DOJ watchdog finds additional problems with FBI's surveillance warrant process
A Justice Department watchdog has identified additional errors in the FBI's surveillance warrant application process after reviewing more than two dozen Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) applications, according to a new publicly released memo. ustice Department (DOJ) Inspector General Michael Horowitz informed FBI Director Christopher Wray on Monday that his office did "not have confidence" the FBI was properly following the Woods Procedures, an FBI policy that requires officials to provide supporting documentation to back up factual assertions made in FISA applications. Such applications seek to wiretap individuals on U.S. soil in national security cases. This review piggybacks on a damning report released in December that found errors and omissions in a FISA application and its renewals that targeted former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page as part of the government’s investigation into Russian interference.
"As a result of our audit work to date and as described below, we do not have confidence that the FBI has executed its Woods Procedures in compliance with FBI policy," Horowitz wrote in a management advisory memorandum to Wray. "Specifically, the Woods Procedures mandate compiling supporting documentation for each fact in the FISA application. Adherence to the Woods Procedures should result in such documentation as a means toward achievement of the FBI’s policy that FISA applications be 'scrupulously accurate.'"
A Justice Department watchdog has identified additional errors in the FBI's surveillance warrant application process after reviewing more than two dozen Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) applications, according to a new publicly released memo.
Justice Department (DOJ) Inspector General Michael Horowitz informed FBI Director Christopher Wray on Monday that his office did "not have confidence" the FBI was properly following the Woods Procedures, an FBI policy that requires officials to provide supporting documentation to back up factual assertions made in FISA applications. Such applications seek to wiretap individuals on U.S. soil in national security cases.
This review piggybacks on a damning report released in December that found errors and omissions in a FISA application and its renewals that targeted former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page as part of the government’s investigation into Russian interference.
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"As a result of our audit work to date and as described below, we do not have confidence that the FBI has executed its Woods Procedures in compliance with FBI policy," Horowitz wrote in a management advisory memorandum to Wray.
"Specifically, the Woods Procedures mandate compiling supporting documentation for each fact in the FISA application. Adherence to the Woods Procedures should result in such documentation as a means toward achievement of the FBI’s policy that FISA applications be 'scrupulously accurate.'"
Horowitz discovered these additional problems after visiting eight FBI field offices and reviewing a selected sample of 29 FISA applications that were tied to both counterintelligence and counterterrorism investigations between October 2014 and September 2019. Out of a selected sample of 29 FISA applications, the FBI was unable to locate Woods Files for four or a reason they weren't completed. Horowitz and his team found an average of 20 issues per each of the other 25 applications they reviewed. In other words, he discovered problems with all the applications he studied.
“While our review of these issues and follow-up with case agents is still ongoing—and we have not made materiality judgments for these or other errors or concerns we identified—at this time we have identified an average of about 20 issues per application reviewed, with a high of approximately 65 issues in one application and less than 5 issues in another application,” Horowitz found.
https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/490356-doj-watchdog-finds-additional-problems-with-fbis-surveillance