Department of Justice opens investigation into alleged FISA abuses by the FBI

  Just over a month ago Jeff Sessions announced he was directing the Department of Justice Inspector General to open an investigation into allegations the FBI misled the FISA court to obtain a warrant to spy on Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. We are now learning, according to this story, that General Michael Horowitz has opened up the investigation. Here is more:

The Justice Department’s inspector general is investigating Republicans’ allegations that prosecutors and FBI agents misled a federal judge so they could track a Donald Trump campaign adviser with ties to Russia.

In an announcement Wednesday, DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz said his office will review what DOJ and FBI personnel knew when they asked the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, in the midst of a political campaign, for a warrant to monitor the communications of Carter Page, an American and an adviser to then-presidential candidate Trump.

The IG announcement was prompted by allegations from House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) and other Republicans that federal investigators omitted key information from their October 2016 application for the warrant to monitor Page. Nunes wrote in a memo made public last month that officials failed to disclose that a private intelligence dossier they used to make their case was financed in part by Democrats.

  Of course the “private intelligence dossier” is the mostly discredited Russian dossier which was paid for by the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign and the allegation is that the FBI did not bother to tell the FISA court who paid for the dossier and also that it was not independently verified as required.

  This is a step in the right direction but let’s hope this is a legitimate investigation and not part of a whitewashing designed to placate the base by making it appear as if the Department of Justice is doing something. Jeff Session is part of the establishment and I do not trust him to do the right thing.

malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium