The Hill’s Editor-in-Chief Bob Cusack said Friday that a new report from the Justice Department inspector general is a “game-changer” in efforts to reform a surveillance court that played a key role in the FBI’s probe into Trump campaign associates.
“The inspector general report is a game-changer,” Cusack told Hill.TV, noting that the report found no evidence of political bias in the FBI’s investigation into the Trump campaign and Russian interference in 2016.
“They found some major problems that the FBI director couldn’t really answer and has now got to implement reforms,” Cusack added.
Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz on Monday released a long-awaited report that found FBI agents were not motivated by political bias in opening up investigations into associates of the Trump campaign.
The nearly 500-page report, however, was critical of certain aspects of the FBI’s handling of the investigation, particularly how the bureau used the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to apply for surveillance warrants.
The inspector general outlined 17 “significant inaccuracies and omissions” in the FBI’s court application to monitor former Trump campaign aide Carter Page.
FBI Director Christopher Wray issued a lengthy statement in response to Horowitz’s report, saying the bureau is implementing more than 40 “corrective steps,” from revising the FISA application process to changing how it collects information about sources.
President Trump and his allies seized on the report’s criticism of the FBI. They have long claimed that the bureau acted improperly and was biased against him in during the 2016 campaign.
The report’s findings garnered some bipartisan support for overhauling the FISA court.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Thursday that his panel would look at legislation to implement more “check and balances” in the FISA hearing process.
Following a Judiciary hearing on the report, Sen. Christopher Coons (D-Del.) said, “One of the only points I’ve heard with bipartisan agreement today is a renewed interest in reforming the FISA process.”
The FISA court is made up of 11 judges who serve seven-year terms and are selected by the chief justice of the Supreme Court. It was created by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978.
—Tess Bonn
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