“Sloppiness” is a term often used to describe a rushed paint job, a dropped pass, or barbecue that isn’t cooked low and slow. But in the case of former FBI Director James Comey, it’s also his word for the abuse of power that took place under his leadership.
The report released last week by Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz outlines the series of serious mistakes made by the FBI in the counterintelligence investigation of the Trump campaign. Chief among them is the agency’s abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. That law seeks to prevent exploitation of the government’s surveillance powers. To that end, it created the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, or FISA court, to oversee surveillance requests in the name of national security.
In short, intelligence agencies and federal law enforcement submit applications to the FISA court and, based on the information provided, the court can choose whether to grant permission to monitor an American citizen. To make a fair decision, the FISA court relies on honest, accurate, and complete information — a standard that clearly was not met in the applications to surveil Trump campaign aide Carter Page.
The inspector general found seven mistakes in the original application and an additional 10 in the three renewals. These weren’t typos — they were intentional lies and omissions that misled the FISA court so it would issue a warrant. Making matters worse, the FISA court was kept in the dark even when new and exculpatory information came to light.
This blatant abuse should set off alarm bells for every American. Our nation’s premier law enforcement agency used its authorities to conduct surveillance on a political campaign unlawfully. It lied to obtain warrants to surveil an American citizen. And the agency’s top officials have repeatedly denied wrongdoing.
For FISA to serve the purpose it was intended, it requires a great deal of trust from the American people. Gen. Michael Hayden spent two decades in the top ranks of our country’s most secretive agencies, including as the director of both the CIA and National Security Agency. He wrote a book about his experience in the CIA, titled, Playing to the Edge, meaning never going over the line — but using every inch of power under the law for the good of our country.
He stresses the responsibility that comes with this extraordinary power and quotes a Bob Dylan song that says, “To live outside the law, you must be honest.”
I’m deeply troubled by the lack of honesty from former FBI leadership, given the findings in this report.
When the inspector general testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, he said these rampant errors could be chalked up to either sheer incompetence or intentionality. I believe 17 examples of mistakes and misconduct far exceed the margin of error.
This report has brought to light a pattern of abuse by the nation’s most powerful law enforcement agency. It represents a serious breach of faith. And most gravely, it sets a dangerous precedent.
In a rare public order by presiding FISA court Judge Rosemary Collyer on Tuesday, she said this “calls into question whether information contained in other FBI applications is reliable.”
At a time when the threats to our country are growing, we cannot allow the integrity of the FISA process to be called into question. Though FISA success stories rarely make their way into the public eye, it is an extremely effective national security tool.
Consider the story of Najibullah Zazi, who was plotting an attack on the New York City subway system in 2009. As we know, that attack never happened. Intelligence gathered under FISA helped the FBI identify Zazi and his co-conspirators, who were ultimately convicted. Remarkably, he went on to meet with government officials more than 100 times and provided critical intelligence about al Qaeda.
These surveillance powers are vital to our national security and must be safeguarded from the blatant abuses carried out under the FBI’s previous leadership.
We cannot give those at the high ranks of the FBI a free pass. Chalking this up to “sloppiness,” as Comey has done, is an excuse for gross mismanagement and a poor one at that.
John Cornyn, a Republican, is the senior U.S. senator from Texas.
