Inspector General Audit Finds Widespread Problems With FBI’s FISA Applications

IG interrupts ongoing audit to inform FBI it does “not have confidence” in the agency’s compliance with Woods Procedures

My latest @EpochTimes https://www.theepochtimes.com/inspector-general-audit-finds-widespread-problems-with-fbis-fisa-applications_3293343.html

Grassley: The flawed Page case appears to be the tip of the iceberg...The inspector general’s decision to bring these failures to the director’s attention before its audit is even completed underscores the seriousness of these findings.
https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases/grassley-alarming-fbi-failures-carter-page-fisa-were-tip-iceberg

The findings of systemic problems in the FBI's FISA applications are being used as a defense for the many errors found within the Carter Page FISA applications, but this approach ignores several significant issues specific to the Page FISAs.

Kevin Clinesmith, a senior attorney in the FBI’s Office of General Counsel, has reportedly been referred for criminal prosecution by Horowitz for allegedly altering an email connected to the renewal of a FISA warrant on Page.

Despite some media portrayals of Clinesmith as a low-level attorney, he was actually “the primary FBI attorney assigned” to the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation into alleged Russian election interference beginning in early 2017.

A second issue specific to the Page FISA pertains to the unusual, and early, involvement of McCabe and then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates.

According to Trisha Anderson, the principal deputy general counsel for the FBI, pre-approvals for the Page FISA were provided by both McCabe and Yates before the FISA application was ever presented to her for review.

Anderson: “[M]y boss and my boss’ boss had already reviewed and approved this application. And, in fact, the Deputy Attorney General, who had the authority to sign the application, to be the substantive approver on the FISA application itself, had approved the application."