A “good friend” of former FBI Director James Comey said the bureau’s current chief “should be careful” about criticizing its old leadership.
Benjamin Wittes, who is the editor-in-chief of Lawfare, reacted late Tuesday to an FBI statement defending Director Christopher Wray as he faces pressure from Republicans to answer for what they view as a lack of transparency about the Russia investigation.
“Chris Wray should be careful before issuing statements like this about ‘prior leadership’ to check the dates on the FISA applications that the IG examined in his most recent interim report,” Wittes tweeted.
Chris Wray should be careful before issuing statements like this about “prior leadership” to check the dates on the FISA applications that the IG examined in his most recent interim report.#justsaying https://t.co/eIJnbeBzoh
— Benjamin Wittes (@benjaminwittes) May 5, 2020
Wittes was referring to recent revelations about problems with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act process, which stretched from Comey’s tenure ending in May 2017 through to the directorship of his successor, Wray.
DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz released a report late last year criticizing the Justice Department and the FBI for at least 17 “significant errors and omissions” related to the FISA warrants against Trump campaign associate Carter Page in 2016 and 2017 and for the bureau’s reliance on British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s unverified dossier.
A subsequent watchdog audit, which is not yet complete, found errors well beyond the Page case in 29 wiretap applications in terrorism and espionage cases. A Justice Department review found the FBI made material errors in at least two 2019 FISA applications.
Following a pointed letter from House Republicans, Brian Hale, the FBI’s assistant director for the Office of Public Affairs, released the statement on Tuesday that took a swipe at “prior FBI leadership” while stressing that Wray has fully cooperated with Justice Department inquiries into the Trump-Russia investigators.
“The Flynn investigation was initiated and conducted during this time period, under prior FBI leadership,” Hale said, referring to the case of former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn. “Since taking office, Director Wray has stressed the importance of strictly abiding by established processes, without exception. Director Wray remains firmly committed to addressing the failures under prior FBI leadership while maintaining the foundational principles of rigor, objectivity, accountability, and ownership in fulfilling the Bureau’s mission to protect the American people and defend the Constitution.”
Wittes denied that his comment reflected the opinions of Comey or anyone else as he responded to the Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway, who said in reaction to his tweet: “Professor Tick Tock Von Boom Boom, a close personal friend and information distributor of Comey and other Russia hoaxers, seems to be letting us know that those people do not like FBI’s Christopher Wray accurately acknowledging how much they messed up.”
“Swing and a miss,” Wittes said. “I am expressing my own mystification that — with the IG busily finding errors in a great number of recent FISAs — Wray feels confident describing the problems as confined to the period of prior leadership. I’m just not sure where that confidence comes from.”
Swing and a miss.
I am expressing my own mystification that—with the IG busily finding errors in a great number of recent FISAs—Wray feels confident describing the problems as confined to the period of prior leadership.
I’m just not sure where that confidence comes from. https://t.co/LaoXNtmWWh— Benjamin Wittes (@benjaminwittes) May 6, 2020
“I agree that some of the rot continues to be there, and I’m pleasantly surprised that you’re walking back from your ‘nothing to see here’ approach of last week,” Hemingway said in a follow-up tweet.
“On the Flynn stuff? I’m not. I very much stand by what I wrote on the Flynn matter. My point here is about FISA,” Wittes said in reply.
Flynn, who served as Trump’s national security adviser for less than a month, pleaded guilty in 2017 to lying to the FBI about his conversations with a Russian diplomat before Trump entered the White House.
While working with his previous legal team, Flynn cooperated with special counsel Robert Mueller’s team in the Russia investigation, which ultimately was unable to establish a criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia.
His new team, led by former federal prosecutor Sidney Powell, has been more aggressive in fighting the charges. Flynn told the court earlier this year that he was “innocent of this crime,” regarding lying to federal agents. He filed to withdraw his guilty plea after the Justice Department asked the judge to sentence him to up to six months in prison — though afterward, the department said probation would also be appropriate. Powell is pressing for the dismissal of his case by arguing that the FBI unfairly treated Flynn.
