Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., says he will ask Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to investigate possible abuse of the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court during the 2016 election.
Noting that President Trump is “down” on the FISA court, Graham, who is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told reporters on Thursday he will make a call to ask, “‘Would you please look and see what happened?’ because I don’t want to lose the FISA program.”
As the chief justice, Roberts has the power to appoint judges to the FISA court.
Last February, the House Intelligence Committee, then led by Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., released a memo asserting the so-called Trump dossier, which contained unverified claims about Trump’s ties to Russia, was used by the FBI to help obtain a FISA warrant and three renewals to spy on one-time Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. But key information, including its author’s anti-Trump bias and Democratic benefactors, was left out.
Republicans have often cited the use of the dossier as misinformation used to improperly monitor Trump and his campaign during the months leading up to the 2016 presidential election while Democrats argued in a rebuttal memo that the FISA process was not abused and the Justice Department and FBI “met the rigor, transparency, and evidentiary basis needed to meet FISA’s probable cause requirement.” Earlier this year, Nunes called on the FISA court to hold the FBI accountable for misleading them about the dossier, arguing that not doing so would do further damage to the credibility of the FISA process.
In March, Graham announced a reignited investigation by his committee into alleged FISA abuse.
Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz announced the initiation of a FISA abuse investigation in March 2018 after requests from both then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Republican members in Congress. He is expected to wrap up by May or June. Attorney General William Barr told Congress on Wednesday he was “working very closely” with the Horowitz as they both conduct investigations into the investigators who ran the Trump-Russia investigation at the Justice Department and FBI.
