Fighting back against the weaponizing of the FBI for political purposes

I had the great honor of serving as an Air Force pilot for 14 years. During this time, I was frequently reminded of the special power vested in those who represent and fight for our nation. But with that authority came the special responsibility to exercise that power in accordance with the law as well as the necessity for transparency to the American people.

The same is true for those who lead our law enforcement and intelligence agencies. They also have enormous power. This power comes with the same requirement for transparency and accountability. Unfortunately, too many of the previous leaders of these agencies have failed in this responsibility, essentially weaponizing their organizations for raw political purposes.

{mosads}Those of us who sit on the House Intelligence Committee are committed to revealing their actions and holding them accountable to the American people. We are not at the end or our revelations. There is more we want to learn and more we’re going to share.

But let’s review some of what we now know.

Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, in partnership with the Democratic National Committee commissioned the political opposition research firm Fusion GPS to produce a report from which to publicly smear the Republican nominee for president, Donald Trump. Fusion GPS hired a self-identified foreign agent Christopher Steele who then compiled a series of allegations on then candidate Donald Trump and his campaign team based on whispers from his contacts inside Russia. These reports came to be known as the Steel Dossier. Extraordinarily, the dossier was shared with multiple individuals at the FBI and Department of Justice, with the express purpose of sparking an FBI investigation into candidate Trump. With knowledge that the FBI opened an inquiry into the dossier’s claims, Steele and his handlers at Fusion GPS began shopping the dossier’s claims and the existence of a formal FBI investigation to their contacts in the media. When the Steele Dossier became public, the committee began investigating the dossier and its claims as part of our ongoing investigation into Russia’s state-sponsored meddling into American politics.

After more than a year of investigating, the only fact contained in the dossier that we know is true is that Carter Page went to Russia to speak at the same venue President Obama had addressed before, a fact that was widely reported. Evidence of the lack of verification of the dossier is best illustrated when I asked senior FBI officials testifying before our committee again and again, “Tell me anything in the dossier that we know is true.” The answer was always the same, “I don’t know how to answer that question.”

And yet – and this is the crux of the matter – under FBI Director James Comey and his leadership team, the FBI used the dossier to spy on a private American citizen who was involved with a candidate that many of them opposed. In doing so, they hid from the FISA court the fact that the dossier had been paid for by Hillary Clinton and the DNC. They vouched for the reliability of the dossier before the court based on the credibility of the Mr. Steele, even after he had proven untrustworthy by breaking their agreement and talking to the press. They then spent the next year trying to hide this information from the American people. Only under threat of subpoenas and through court rulings was much of this critical information provided to our committee.

Meanwhile senior leaders at the DOJ were secretly meeting with officials from Fusion GPS as well as Mr. Steele, feeding the Department this ‘salacious and unverified’ information. We have also learned that this same information was also being funneled through officials at the Department of State.

Perhaps most troubling of all has been the unmasking of the names of private citizens by political appointees and the leaking of highly sensitive information for political purposes, the surveillance of Erik Prince being but one example.

Such malfeasance cannot be ignored or swept under the rug. This is information the American people deserve to know. This is information they need to know. Yet too often, those who may have their actions called into question have demeaned this commitment to inform our citizens. Director Comey, for example, has called these the efforts of ‘small people’ who want to tear down the FBI. But the reality is, we’re trying to do just the opposite. We want to defend the honor of these agencies and the good people who work there. These public servants don’t want their organizations to be turned into the political arm of either party nor do they want to be forced to defend the political opportunism of their senior leadership.

To protect the reputation of these agencies that have been vested with such power we require the same thing that we require of our military leaders. Honesty and accountability. And most important of all, we must ensure that this power is exercised to protect the rights of American citizens, not on behalf of a political cause.

Stewart represents Utah’s 2nd District and is a member of the Intelligence Committee.