FISA Court Shoots Itself in Self-Defense in Impeachment Fight
Jan. 13, 2020 (EIRNS)—The tattered credibility of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) which issued warrants on false premises for the FBI’s Operation Crossfire Hurricane surveillance against the Trump campaign, became even more shredded over this past weekend. On Jan. 10 amidst the Iran crisis the FISC announced it was appointing as adviser on reforming its warrant processes, an avowed never-Trump lawyer who frequent contributes to the impeachment strategy outfit Lawfare, who has demanded Trump’s removal from office.
The lawyer, Obama’s former Assistant Attorney General for National Security David Kris, moreover attacked then House Intelligence Chair Rep. Devin Nunes in March 2018 for his Jan. 18, 2018 report revealing the FBI’s malfeasance in Crossfire Hurricane. Nunes’ report was vindicated in every detail by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s Dec. 9, 2019 report, but the FISA Court acts as if they missed that. Lawyer Kris, now to “assist the Court” in considering reforms of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) process, had denounced Nunes’ report as follows: “The Nunes memo was dishonest. And if it is allowed to stand, we risk significant collateral damage to essential elements of our democracy.” He further threatened that “Nunes might be prosecuted for obstruction of justice.”
On Oct. 3, 2019 Kris ended a five-part tweet on the Zelensky phone call, “Trump has to go.”
Nunes’ responded to Kris’s appointment yesterday in a message to investigative reporter Sara Carter: “It’s a ridiculous choice. The FBI lied to the FISC, and to help make sure that doesn’t happen again, the FISC chose an FBI apologist who denied and defended those lies. The FISC is setting its own credibility on fire.”
President Donald Trump on Twitter Jan. 12, emphatically agreed: “You can’t make this up! David Kris, a highly controversial former DOJ official, was just appointed by the FISA Court to oversee reforms to the FBI’s surveillance procedures. Zero credibility. THE SWAMP!”
Now it will be seen whether the Attorney General or the Congress will take any action regarding the FISA Court’s future. It could hardly have asked for worse if it had appointed Peter Strzok to advise it on its flagrant “Russiagate” mistakes.
