Readers may remember that the process by which the FBI requests domestic surveillance warrants from the FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) Court was heavily criticized as corrupt. The DoJ Inspector General has completed the review of the process, and Lawfare’s Jeremy Gordon reports:
A new report released by the Justice Department inspector general found errors or lost information in all the FISA applications concerning U.S. persons it reviewed following its report on the FBI’s “Crossfire Hurricane” investigation into members of the Trump campaign. Each of the 29 applications sampled for review contained inaccuracies, including missing files in four FISA applications and errors or inadequately supported facts in the 25 other applications.
The FBI’s response?
[Associate Deputy Director of the FBI Paul] Abbate’s letter emphasizes that in many areas, the OIG’s report did not turn up evidence of problems. For example, Abbate notes that the OIG did not take a position on the materiality of any of the errors it identified and did not evaluate whether support for factual assertions missing from Woods Files may have existed elsewhere, such as in case files. In areas where the report did identify problems, Abbate writes that many remedial measures the FBI began to implement after the Crossfire Hurricane report will also address process errors identified in the OIG report, and states that the FBI fully accepts the report’s recommendations. Specifically, Abbate states that the FBI, in conjunction with NSD, will “build on existing accuracy reviews and enhance compliance with the Woods Procedures.” The FBI’s general counsel has directed every relevant division to ensure proper maintenance of accuracy subfiles for all FISA dockets stretching back to Jan. 1, 2015, which “exceeds the OIG’s recommendation” that the FBI do so for all pending cases.
It’d be interesting to know the category of the root cause: managment slackness, technology, corruption?
