FINALLY IT'S ON: Inspector General Makes Major Announcement That Will Give Swamp Rats Nightmares
the Justice Department inspector general is opening an investigation into
Republican charges that the FBI and DOJ were biased in their work on the Trump
Russia probe this move stopped short of fulfilling calls from many in the GOP
for a special counsel to look into the matter
tonight correspondent Peter Doocy tells us why some people see an inherent
conflict good evening Peter good evening Bret
these questions about whether or not the FBI's surveillance capabilities were
abused for political purposes ahead of the 2016 election are no longer just
coming from Republican members of Congress because the official with the
resources to root out criminal violations at the FBI has opened a case
the Federal Bureau of Investigation is now under investigation itself by the
Justice Department Inspector General trying to see if anyone in the ranks
broke the rules when convincing federal judges to sign off on the surveillance
of an American citizen inspector general Michael Horowitz says quote as part of
this examination the OIG also will review information that was known to the
DOJ and the FBI at the time the applications were filed from or about an
alleged FBI confidential source Republicans alleged in the Nunez memo
that information from former British spy Christopher steel compiled in an
unverified dossier was key to that vice a warrant this announcement comes as the
FBI director Christopher Rea doubles the number of staffers helping sort through
documents that Republican lawmakers subpoenaed because they were so delayed
from 27 staffers to 54 ray writes that quote the actual number of documents
responsive to this request is likely in the thousands regardless I agreed that
the current pace of production is too slow by dramatically expanding the
number of staffers assigned to sift through documents Republicans want ray
is defying Democrats like the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee
Jerrold Nadler who recently said quote it seems that this subpoena is intended
to speed up that production to pivot the discussion back to Hillary Clinton and
divert attention from the chaos surrounding the Trump administration and
allegations involving the Trump campaign the order to beef up the bureau staff
assigned to help Congress came straight from the top according to a DOJ insider
who tells Fox quote senior staff on both sides of the street have met on this and
the FBI is getting called to the carpet the Attorney General is angry with how
slow the process has moved when it comes to requests from Congress to the FBI but
some Republicans still think sessions is acting like an Obama appointee I'm sorry
but attorney general sessions I don't see much of a difference between him and
Loretta Lynch and Eric Holder I mean what's the difference when you issue a
subpoena from Congress it's just a suggestion it's just a request there's
no no urgency that you have to hit it by the deadline these extra FBI staffers
now working to speed up their response to Republican requests for documents are
not just planning to produce information about Vice abuse they are also tasked
with finding emails and texts and memos about the Clinton's server investigation
as Republicans continue to probe why nobody ever got in trouble for that
Bret Peter thank you the Inspector General of the Department of Justice
announced today that the DOJ has opened an investigation into spying possibly
illegal spying on American citizens by the federal government law professor
Jonathan Turley will explain the legal implications of that brewing scandal in
just a minute but first to fox chief national correspondent Edie Henry who's
been following this all day for more details dead tucker great to see you
initially Democrats like Adam Schiff laughed off these allegations about FISA
abuse but tonight some in the Obama inner circle as well as former top FBI
officials like James Comey and Andrew McCabe may be sweating a bit because
this is heating up now with the Justice Department Inspector General Michael
Horowitz saying he's going to take a close look at it and remember Attorney
General Jeff Sessions had said he wanted Horowitz to handle this and and sessions
got a lot of heat from supporters of President Trump who said the Inspector
General would bury this and that this was sessions passing the buck again but
this is a sign Horowitz is moving full speed ahead on what Republican Devon
Nunez first revealed with his memo laying out how top FBI and justice
officials in the Obama administration got a warrant from the FISA Court to spy
an X Trump advisor Carter page most importantly call me McCabe and
other officials allegedly used former British by Christopher Steele's
anti-trump dossier to get that initial warrant without telling the judge that
the DNC and Hillary Clinton's campaign had paid for the dirt in that dossier
now Horowitz is already working on two other major reports including commis
conduct FBI agent Peter structs text messages and McCabe's unauthorized
leaked to the media we should note that just this very week there had also been
criminal charges filed in Minnesota in a separate case involving a former FBI
agent who allegedly leaked classified sensitive information and so the bottom
line is this is also part of jeff sessions crackdown on the leaking of
sensitive information of big development tonight tucker it sure is ed Henry
thanks for that juicy Jonathan Turley is a law professor at George Washington
University Law School in Washington joins us today professor thanks for
coming on thank you so it's I mean it's the gravest of all charges the federal
government potentially spying illegally on American citizens why only now is the
IG looking into this well you know there's been an interesting phenomenon
here a lot of people who have rightfully criticized those that want to shut down
the Special Counsel investigation right but those same people often belittle
these allegations about what happened in this secret court and it's a dangerous
combination to have a secret court that is based on a standard lower than the
Fourth Amendment that is totally secret and insulated from public review if that
court is also used for political agenda now we don't know if that's true but we
have worrisome facts that should be looked at and so whatever but I think is
missing in Washington is this sense of balance both sides should be
investigated these are troubling issues that are raised by both Republicans and
the Democrats what happened today is that we're going to be guaranteed that
there will be an independent investigation and whore which is the
perfect guy to do it I mean he knows the DOJ he's very well-respected and I think
that what we're going to learn from this process could help us in the future what
would he be looking at he's going to be looking specifically at that application
with Carter page you know many people made fun a president Trump when he said
that his campaign was under surveillance and people like former director clapper
said I would have known if there was an order of surveillance what turns out
there were multiple orders of surveillance and they not just the first
you suffered there clapper said that mocked the idea clapper has been caught
lying to the public before is there any way to read this other than as
dishonesty well I don't know what clapper was thinking of but what we do
know is that there was not just one but a renewal of these orders that's a very
serious question to look at when you have someone who's associated with the
opposing party's campaign for president now a judge did look at this and did say
that it warranted a renewal but that application while it said that one of
these sources was political in nature didn't reveal everything that the FBI
knew about the dossier that it was funded by the Clinton campaign that it
found that much of the dossier was not cooperated that there were serious
questions about the motivation and the fact that Steele himself tried to shop
this to the media and had told Anna justice official that he really didn't
like Trump and want to do everything he could that he wouldn't be president
those are material facts now does that mean that the court became an adjunct of
the DNC or was caught up in a political agenda we don't know but the point is
that the the American people have a right to know if this very powerful
Court was used for inappropriate or abusive reasons have you noticed since
you've briefly since you've covered and taught the law in the city for a long
time a decline in the concern over civil liberties of Americans in Washington you
know I have we've almost become numb first of all people have really low
expectation of their government now and that's a real shame but the FISA Court
itself has always been a concern for civil libertarians because of its
standard because of its insularity so when this scandal focused on the FISA
Court it was a huge concern because abuses in that court arm can be
magnified in terms of their damage yes because it is so insulated it is so
secret and it's capable of doing a lot more it without people seeing it than a
normal court I think it's terrifying essentially anyway professor thank you
for that shit thank you god bless you and God
bless america
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