Rep. Devin Nunes, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, on Thursday demanded accountability in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act process to deal with the “terror” in the FBI and Justice Department.
In an interview with Fox News, Nunes, R-Calif., was asked to comment on “The Threat: How the FBI Protects America in the Age of Terror and Trump,” the new book by former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who is engaged in an explosive media tour.
The book title, Nunes quipped, has the source of the “terror” mixed up.
“I had not heard the name of the book until you said it. It’s interesting they talk about in an ‘Age of Terror.’ What I think most Republicans agree with … the terror came from the FBI and Department of Justice who used a document, dirt, dug up by the Clinton campaign to start an investigation,” he said.
Nunes was referring to longstanding concern that there may have been rampant bias in the upper levels of the FBI against President Trump. The “dirt” is the infamous dossier, compiled by ex-British spy Christopher Steele. When Nunes was chairman of the House Intelligence Committee last year, the GOP majority of the panel released a memo that asserted the so-called “Trump dossier,” which contained unverified claims about Trump’s ties to Russia, was used by the FBI to help obtain the FISA warrants to spy on onetime Trump campaign aide Carter Page, but key information, including its author’s anti-Trump bias and Democratic benefactors, was left out.
McCabe was one of the top officials who signed off one of these FISA applications.
“We know for a fact the FBI knew at the time of the appointment of the special counsel from the lead investigators that there was no there there. Meaning they had nothing on Trump,” Nunes said, referring to testimony by former FBI lawyer Lisa Page. “They had no collusion. They never did. Why? Because it was propaganda from the Russians given to the Clinton campaign, picked up by our FBI. It’s an embarrassment and it is a terror. And they did try to attempt a coup and it should never have been done and this needs to be righted. It’s a wrong that needs to be righted.”
Nunes said “all of them that were involved in the development of the FISA” should be held accountable when shown a clip of Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham saying with certainty his committee would speak with McCabe about what transpired during the 2016 election. “Whether it was a conspiracy or not, whether it was abuse of power, I don’t know. But they should be held accountable,” he added.
Nunes also said the FISA Court, which granted the surveillance warrants, should hold the FBI accountable for misleading them about the dossier. The congressman warned that not doing so would do further damage to the credibility of the FISA process.
In his first TV interview since getting fired last year, McCabe told CBS News that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein talked about secretly using a “wire” to record conversations with Trump after the president fired FBI Director James Comey in May 2017. He also claimed Rosenstein told Justice Department officials he could convince Cabinet members to help invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from the White House.
In the ensuing fallout, several top Republicans and at least one Democrat in Congress have called for McCabe to come in for testimony. Some have pressed for Rosenstein to also face questions. The Justice Department responded to McCabe’s “60 Minutes” interview, claiming his version of events were “inaccurate and factually incorrect.”
Nunes said the Justice Department and FBI can “clean house” when William Barr takes over as attorney general. Barr was just confirmed by the Senate Thursday afternoon.
Once Barr is in place, Nunes has said in recent days he plans to make criminal referrals as part of a congressional investigation into alleged political bias in the FBI.
