Rep. Jordan: We have to make sure our fundamental liberties are protected
Congress faces deadline to extend Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act; reaction from Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan.
House Oversight Committee ranking member Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, discussed the push to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) on "Bill Hemmer Reports" Tuesday, calling for a designated advocate to represent U.S. citizens involved in matters that might come before the court.
"We need to change how this works," said Jordan before calling for "some advocate" to be tasked with "actually representing the American citizen who is about to lose some of their rights."
Last year, Justice Department Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz released a report detailing significant inaccuracies and omissions on the part of the FBI in its FISA warrant applications. A major aspect of the report exposed the degree to which the FBI had relied on an unverified dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele as part of opposition research for Hillary Clinton's campaign.
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"We have to remember what prompted this all," Jordan said. "Remember, it was The Justice Department in 2016 that went to the FISA court and mislead the court, a nice way of saying they lied to the court 17 times."
Jordan said the Senate Judiciary Committee would attempt to answer some of the unsolved questions surrounding the Russia probe, which began in secret during the 2016 presidential campaign, as well as the FBI’s use of FISA warrants to surveil former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
"That is what is prompting all of this and why we need to make the changes," he said, adding, it is also "why we need to have an advocate there to defend the interest of the citizens."
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Jordan criticized House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., for his handling of the probe, and has proposed legislation that is "much better" and far more "consistent with the principles that are part of our Constitution and our Bill of Rights," he explained.
"The most important aspect is this an amicus process is where we have someone representing the individual who's about to lose their fundamental liberties," Jordan reiterated to host Bill Hemmer.
The lawmaker also urged the FISA court to begin recording proceedings in official transcripts and said surveillance of political figures and campaigns could only be approved with a "sign-off" from the "highest levels of the Justice Department."
"I think when we are talking about a candidate, talking about a campaign, an election and a person running for office, or the staffers of those campaigns or members of office,"Jordan said, "that there is a sign-off before that kind of procedure moves forward, a sign-off from the highest levels of the Justice Department before any type of surveillance can take place."
On Sunday, House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Doug Collins, R-Ga., stressed the importance of the public's trust in the FISA process, telling Maria Bartiromo that if America could not trust the FISA court, “people will not have confidence that our intelligence communities are doing what they need to be doing and being able to use this court properly.”
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Collins added, "Hopefully we’ll be able to make some changes to it” so that intelligence officials could restore the “trust factor."
Fox News' Talia Kaplan contributed to this report.
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