Rep. Matt Gaetz said on Monday “compelling evidence” of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act abuse is coming out in a matter of days or weeks.
The Florida Republican was referring to the alleged existence of unreleased transcripts of recorded conversations between FBI informants and former Trump campaign associate George Papadopoulos.
“I believe we are days, if not weeks, away for the most in compelling evidence in the biggest political scandal in American history,” Gaetz said on Fox News.
Former Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., said on Sunday the FBI withheld “game changer” transcript material about Papadopoulos from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court when filing applications targeting former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
At issue is that the FBI appears to have declined to present to the FISA Court information that shows a person did not do something wrong. Gaetz said this means the government only presented evidence that would cast Trump campaign associates in a “bad light.”
“They had evidence presumably that was against Papadopoulos and for him. What they won’t be able to defend is that they never presented that evidence to the FISA court,” Gaetz said.
For several days, Republicans have been building up anticipation for President Trump to declassify key documents related to the Russia investigation. Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., told Fox News on Monday that he spoke to Trump about it recently and that declassification is “right around the corner.” GOP investigators have also griped about the FBI’s reliance on an unverified dossier to obtain the Page warrant and three renewals, while the Democrats have defended the bureau’s actions.
All this comes as Attorney General William Barr says he is working closely with Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz in his FISA abuse probe, which is expected to wrap up in the coming weeks, and has tasked U.S. Attorney John Durham with reviewing the origins of the counterintelligence investigation into Trump’s campaign.
“This is what Attorney General Barr means when he talks about them putting their thumb on the scale. The government has an obligation before a secret court with no defense attorney to present all of the exculpatory evidence that they are provided, all of the exculpatory evidence,” Gaetz said.
With the expectation of the transcript materials coming out, Gaetz said former FBI Director James Comey, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and former CIA Director John Brennan “are all going to say Papadopoulos might’ve known he was being surveilled when he said none of this stuff was actually happening. But there is still no excuse for why they didn’t go before court.”
Papadopoulos was never charged with conspiracy with the Russians. He was sentenced to 14 days in jail for lying to the FBI about his conversations with London-based professor Joseph Mifsud, who told Papadopoulos that the Russians had damaging information about Hillary Clinton, Trump’s Democratic rival in the 2016 election. Stefan Halper, a Cambridge professor who was working with the FBI as an informant, and Azra Turk, a woman posing as Halper’s assistant and using an alias, met with Papadopoulos in 2016 during the presidential campaign.
