A Republican senator said he would vote to repeal the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act following a scathing report that found serious problems in how the FBI sought to wiretap a former Trump campaign adviser.
Utah Sen. Mike Lee, a longtime critic of the FISA program, told One America News Network on Saturday that the audit released last month by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz was a wake-up call to “stop allowing the American people to be subjected to this type of abuse and manipulation.”
“We should all be scared to death,” Lee said. “We shouldn’t rest until FISA is either repealed entirely or drastically, dramatically reformed.”
Horowitz’s team found 17 “significant errors and omissions” in the FBI’s efforts to obtain a warrant and three renewals from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to surveil onetime Trump campaign aide Carter Page electronically as part of its counterintelligence investigation into members of President Trump’s campaign and their ties to Russia. Page, an American citizen, was never charged with any wrongdoing.
Horowitz did not find evidence that it was motivated by political bias in the opening of its counterintelligence investigation, but he was unable to say if bias tainted the process of obtaining FISA warrants against Page. Following the release of Horowitz’s report, Attorney General William Barr said the FBI had “insufficient” evidence to justify steps taken in the Trump-Russia investigation and is overseeing a related criminal inquiry by U.S. Attorney John Durham.
FBI Director Christopher Wray ordered more than 40 “corrective steps” to address the inspector general’s recommendations. The FISA court also rebuked the FBI for its handling of applications to wiretap Page and ordered a review of all FISA filings handled by Kevin Clinesmith, the FBI lawyer who altered a key document about Page.
The FISA court, which was established in 1978 to oversee the approval of warrants sought by federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies, has been criticized by privacy advocates for allowing the government to make secret and unchallenged arguments before its judges.
In his nine years in the Senate, Lee has been a leading supporter of finding ways to install more protections for Americans related to surveillance without sacrificing security. During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing with Horowitz last month, Democrats and Republicans recognized Lee was right to point out there were issues with the FISA program.
At the same hearing, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, the Republican chairman of the panel, said he has “serious concerns about whether the FISA court can continue unless there’s fundamental reform.”
In a recent interview with the Washington Examiner, Lee said he is “convinced” there are other instances of FISA “abuse” and outlined a combination of legislation and oversight.
