The FBI informed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Friday of the steps it is taking, including “repeated messaging,” to ensure valid FISA warrant applications following a scathing Justice Department watchdog report.
A lengthy filing details a timetable of reforms and training the FBI will take to address concerns about serious errors and missteps found in the bureau’s efforts to wiretap Carter Page, an American foreign policy adviser who helped Trump’s 2016 campaign.
The FBI just met the deadline set by then-presiding FISA court Judge Rosemary Collyer in a public order released on Dec. 17, in which she demanded the bureau explain “what it has done, and plans to do, to ensure that the statement of facts in each FBI application accurately and completely reflects information possessed by the FBI that is material to any issue presented by the application.”
Collyer, who has since stepped down, was responding to DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz report, released on Dec. 9, on his investigation into allegations of FISA abuse raised by President Trump’s Republican allies. The independent agency watchdog lambasted the Justice Department and FBI for 17 “significant errors and omissions” related to secret surveillance court filings targeting Page, which relied upon allegations contained within British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s salacious and unverified dossier, stretching from October 2016 to the summer of 2017.
The warrant applications were approved by a number of high-ranking officials, including FBI Director James Comey, FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, all of whom have since left the government. In testimony about his report, Horowitz later faulted the FBI’s “entire chain of command” in seeking the warrants.
Dana Boente is the only signatory still remaining in active government service, working as the Trump administration’s top lawyer at the FBI starting in January 2018.
FBI Director Christopher Wray ordered more than 40 “corrective steps” to address the inspector general’s recommendations, among them 12 related to the FISA process, and outlined in a declaration attached to the Friday filing actions that he has taken already and will make in the future, including addressing the bureau’s policies surrounding the use of confidential human sources.
Steele was one such source until the former head of MI6’s Russia desk was cut off in November 2016 following the discovery that he had been improperly providing information to journalists while working with them, but he remained in contact with the bureau through a back channel facilitated by Justice Department official Bruce Ohr.
Wray stressed the importance of striking a “balance” between these actions and protecting the security of the public.
In order to emphasize the “importance” of compliance with these changes being implemented, Wray said he distributed a video to the entire workforce and will follow up with an all-employee email on Jan. 13. “FBI leadership believes that the repeated messaging to its workforce of the absolute need for accuracy and completeness in all FISA applications” and the implementation of “corrective actions” will “result in a substantially renewed institutional focus on ensuring accuracy, transparency, and completeness in all FISA applications,” Wray said.
The deadline Wray set for the completion of training, including “testing to confirm that personnel understand the expectations and the materials,” is April 30.
The FISA court, which was established in 1978 to oversee the approval of warrants sought by federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies, has been criticized by privacy advocates for allowing the government to make secret and unchallenged arguments before its judges.
Horowitz’s report prompted outrage on Capitol Hill.
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, the Republican chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said he has “serious concerns about whether the FISA court can continue unless there’s fundamental reform.” In a recent interview with the Washington Examiner, Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee said he is “convinced” there are other instances of FISA “abuse” and outlined a combination of legislation and oversight.
The FISA court also ordered last month a review of all FISA filings handled by Kevin Clinesmith, the FBI lawyer who altered a key document about Page and was referred to the Justice Department for a criminal investigation.
Page, who was suspected to be a Russian asset, was never charged with any wrongdoing.
