T he Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act applications and approvals targeting former Trump campaign associate Carter Page have come under increased scrutiny as investigations of the investigators have heated up.
Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz has been looking into alleged FISA abuse since March 2018, and Attorney General William Barr — along with U.S. Attorney John Durham — has launched his own broader inquiry into the actions taken during the Trump-Russia investigation.
The FISA applications targeting Page required the approval of top members of the FBI, the DOJ, and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, and the current and former government officials involved will likely face tough questions over their actions.
The October 2016 FISA application and January 2017 FISA renewal were both approved by then-FBI Director James Comey and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates.
Former FBI Deputy General Counsel Trisha Anderson testified to the House Judiciary and Oversight committees in August 2018 about the “unusual way” that the first FISA request was handled, with approval coming from Yates and then-Deputy Director of the FBI Andrew McCabe before it reached her desk, contradicting the normal path that the FISA applications take and leading her to not feel the need to second-guess her higher-ups.
The April 2017 FISA renewal was approved by Comey and by Dana Boente. Boente is the only signatory still remaining in active government service, working as the Trump administration’s top lawyer at the FBI starting in January 2018.
The June 2017 FISA renewal was approved by McCabe and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
The 412 pages of redacted FISA documents released in 2018 show that the DOJ and FBI made extensive use of an unverified dossier compiled by British ex-spy Christopher Steele which made a series of allegations regarding Trump and Russia. Steele put his research together in 2016 at the behest of Fusion GPS, which had been hired by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee through the Perkins Coie law firm. Steele receiving funding from a Democratic presidential campaign was not revealed to the FISA Court.
The FISA court, for its part, approved all four applications and renewals, and the four judges involved were appointed by Republicans.
October 2016
An FBI supervisory special agent whose name is redacted signed their name on the initial FISA application, saying: “I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing information regarding Carter W. Page is true and correct.”
Top FBI approval for the initial FISA application came from former FBI Director James Comey, who signed his name under a statement which read, in part, that the “certif[ied] with regard to the [redacted] requested in this verified application targeting Carter W. Page, an agent of the Government of Russia, a foreign power, as follows…” and that he “[execute[d] this certification regarding Carter W. Page in accordance with the requirements of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978.”
Comey was replaced at the FBI by Director Christopher Wray.
Top DOJ approval for the initial FISA application came from then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, who signed it saying that she “f[ound] that this application regarding Carter W. Page satisfies the criteria and requirements for such applications set forth in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 and that she “approve[d] the filing of this application regarding Carter W. Page with the Court.”
A still-redacted DOJ lawyer told the FISA Court that the initial application “regarding Carter W. Page satisfies the criteria and requirements of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act… and therefore requests that the Court authorize the activities described herein.”
The initial FISA application was signed by Judge Rosemary Collyer of the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, whose signature attested that “on the basis of the facts submitted in the verified application, there is probable cause to believe that The Government of the Russian Federation (Russia) is a foreign power and Carter W. Page is an agent of Russia.” The FISA warrant granted by Collyer authorized the U.S. government to conduct a wide series of redacted surveillance techniques through January 2017, when the application would need to be renewed.
Collyer was appointed to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by then-President George W. Bush in 2003. Collyer joined the FISA Court after being selected by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts in March 2013, and she is currently the presiding judge. Collyer’s term goes all the way into March 2020.
January 2017
The second FISA application, also known as the first FISA warrant renewal, was also signed off on by a redacted supervisory special agent and submitted to the FISA Court by a redacted DOJ attorney.
FBI approval again came from Comey, and DOJ approval again came from Yates.
Yates would become acting attorney general in the early days of the Trump administration, taking over for former Attorney General Loretta Lynch. Yates was deeply involved in the DOJ and FBI investigation of then-national security adviser Mike Flynn during the first week or so of the Trump presidency, but was fired by Trump on Jan. 30, 2017, for refusing to enforce — and recommending that the broader DOJ not enforce — Trump’s “travel ban” executive order from Jan. 27, 2017.
She participated in a high-profile Senate hearing in May 2017, but since then, outside of the occasional TV appearance or podcast segment, she has largely demurred on getting involved in national politics, passing on the Georgia governor race and Georgia Senate races. She is now a partner at King and Spalding law firm in Atlanta.
The FISA Court judge who signed off on the second FISA application was Judge Michael Mosman, the George W. Bush-appointed chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon who joined the FISA Court in May 2013 and will serve on it through May 2020.
The third FISA application was again signed off on by a redacted supervisory special agent and submitted by a redacted DOJ attorney.
FBI approval again came from Comey, who would be fired the following month following a letter from then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, which heavily criticized Comey for the way he handled the Clinton emails investigation and which said that “the FBI is unlikely to regain public and congressional trust until it has a Director who understands the gravity of the mistakes and pledges never to repeat them.”
Memos leaked by Comey would leak to a friend who would then leak to the media at least one of his memos detailing conversations he’d had with Trump later in May, testifying to Congress soon after that he’d hoped it would spark the appointment of a special counsel. Rosenstein appointed Robert Mueller as special counsel on May 17, 2017.
Comey has since written an autobiography, A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership, and appears semi-regularly on TV, including a recent hour-long town hall on CNN. He is also active on Twitter, where he is known for sharing pictures of himself and critiquing Trump.
He has defended his handling of the Steele dossier and the FISA application in recent weeks.
DOJ approval for the third application came from Dana Boente, who was then the acting attorney general of the United States following then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions recusing himself from any Russia-related investigative matters in March 2017.
Boente is the only signatory still remaining in active government service — now-FBI Director Christopher Wray picked Boente to serve as the FBI’s general counsel in January 2018, where he has served ever since.
Boente replaced Jim Baker, who has said he was personally involved in the approval of at least the first FISA against Carter Page and who has repeatedly defended the FBI’s handling of the Steele dossier.
The third FISA application was signed off on by Anne Conway, the George H.W. Bush-appointed senior judge of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida who joined the FISA Court in May 2016 and will serve on it through May 2023.
The fourth and final FISA application was once more signed off on by a redacted supervisory special agent and submitted by a redacted DOJ attorney.
FBI approval came from then-Deputy Director of the FBI Andrew McCabe, who was repeatedly criticized by Trump on Twitter and was eventually fired in March 2018 by Sessions, who cited the DOJ inspector general report and the FBI’s disciplinary office which alleged that McCabe made unauthorized leaks to the media and was less than candid to investigators.
McCabe has made a number of TV appearances since then, where he has attacked Trump and defended the FBI’s actions handling the FISA process. He released his autobiography — The Threat: How the FBI Protects America in the Age of Terror and Trump — in February 2019.
DOJ approval for the final FISA came from then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, whose rocky relationship with Trump stemmed from his appointment of Mueller in 2017. McCabe and Rosenstein also clashed over whether Rosenstein’s suggestion about wearing a wire into the Oval Office was serious or not (McCabe said it was while Rosenstein said it was not). In the end, Rosenstein survived his tenure in office, worked with Barr following the completion of Mueller’s investigation to conclude that Trump had not obstructed justice, and was sent off into retirement following a celebration honoring him at DOJ headquarters in early May.
Raymond Dearie, the Reagan-appointed federal judge for the Eastern District of New York who joined the FISA Court in July 2012 and will serve on it into July 2019, signed off on the last application
Barr originally predicted that Horowitz’s investigation of alleged FISA abuse would be completed by the end of June, but that is looking increasingly unlikely.