she was secretary of state. A final report on
the investigation is expected in several months.
