OPINION:
The Department of Justice was caught spying on the man likely to become the next FBI director. That’s not a good look for an agency charged with ensuring “fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans.”
According to a report released Tuesday by DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz, prosecutors snooped on congressional staffers in a scheme that risked “chilling Congress’s ability to conduct oversight of the executive branch.”
In 2017, when the Russia hoax was in full swing, lurid details about various ongoing federal investigations showed up in stories by CNN, The New York Times and The Washington Post. These unauthorized disclosures advanced the lie that then-President Donald Trump was an agent of Russia.
It doesn’t take a master sleuth to crack this case. As a previous IG report found, every high-ranking FBI official had those compliant reporters on speed dial. Peter Strzok, the agent who initiated and approved the investigation of the president of the United States texted his paramour on April 10, 2017, about his desire to “talk to you about media leak strategy with DOJ before you go.”
Nonetheless, the Department of Justice saw its own leaking as an opportunity to order Apple, Google and other messaging providers to hand over the personal information of 43 congressional staffers without notifying them of the federal intrusion. Half the targets were Republican.
These included Jason Foster, oversight lawyer for Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, and Kash Patel, investigator for then-House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes. They were unlikely suspects in a plot to undermine a GOP president.
“The Department did not charge anyone in these investigations with unauthorized disclosure of classified information, and all four of the investigations are now closed,” Mr. Horowitz wrote.
This is not quite accurate. As acknowledged in a footnote, James Wolfe, formerly a top Senate Intelligence Committee staffer, was sentenced to two months in jail after being caught texting the complete warrant issued under the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act against Carter Page to a young New York Times reporter with whom Mr. Wolfe had an illicit romantic dalliance.
Release of a top-secret FISA warrant was unprecedented — an offense of the same gravity as Edward Snowden’s disclosures. Mr. Snowden lives in exile, yet then-U.S. District Court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson decided a few weeks at Club Fed was appropriate for Mr. Wolfe, who was charged only with lying about leaking, not for the leak itself.
The existence of the FISA warrant against Mr. Trump’s campaign adviser provided credibility to the allegations cooked up by Hillary Clinton as a dirty campaign trick. FBI agents who openly hated Mr. Trump had secured the FISA warrant by citing Mrs. Clinton’s dossier to the court. Then the warrant itself was leaked as proof the dossier allegations were true. The whole exercise was circular.
Mr. Horowitz found “no evidence” the same DOJ strategizing on how best to achieve its goals through media leaks was using its investigation as cover for the snooping that kept them one step ahead of Republican investigators.
For this reason, the president-elect’s choice of Mr. Patel to run the house that J. Edgar Hoover built is an inspired one. Having been on the receiving end of FBI misconduct, Mr. Patel won’t stop until the bureau returns to its mission of fighting crime.
To aid him in this mission, Congress needs to revamp the ease with which America’s surveillance apparatus is hijacked for political ends. Judges caught rubber-stamping dodgy warrants ought to lose their ability to authorize future espionage.
Otherwise, judges have shown they lack the incentive to perform this duty with the seriousness it deserves.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.