Radio Recap: Fmr FBI Lawyer: FISA Application to Spy on Trump Campaign Approved in “Unusual” Way

In news that just broke last night, we’ve learned the former “number two” attorney at the FBI has confirmed the agency used “unusual” means to spy on the Trump presidential campaign.

On today’s show, we discussed testimony before a joint session of the House Judiciary and Oversight committees by former FBI Deputy General Counsel Trisha Anderson. It was Anderson’s job to review FISA requests, including determining whether there is legal sufficiency, prior to approval. Yet according to Anderson’s reported testimony under oath, this one was apparently take over her head:

“in this particular case, I'm drawing a distinction because my boss and my boss’ boss had already reviewed and approved this application.” She emphasized “this one was handled a little bit differently in that sense, in that it received very high-level review and approvals — informal, oral approvals — before it ever came to me for signature . . . . My approval at that point was really purely administrative in nature. In other words, the substantive issues — the FISA had already substantively been approved by people much higher than me in the chain of command.”

Anderson said the FISA request, which relied heavily on the dubious Steele Dossier – which FBI General Counsel James Baker admitted they didn’t take literally – had already been signed off on by FBI Director James Comey, FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, and Baker himself, before it ever reached her desk. So as we said, it would have been pointless for Anderson to question the FISA request, let alone deny it, if so many powers above, including her boss and her boss’ boss, said it was good to go.

Anderson’s statements confirm what Attorney General Bill Barr has said. Barr recently told Fox News he believed the FBI’s investigation into the campaign:

"wasn't [being] handled in the ordinary way that investigations or counterintelligence activities are conducted . . . This was handled in a very senior level.”

Throughout his campaign, President Trump said he was going to drain the swamp. Clearly the swamp creatures were willing to do whatever they could to stop him. Now that they’ve failed and AG Barr has appointed a specific U.S. Attorney to investigate their potentially-criminal activities, they’re turning on each other.

You can listen to the entire episode here.