The FBI pushed back on reporting Tuesday that said an FBI agent who testified to joint task force of the House Judiciary and House Oversight Committees last week told lawmakers the bureau leaked news stories in order to obtain warrants under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
Special Agent Jonathan Moffa “more or less admitted that the FBI/DOJ have previously leaked info to the press and then used stories from the press as justifications for FISA warrants,” a source who took part in Friday’s interview told the Daily Caller News Foundation. A source later told Fox News that Moffa admitted it “had been a practice in the past.”
Those reports followed an ominous tweet from Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., on Monday, referring to Moffa’s comments. “We’ve learned NEW information suggesting our suspicions are true: FBI/DOJ have previously leaked info to the press, and then used those same press stories as a separate source to justify FISA’s,” he wrote. “Unreal. Tomorrow’s Bruce Ohr interview is even more critical. Did he ever do this?”
We’ve learned NEW information suggesting our suspicions are true: FBI/DOJ have previously leaked info to the press, and then used those same press stories as a separate source to justify FISA’s
Unreal. Tomorrow’s Bruce Ohr interview is even more critical. Did he ever do this?
— Mark Meadows (@RepMarkMeadows) August 28, 2018
However, both those reports were later updated with strong denials by government officials.
An FBI official told the DCNF that the initial claims Moffa’s testimony were “just not true.”
Meanwhile, an FBI official told Fox News that the initial account of what Moffa said was not correct. Another source familiar with the testimony told Fox News that the agent said the FBI keeps track of open source reports about their cases, adding that when Moffa was asked whether a FISA application would reference a news report, Moffa said it’s possible but the FBI tries to find better information.
The source said Moffa was not speaking about any case in particular and he did not suggest it was common practice at the FBI.
Meadows also clarified his tweet, but stood by his claims that the FBI leaks to the media to bolster warrant applications.
“Jonathan Moffa made it clear to the committee the FBI routinely uses media reports to corroborate analytic work product. We have emails and texts plainly showing the FBI leaks to the media, raising major red flags. If FBI executives want the American people to believe they haven’t used leaks to their advantage, they are not being honest,” Meadows said in a statement.
Both House committees are interviewing Bruce Ohr, a Department of Justice official who has recently been a target of President Trump’s and Republicans over his ties to Trump dossier author Christopher Steele, behind closed doors on Tuesday.
Ohr’s wife, Nellie, was hired by Fusion GPS during the presidential campaign to help conduct research on then-candidate Trump. It was revealed in October 2017 that the Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee had paid for the research that led to the dossier compiled by Steele, a former British intelligence officer.
House Republicans have questioned whether the FBI abused its surveillance authority as agents used the dossier, which has unverified claims about Trump’s ties to Russia, in applications to obtain FISA warrants against Page. While the FBI cited a Yahoo! News article that relied on Steele as a source, there is no evidence that the FBI was a source for the story.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect the FBI’s pushback on the initial reports.
