{"id":198398,"date":"2019-12-16T06:26:06","date_gmt":"2019-12-16T06:26:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/comey-admits-i-was-wrong-on-fisa-conduct-remains-defiant-on-dossier-in-tense-interview.html"},"modified":"2019-12-16T06:26:06","modified_gmt":"2019-12-16T06:26:06","slug":"comey-admits-i-was-wrong-on-fisa-conduct-remains-defiant-on-dossier-in-tense-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/political\/comey-admits-i-was-wrong-on-fisa-conduct-remains-defiant-on-dossier-in-tense-interview.html","title":{"rendered":"Comey admits \u2018I was wrong\u2019 on FISA conduct, remains defiant on dossier in tense interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

James Comey on findings from DOJ inspector general’s report on alleged FISA abuse<\/a><\/h4>\n

Former FBI Director James Comey joins Chris Wallace for an exclusive interview on ‘Fox News Sunday.’<\/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 Inspector General 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

IG HOROWITZ RIPS FBI ‘FAILURE IN RUSSIA PROBE, SAYS NOBODY VINDICATED BY REPORT<\/a><\/strong><\/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,” and that what happened “was not acceptable.”<\/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 Steele’s information in obtaining the FISA warrant against Page, claiming Sunday that it was “not a huge part of the presentation to the court,” just part of the information included in the warrant application.<\/p>\n

He insisted that he and Horowitz “weren’t saying different things” about Steele’s significance, but host Chris Wallace then read Horowitz’s words, which said Steele’s information\u00a0“played a central and essential role” in establishing probable cause.<\/p>\n

\"Horowitz:Video<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Comey said he did not “see the disconnect” between his stance and Horowitz’s, even though he recognized that Steele’s reporting\u00a0“was the one that convinced the lawyers” to move forward.<\/p>\n

When Wallace accused him of minimizing the relevance\u00a0of Steele’s information, Comey said, “if I was then I’m sorry that I did that.”<\/p>\n

Another tense exchange occurred when Comey and Wallace accused each other of “mischaracterizing” the problems with Steele’s reporting. Comey\u00a0claimed that the issue “were\u00a0significant questions about the reliability of some of the sub-source reporting.”<\/p>\n

Wallace then pointed out that according to Horowitz’s report, Steele’s Russian sub-source was not the problem. Rather, the sub-source told the FBI that Steele was the one misrepresenting his statements,\u00a0demonstrating a lack of reliability.<\/p>\n

Comey maintained “that doesn’t drive the conclusion that Steele’s reporting was bunk.”<\/p>\n

In addition to the issues related to Steele, 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

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

Comey explained that his claim of vindication was not in reference to the issues identified in Horowtiz’s report.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I mean is that the FBI was accused of treason, of illegal spying, of tapping Mr. Trump\u2019s wires illegally, of opening an investigation without justification, of being a criminal conspiracy to unseat, defeat and then unseat a president. All of that was nonsense,” he said.<\/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 the Horowitz report “did not find misconduct by any FBI people,” rather just\u00a0“mistakes and negligence.”<\/p>\n

Wallace was quick to remind Comey that attorney Kevin Clinesmith was referred for criminal investigation for the doctored email. Comey said “that’s not been resolved.” He did say it was “fair” to say that the FBI provided false information to the FISA court.<\/p>\n

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

Comey 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 James Comey on findings from DOJ inspector general’s report on alleged FISA abuse Former FBI Director James Comey joins Chris Wallace for an exclusive interview on ‘Fox News Sunday.’ 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 […]<\/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-198398","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\/198398","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=198398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198398\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}