{"id":198259,"date":"2019-12-15T14:29:06","date_gmt":"2019-12-15T14:29:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/comey-admits-error-in-defense-of-fbis-fisa-process-after-ig-report-he-was-right-i-was-wrong.html"},"modified":"2019-12-15T14:29:06","modified_gmt":"2019-12-15T14:29:06","slug":"comey-admits-error-in-defense-of-fbis-fisa-process-after-ig-report-he-was-right-i-was-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/political\/comey-admits-error-in-defense-of-fbis-fisa-process-after-ig-report-he-was-right-i-was-wrong.html","title":{"rendered":"Comey admits error in defense of FBI’s FISA process after IG report: ‘He was right, I was wrong’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"FoxVideo<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Fox News Flash top headlines for Dec. 15<\/a><\/h4>\n

Fox News Flash top headlines for Dec. 15 are here. Check out what’s clicking on FoxNews.com<\/p>\n

Former FBI Director James Comey<\/a> admitted on “Fox News Sunday” that the recently released Justice Department Inspector General\u2019s report<\/a> on the launch of the FBI\u2019s Russia investigation and their use of the surveillance process showed that he was “overconfident” when he defended his former agency’s use of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).<\/p>\n

This comes days after IG Michael\u00a0Horowitz\u2019s report and testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee detailed concerns that included 17 \u201csignificant errors and omissions\u201d by the FBI\u2019s investigative team when applying for a FISA warrant to monitor former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. Horowitz referred \u201cthe entire chain of command\u201d to the FBI and DOJ for \u201chow to assess and address their performance failures\u201d during the probe, which was conducted while Comey was in charge.<\/p>\n

“He’s right, I was wrong,” Comey said about how the FBI used the FISA process, adding, “I was overconfident as director in our procedures.”<\/p>\n

IG HOROWITZ RIPS FBI ‘FAILURE IN RUSSIA PROBE, SAYS NOBODY VINDICATED BY REPORT<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Horowitz did make it clear that he believes\u00a0the FBI\u2019s investigation of Russian election interference and possible connections with the Trump campaign was properly initiated, but he did note that this is based on a \u201clow threshold.\u201d He also concluded that there was no testimonial or documentary evidence to show that the investigation started due to any political bias, but said the issue of bias \u201cgets murkier\u201d when it comes to the various issues with the FISA process.<\/p>\n

That process included the reliance on information gathered by former British spy Christopher Steele as part of opposition research conducted by Fusion GPS for the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign. Horowitz\u2019s report stated that government attorneys were hesitant to approve a FISA warrant application until they relied on unverified information from Steele. That information also was used in subsequent renewals for the FISA warrant.<\/p>\n

Comey downplayed the role of Steel’s information in obtaining the FISA warrant against Page, claiming Sunday that it was “not a huge part of the presentation to the court,” although recognizing that “it was the one that convinced the lawyers” to move forward.<\/p>\n

He claimed he had not misstated the relevance of Steele’s information, but said “if I was then I’m sorry that I did that.”<\/p>\n

In addition to not properly ensuring that the evidence they presented was accurate, the FBI was found to have omitted exculpatory information about Page that could have impacted the judge\u2019s decision in granting the FISA warrant. Included in this was an instance where an attorney\u00a0was found to have altered an email to say that Page had not been a CIA source, when in fact he had been working with them. That information would have justified Page\u2019s contacts with Russia, and its omission ultimately led to the FBI renewing the FISA warrant against Page.<\/p>\n

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

In an April 2018 interview<\/a> with MSNBC\u2019s Rachel Maddow, Comey claimed that the FISA process is \u201cincredibly rigorous\u201d and claimed that Republicans\u2019 criticism of the Page FISA warrant was \u201ca political deal\u201d that was not \u201cbased in substance or law.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following the report\u2019s release, Comey essentially claimed vindication, declaring in the wake of the report that the criticism of the bureau’s actions “was all lies.\u201d When asked about vindication at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing,\u00a0the inspector general bluntly replied, “I think the activities we found here don\u2019t vindicate anybody who touched this FISA.”<\/p>\n

On Sunday, Comey claimed that the FBI did not intentionally commit wrongdoing, but described the FBI’s failures as “real sloppiness.” He said\u00a0that “in general” he was unaware of “the particulars of the investigation” when it was going on, but said that as the person at the head of the FBI at the time, it still falls on him.<\/p>\n

“I was responsible for this.”<\/p>\n

Fox News\u2019 Brooke Singman contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n

Article source: http:\/\/feeds.foxnews.com\/~r\/foxnews\/politics\/~3\/2fhdLm9vGJI\/comey-defends-fbis-fisa-process-after-scathing-ig-report<\/a>\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Video Fox News Flash top headlines for Dec. 15 Fox News Flash top headlines for Dec. 15 are here. Check out what’s clicking on FoxNews.com Former FBI Director James Comey admitted on “Fox News Sunday” that the recently released Justice Department Inspector General\u2019s report on the launch of the FBI\u2019s Russia investigation and their use […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[84],"class_list":["post-198259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-political","tag-political"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198259\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}