Former FBI General Counsel James Baker declined to say on Friday whether the bureau used an unverified dossier to obtain Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants to surveil anyone beyond former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
Claiming to be unfamiliar with what the government has revealed, Baker opted not to confirm or deny it when asked during an interview on MSNBC.
“I don’t think I should comment on that. I don’t know what else the government has confirmed,” he said. “I don’t want to confirm or deny anything about other potential FISA applications.”
The dossier, packed with salacious and unverified claims about President Trump’s ties to Russia, was written by British ex-spy Christopher Steele and formed a key part of the FBI’s FISA applications used to justify surveillance warrants against Page. The first warrant application was submitted in October 2016, after Page left the Trump campaign, and three renewals followed at three-month intervals, including in January, April, and June 2017. The FISA documents were released with heavy redactions in July 2018.
Amid allegations of a political scheme to undermine Trump, Inspector General Michael Horowitz announced an investigation last year into the Justice Department’s and FBI’s compliance with legal requirements as well as policies and procedures in applications filed with the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court related to Page. He is expected to complete that inquiry in May or June.
Over the past couple weeks, Baker has defended the FBI’s handling of the dossier, saying “we took it seriously” but “we didn’t necessarily take it literally” and did not treat it as “literally true in every respect.” Despite his confidence that the FBI’s conduct was “lawful,” Baker admitted last week that he is “nervous” about Horowitz’s investigation.
Republican investigators allege there was FISA abuse because the FBI did not disclose to the FISA court information about the Democrats who paid for the creation of the dossier and Steele’s anti-Trump bias when the bureau applied to spy on Page, who was investigated by special counsel Robert Mueller for his interactions with Russians but was never charged. Baker claims including that information in the applications would have been “gratuitous.”
On Friday, Baker said Steele was a “reliable” source, but the FBI still worked to vet his information.
“Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd asked Baker if he believes the FISA warrant applications against Page would have been approved without the dossier.
“Based on my recollection of the facts at the time that are mostly redacted now in the FISA application, my answer to that question is I think the answer is yes, that I think there was sufficient probable cause in the application even without that information,” he replied.
Baker, who resigned from the FBI last year, is under criminal investigation for alleged unauthorized leaks to the media. He has been subject to harsh criticism by President Trump and his allies.
“Former FBI top lawyer James Baker just admitted involvement in FISA Warrant and further admitted there were IRREGULARITIES in the way the Russia probe was handled,” Trump tweeted in January. “They relied heavily on the unverified Trump ‘Dossier’ paid for by the DNC & Clinton Campaign, & funded through a big Crooked Hillary law firm, represented by her lawyer Michael Sussmann (do you believe this?) who worked Baker hard & gave him Oppo Research for ‘a Russia probe.’ This meeting, now exposed, is the subject of Senate inquiries and much more. An Unconstitutional Hoax.”
The FBI suspended its relationship with Steele in October 2016 for unauthorized contact with the media. Despite this, the FBI maintained an unofficial backchannel with Steele up to at least November 2017 via Justice Department official Bruce Ohr.
