AG Bill Barr wrote a scathing memo on the IG’s report on FISA abuse stating that the there was horrible abuse of the FISA process by the Obama Administration. The memo is totally damning.
AG Bill Barr released a memo stating unequivocally that there was rampant abuse of the FISA process during the Obama Administration which carried forward into 2017.
The Inspector General’s report now makes clear that the FBI launched an intrusive investigation of a U.S. presidential campaign on the thinnest of suspicions that, in my view, were insufficient to justify the steps taken. It is also clear that, from its inception, the evidence produced by the investigation was consistently exculpatory. Nevertheless, the investigation and surveillance was pushed forward for the duration of the campaign and deep into President Trump’s administration. In the rush to obtain and maintain FISA surveillance of Trump campaign associates, FBI officials misled the FISA court, omitted critical exculpatory facts from their filings, and suppressed or ignored information negating the reliability of their principal source. The Inspector General found the explanations given for these actions unsatisfactory. While most of the misconduct identified by the Inspector General was committed in 2016 and 2017 by a small group of now-former FBI officials, the malfeasance and misfeasance detailed in the Inspector General’s report reflects a clear abuse of the FISA process.
When has the US Attorney General ever done this before? This statement is damning, “the malfeasance and misfeasance detailed in the Inspector General’s report reflects a clear abuse of the FISA process.”
