Watchdog finds new problems with FBI wiretap applications – By Erick Tucker (The Associated Press) / April 1 2020
WASHINGTON — The FBI has failed to follow its own policies for ensuring the accuracy of applications it submits to conduct wiretaps in national security investigations, including in some cases by not having documentation to support arguments made to judges, according to a letter released Tuesday,
The findings are on top of problems identified last year by the inspector general’s office, which concluded that FBI agents had made significant errors and omissions in applications to eavesdrop on a former Trump campaign adviser during the early months of the Russia investigation. Those mistakes prompted internal changes within the FBI and spurred a congressional debate over whether the bureau’s surveillance tools should be reined in.
After the Russia report was submitted last December, Inspector General Michael Horowitz announced a broader review of the FBI’s spy powers and its applications before the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. As part of that review, the watchdog office examined how well the FBI was complying with internal rules that require agents to submit supporting documentation to back up every factual assertion they make in the application.
Those rules, known as the Woods Procedures, were developed in 2001 after mistakes were identified in multiple applications, known by the acronym FISA, that were submitted in counterterrorism investigations.
Horowitz said in a letter to FBI Director Chris Wray that in four of the 29 FISA applications his office selected for review, the FBI could not produce any supporting documents or records. In the 25 applications that were supplemented with supporting documentation, the office “identified apparent errors or inadequately supported facts in all” of them.
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