Rep. Ron DeSantis said Friday that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will likely have to appear before Congress to explain his actions regarding the FISA warrants for members of the Trump campaign.
“I think Rosentstein is going to have to come to the Congress and explain his roll in extending it. I mean, did he go back and review it and was satisfied, or he just extended? And is he going to be able to justify this as a proper use of FISA?” Mr. DeSantis, Florida Republican, said on Fox News.
Mr. DeSantis, who is running for Florida governor, advocated for the release of the Republican memo prior to its being made public Friday. The memo, written by Rep. Devin Nunes, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said the unverified dossier was used as justification for obtaining high-level surveillance on Trump campaign aides. The memo details that without the dossier, funded by the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign, the warrants under the powers of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act would not have been granted.
“It’s a confluence of the Democratic Party, the Obama administration, Fusion GPS [and] the media. Shockingly, they use that Yahoo News article from September of 2016 as corroboration for the Steele dossier, but that article was based off Christopher Steele leaking to a reporter,” Mr. DeSantis said.
He said this shows that the Russia investigation is more “wishful thinking” on the part of Democrats rather than a substantive look into possible wrongdoing on the part of the Trump team.
“It just seems to me that they always thought the worst about any information they would get,” Mr. DeSantis said of the Democrats and “anti-Trump media.”
The memo was released against the wishes of the FBI and Department of Justice, who argued the memo was misleading and inaccurate. House Democrats have their own memo, which is still being reviewed for classified information, but House Speaker Paul D. Ryan said it’s likely the memo will also be released when it’s ready.
• Sally Persons can be reached at spersons@washingtontimes.com.
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