DOJ Acknowledged 2 Out Of 4 FISA Warrants To Monitor Carter Page Were Invalid

Global Natural Gas Ventures founder Carter Page participates in a discussion on 'politicization of DOJ and the intelligence community in their efforts to undermine the President' hosted by Judicial Watch at the One A... Global Natural Gas Ventures founder Carter Page participates in a discussion on 'politicization of DOJ and the intelligence community in their efforts to undermine the President' hosted by Judicial Watch at the One America News studios on Capitol Hill on May 29, 2019. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

The Department of Justice admitted in December that two of the FBI’s four surveillance warrants to electronically monitor ex-Trump campaign adviser Carter Page were invalid, according to a declassified Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court order published on Thursday.

James Boasberg, presiding judge of the U.S. FISA Court, wrote on January 7 that the DOJ had assessed in its filings to the court last month that “if not earlier, there was insufficient predication to establish probable cause to believe that [Carter] Page was acting as an agent of a foreign power” in the FBI’s investigation into the Trump campaign and Russia.

Therefore, Boasberg wrote, “[t]he Court understands the government to have concluded, in view of the material misstatements and omissions, that the Court’s authorizations in Docket Numbers 17-375 and 17-679 were not valid,” referring to two of the FISA warrants.

DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz found in December that while the FBI did not launch its Trump-Russia probe and monitor Page out of political bias against President Donald Trump, the agency made “many basic and fundamental errors” in the FISA application process.

Read the document below:

Latest News
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: