Spy Court Sidelines FBI Agents Who Wiretapped Carter Page
FBI agents involved in the process of wiretapping Carter Page were barred Wednesday from taking part in other investigations involving surveillance warrants while they are under disciplinary or criminal review.
The
order, from Judge James Boasberg, who presides over the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), is the latest fallout from a Justice Department watchdog’s report on FBI and Justice Department abuses of the surveillance process against Page.
(RELATED: FISA Judge Blasts FBI For Providing False Information About Carter Page)
“There is thus little doubt that the government breached its duty of candor to the Court with respect to those applications,” Boasberg wrote.
“FBI personnel under disciplinary review in relation to their work on FISA applications accordingly should not participate in drafting, verifying, reviewing, or submitting such applications to the Court while the review is pending,” the judge said.
“The same prohibition applies to any DOJ attorney under disciplinary review, as well as any DOJ or FBI personnel who are the subject of a criminal referral related to their work on FISA applications.”
The Justice Department’s inspector general said in a report released Dec. 9, 2019, that the FBI made 17 “significant” errors and omissions in applications to conduct electronic surveillance against Page.
On Dec. 17, 2019, the FISC ordered the FBI to develop reforms to how the bureau handles and verifies information included in surveillance orders, saying the bureau’s handling of the Page case called into question the validity of surveillance orders in other investigations. In January, the
Justice Department conceded that the most recent two FISA orders against Page were invalid.
Most of the errors in the Page investigation involved the FBI withholding information from the FISC that undercut the bureau’s theory that Page was a Russian agent. FBI agents and Justice Department lawyers also failed to tell the FISC about flaws in the Steele dossier, which the FBI cited extensively in its four spy applications against Page.
Spy Court Sidelines FBI Agents Who Wiretapped Carter Page