Nunes Demands Copies Of FISA Docs About Steele Dossier Warrants; Court Suggests Taking It Up With The FBI

from the god-I-so-hope-Nunes-takes-it-up-with-the-FBI dept

Having already released the memo purportedly showing surveillance abuses committed by the FBI, the legislators behind the release are now getting around to asking for documents to back up the memo's assertions. Bob Goodlatte and Devin Nunes have both asked the FISA court for the paperwork they probably should have looked at before writing and releasing the memo.

Nunes has asked for "transcripts of relevant FISC hearings" related to the FISA warrants predicated largely on assertions made in Steele dossier. Goodlatte has asked applications and orders for the same warrants. The FISA court has replied with two letters stating basically the same thing: thanks for the weird (and inappropriate) question, but maybe take this up the FBI. (h/t Zoe Tillman)

From the letter [PDF] sent by Judge Rosemary Collyer to Devin Nunes:

The Court appreciates the interest of the House Intelligence Committee in its operations and public confidence therein. Before 2018, the Court had never received a request from Congress for documents related to any specific FISA application. Thus, your requests -- and others I have recently received from Congress -- present novel and significant questions. The considerations involve not only prerogatives of the Legislative Branch, but also interests of the Executive Branch, including its responsibility for national security and its need to maintain the integrity of any ongoing law enforcement investigations.

While this analysis is underway, you may note that the Department of Justice possesses (or can easily obtain) the same responsive information the Court might possess, and because of separation of powers considerations, is better positioned than the Court to respond quickly. (We have previously made clear to the Department, both formally and informally, that we do not object to any decision by the Executive Branch to convey to Congress any such information.)

The response [PDF] to Goodlatte pretty much says the same thing. Both letter close with a little bit of shade-throwing.

I expect that [the DOJ and FBI's] handling of your requests will inform the Court as to how the Executive Branch perceives its interests and will assist us in our consideration of the full range of issues…

This seems to suggest the FISA court has noticed (how could it not) the contentious relationship between the FBI and the White House and wants to see how the DOJ handles its end of the paperwork requested by the legislators before proceeding. It also implies the court thinks the White House will sidestep its obligations to preserve the integrity of national security-related obligations if it thinks it can score some political points. If the court really felt like laying on the snark, it might have mentioned the utility of viewing underlying documents before releasing a "damning" memo, rather than attempting to find justification for the memo's accusations after the fact.

Filed Under: bob goodlatte, devin nunes, doj, fbi, fisa application, fisa court, fisc, nunes memo, rosemary collyer, steele dossier

The Nunes Memo Has Effectively Destroyed Intelligence Oversight

from the WTG dept

The Nunes Memo, capitalized to give it far more gravitas that it actually possesses, was released late last week to mixed reviews. Nunes had built it up to be a mind-blowing damnation of a politically corrupt Federal Bureau of Investigation, more interested in destroying Trump than performing its appointed duties. The memo showed the FBI had relied on questionable evidence from the Steele dossier while securing FISA warrants to surveill former Trump adviser Carter Page. This memo was composed by the House intelligence oversight head -- one who had rarely expressed concern about domestic surveillance prior to investigations of Trump officials.

The memo showed the basis for the warrants may have been thin, but it didn't show it was nonexistent. In fact, the underlying warrants actually did inform the FISA court about the political background of Christopher Steele and his dossier. Nunes didn't know this because Nunes hadn't actually read the warrants. When he was finally apprised of this contradiction, he claimed the FBI disclosure didn't count because the disclosure was contained in a footnote.

The memo's release has had some serious side effects, however. But it will be Congressional oversight taking the damage, rather than the FBI. The memo's release showed the dumping of sensitive, classified info could be motivated by political whims, rather than as the result of a thoughtful, deliberative process. It showed oversight committee members were willing to jeopardize law enforcement sources and methods to score political points -- ironically the same claim Nunes was making about the FBI's motivations.

The damage will also be felt -- indirectly -- by the American public. Intelligence oversight is supposed to protect Americans from surveillance abuses. With this move, Nunes has destroyed its credibility, as Julian Sanchez points out.

It will be hard for anyone who has read the Nunes memo to regard the committee’s output as nonpartisan now. And by crying wolf about intelligence abuses with no serious evidence, Nunes and his enablers have made it far easier for America’s spy agencies to dismiss any future allegations, however meritorious, as yet another self-serving partisan distraction: at best, baseless conspiracy theorizing; at worst, an effort to obstruct legitimate investigations.

And that may not even be the worst of it. As Sanchez notes, the effectiveness of intelligence oversight will be blunted further. It's already mostly ineffective. Now, it may be completely broken.

[T]he committees are ultimately dependent on the intelligence community itself to direct their attention to areas that demand further scrutiny—whether in the form of official briefers, or whistleblowers who approach members with their concerns. Neither type is likely to repose much confidence in a committee that seems so enthusiastic to make a partisan circus of its grave task.

If the end game was to stop whistleblowing and give the nation's surveillance apparatus even more autonomy, well… mission accomplished. What was merely "dysfunctional" (according to the 9/11 Commission) will now be utterly useless.

And in the end, it won't matter to those who went along with Nunes' plan to own the libs (FBI Edition). For most committee members, intelligence oversight is a do-nearly-nothing job with zero political payoff. When things are fixed or further broken, the public is rarely informed. The few times the public is apprised of changes, it's handled obliquely with as many redactions as possible. Home state constituents waiting for their bridge to nowhere / vanity airport aren't going to be pouring funds into the re-election hoppers based on some shadowy, poorly-explained intelligence reforms. Everyone involved -- the overseers and the overseen -- would prefer as little interaction with each other as possible. By showing the House Oversight Committee is not above playing political football with FISA warrants, Nunes has virtually guaranteed the committee will be left alone.

Filed Under: house intelligence committee, infighting, intelligence community, nunes memo, oversight, politics