Recently the Justice Department I.G. issued FISA Management Advisory Memo. The short version says, to the Director of the FBI, get your cranium out of your rectum. Your department is out of control. The Department of Justice Inspector is Michael Horowitz worded his memo more nicely than this article does but the meaning is the same.
The origin
In the lead-up to the impeachment Horowitz did a review of the Carter Page FISA warrants. Upon the release of the report, we knew there were significant issues with the warrants. Since that time the Inspector General did a follow-up test. The intention was to determine if the Carter Page warrants were a one-off or a pattern of behavior.
Guess what it was a pattern of behavior. Exactly how rampant were the problems with FBI FISA warrants? Well, the report is in and it isn’t pretty. The Inspector-General took a sample of 29 FISA warrant applications. The results found issues with all of them.
In 25 applications, Horowitz’s team found “apparent errors or inadequately supported facts…” In four of the cases, they were unable to find any Woods file at all. Three of the applications are missing supporting documentation. It’s unclear if there was a Woods file creation. This is one of the largest invasions of our Constitutional rights ever. Americans need to be afraid, very afraid of losing our rights.
What’s a Woods file?
You’re probably wondering, what is a Woods file? Why is that a big deal? Well, as I.G. Horowitz explains, FBI policy has requirements of the case agent requesting the FISA application. They must create and maintain an accuracy sub-file known as a “Woods File”. The file shall contain:
(1) Supporting documentation for every factual assertion in a FISA application, and
(2) Supporting documentation and the results of database searches and other verifications.
After the creation of the Woods File, the case agent signs the “FD-1079 FISA Verification Form” (Woods Form). This is done to affirm “the accuracy of each and every factual assertion… and that back-up documentation for each such fact has been retained” in the Woods File. This is not optional… ever.
The supervisory special agent, the person supervising the creator of the Woods file, also has a requirement to sign the form. The supervisor is confirming that he or she has done the review of the Woods File. He or she is also affirming the determination the Woods file contains supporting documentation for every factual assertion within the FISA application.
The Woods file, FD-1079 form must be complete prior to application submission to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC). The Woods File is meant to protect people from an unfair investigation. When the application is made and the requirements are not met or the file is missing both the agent and the supervisor have failed to do their job.
How the system works
If the court does not catch the discrepancies the application can slide through. The requested warrants may or may not be valid. Those warrants are certainly court orders obtained without proper, required supporting documentation. If the file is missing the court should notice and halt the process.
Horowitz per his summary report found: “We believe that the repeated weaknesses in the FBI’s execution of the Woods Procedures in each of the 29 FISA applications we reviewed to date— including the 4 applications for which the FBI could not furnish an original Woods File—raise significant questions about the extent to which the FBI is complying with its own requirement that FISA applications be supported by documentation in the Woods File as part of its efforts to ensure that applications are “scrupulously accurate.”
In the documents where Woods files were present, the files contain an average of 20 errors. Everybody is capable of making a typo. But consider what has to happen for the IG to find an error? It necessarily means neither the person under investigation nor an attorney designee has involvement in the FISA process. Nobody is there to protect the rights of the person under investigation. That’s why issuance of multiple bad warrants could happen in the Carter Page case.
We don’t know how far amuck the FBI has run
The FBI did wrong to Carter Page. Carter Page had work history with the FBI… He was guilty of helping them. He was a known quantity with vetting whose information the agency found acceptable and useful.
The I.G. Report also says: “Our concerns are supported by the fact that in four instances the FBI could not produce the original Woods File, that the Woods File deficiencies that we identified spanned all eight field offices in which we performed fieldwork, that case agents or supervisors whom we interviewed generally did not contest our results, and that the FBI CDC and NSD OI accuracy reviews conducted for the same period of our review identified similar deficiencies. As a result, we do not have confidence that the FBI has executed its Woods Procedures in compliance with FBI policy, or that the process is working as it was intended to help achieve the “scrupulously accurate” standard for FISA applications.
Horowitz included an FBI response to his report within the document. Associate Deputy Director Paul Abbate wrote in the response, “We believe that the process errors identified in the OIG’s preliminary findings will be addressed by Director Wray’s previously ordered corrective actions.” Call me Thomas. You are a federal agency working for the people. You went 0 for 29 on proper warrant applications. Don’t deflect, save your breath. Your reassurances are worthless, worth nothing…
Trust but verify… can’t do that with FISA
The American public believes the FBI was following the Woods procedures. Why is it reasonable to believe? The FBI did not follow its own rules for Woods files. Why are they more likely to read and follow Wray’s memo? Don’t you find it a stretch to accept such an assertion? Look, this is an agency out of control.
It is administering a system that has been abused. The abuse is not an occasional typo. This is serial falsification and omission of required work. There is no respect for the existing safeguards. No respect exists for the rights of the individuals under investigation. Implicit in this is an assumption of guilt until proven innocent. There is not procedural compliance. Supervision has failed. Management abuses the system for political ends.
This is an existential threat to the republic. The recent release of the Justice Department I.G. issued FISA Management Advisory Memo did not receive appropriate attention or action. Congress began working on revising the FISA act. The House did pass an inadequate measure. The Senate has not taken action. So far Congress has not seen fit to complete their work. This system should close until action is taken.
Just shut it down…
To continue FISA’s use is untenable until such time as the agency providing oversight changes. Additionally, the procedures need to change to protect the subjects of investigation. The courts need to be able to rely on the representations of law enforcement. The courts must verify the supporting documentation exists. That currently is demonstrably not possible. This is a case of if you lie I’ll swear to it. It must stop.