Former FBI Director James Comey claimed that he should not be held responsible for the factual errors in FISA applications, which were used in 2016 to spy on a member of the Trump Campaign.
Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Lindsey Graham, questioned Comey in a congressional hearing on Wednesday, grilling him about the “17 significant errors and omissions” as well as the “50 errors in the FBI’s Woods process” in applications to spy on former Trump Campaign affiliate Carter Page.
“Does the FBI director have any responsibility to make sure the facts are right when they’re given to the court?” Graham asked.
“Not in connection with the certification,” Comey said referring to a certification he signed off on for an affidavit related to the FISA application. “But in general the FBI director is responsible for everything that is being done underneath the FBI director,” Comey replied.
.@Comey says the FBI director bears no responsibility to determine whether allegations are true before pursuing FISA applications; says he doesn't even know who prepared the applications pic.twitter.com/RgRrAHwuUx
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) September 30, 2020
These warrants to spy on Page were illegally obtained due to “violations of the government’s duty of candor in all four applications” and used to facilitate an unlawful investigation that heavily contributed to the Russian collusion hoax story peddled by Democrats and the left.
“Do you wish that you had informed the court that Mr. Page was in fact, working with the CIA, and that explains these contacts? Do you think out of a sense of fairness, the court should have been informed of that fact?” Graham asked.
“I don’t agree with your preamble. I don’t think the record established that he was working with the CIA. I think Horowitz found he was a contact,” Comey said, but was quickly shot down by Graham who said that there was an email disclosing the relationship between Page and the CIA.
Comey also claimed he had no knowledge of FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith’s crimes in doctoring and falsifying evidence such as an email about Page’s relationships with the CIA.
“You’re the director of the FBI, you didn’t know that your own agency had information from the CIA, verifying what Mr. Page told you. That these contacts had a basis in fact because he was working with the CIA,” Graham said. “Did you know that Mr. Clinesmith doctored the email for it to read that there was no association between Page and the CIA?”
“I know nothing about Mr. Clinesmith other than what I’ve read in the public record,” Comey said.
Comey also claimed that he did not know who prepared the application littered with errors, despite his former position as the director of the agency.
“To understand the process in general and in this case you would start with the Horowitz report where he recounts all the many of the people involved in the review, production, and delivery to the court of this application,” Comey said.
And when asked by Graham who “whose job is it to make sure the facts are right when you’re presenting to the FISA court?” Comey simply replied that “whoever is signing the affidavit” is responsible and that he only signed the certification.
