Sen. Lindsey Graham said he believes a prison sentence is needed to restore the American people’s confidence in the U.S. justice system in the face of alleged government surveillance misconduct.
In an interview Tuesday with Fox News host Sean Hannity, the South Carolina Republican called for accountability for the Justice Department and FBI officials who used an unverified dossier compiled by British ex-spy Christopher Steele to obtain warrants to electronically monitor onetime Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
“Every American should be concerned about the fact that the Department of Justice and the FBI knew that the source of the document had a bias, and they did nothing to ensure the document was reliable. It’s not reliable to this day. If the court does not clear this up and take corrective action, then why do you expect people in the future to be deterred? If somebody doesn’t go to jail, and if the court doesn’t hold those who lied to the court accountable, then we will have missed a great opportunity to restore the rule of law,” Graham said.
Little is known of the contents of Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report on possible Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act abuses, which was submitted to Attorney General William Barr last week. Still, that has not stopped Hannity from harping on a near nightly basis about how he believes the FBI committed “premeditated fraud” before the FISA court, Horowitz found the Page warrants to be illegally obtained, and indictments are inevitable.
In responding to Graham, Hannity said he would take it a “step further,” suggesting “we might as well just shred the Constitution” if inadequate corrective action is taken because it would be indicative of a “dual justice system.”
“That will be a bad day for America to let this crap go unaddressed,” Graham replied.
Republicans have alleged the FBI and the Justice Department misled the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court about the dossier’s Democratic benefactors, which included Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign and the Democratic National Committee, and that its author’s anti-Trump bias was left out of the FISA applications. Democrats argue the Justice Department and the FBI met the rigor, transparency, and evidentiary basis for probable cause.
As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Graham has become a leading figure demanding changes be made so that Americans’ rights are protected. He told Hannity last week that the FISA court needs to “take corrective action” after being “misled” by the DOJ and the FBI, or else “we need to probably do away” with it. Page, who left the Trump campaign before the first FISA warrant was granted in October 2016, is an American citizen who was never charged as a part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
Hannity, who said he is getting “antsy” to see if Horowitz’s report confirms “what I know to be true,” has been on the extreme end of a spirited discourse among conservatives about how to approach the investigation. Trump’s staunchest defenders view it as being a building block to unraveling an attempted “coup” to take down Trump’s candidacy and later his presidency. Among the former officials often named for possible indictments include former FBI Director James Comey, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, and former FBI agent Peter Strzok.
The debate over whether to raise expectations for Horowitz’s report, which is expected to be released in the coming weeks, was encapsulated on Friday when Hannity interviewed former Rep. Trey Gowdy, who is now a Fox News contributor. While Hannity argued that indictments and jail time are a certainty, Gowdy struck a cautious tone, explaining how prosecutors would need to find an appropriate criminal statute if their objective is an indictment. Gowdy has repeatedly warned his GOP friends who are eager for the “indictment of certain high-level officials” that they may be disappointed and has stated that indictments should not be the only standard by which U.S. officials should be held accountable.
