McCabe admits FBI 'weakness' in FISA warrant process
Former acting FBI director Andrew McCabe claims there is an 'inherent weakness' in the process the FBI uses to obtain warrants under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
President Trump raised eyebrows on Twitter by sharing a comical image of President Obama spying on him at Trump Tower.
Trump posted the image, which shows Obama using a pair of binoculars to eye Trump while hanging outside of his Trump Tower window, without any comment.
The photoshopped image appears to date back to early 2017 around the time the president made the claim that Obama had "wiretapped" Trump Tower during the 2016 election.
It could, however, be tied to the latest developments regarding the legitimacy of the controversial Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) application process into former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
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At least two of the FBI’s surveillance applications to secretly monitor Page lacked probable cause, according to a newly declassified summary of a Justice Department assessment released Thursday by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC).
The DOJ's admission essentially means that the FISA warrant authorizations to surveil Page, when stripped of the FBI's misinformation, did not meet the necessary legal threshold and should never have been issued.
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The June 2017 Page FISA warrant renewal, which was among the two deemed invalid by the DOJ, was approved by then-acting FBI Director (and now CNN contributor) Andrew McCabe, as well as former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. The April 2017 warrant renewal was approved by then-FBI Director James Comey.
“Today’s unprecedented court filing represents another step on the road to recovery for America’s deeply damaged judicial system," Page said in a statement to Fox News. "I hope that this latest admission of guilt for these civil rights abuses by the Justice Department marks continued progress towards restoring justice and remedying these reputationally ruinous injuries.”
Added Iowa GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley, who previously chaired the Judiciary Committee: “It’s about time. It’s about time federal authorities entrusted with our most powerful and intrusive surveillance tools begin to own up to their failures and abuses, and take steps to restore public confidence. ... Time will tell if the department will continue working to fix its errors and restore trust that it won’t disregard Americans’ civil liberties. Its admission and cooperation with the FISC is a step in the right direction."
Fox News' Gregg Re and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
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