Monday at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, delivered his final State of National Security address.
Following the address, McCaul took a question about the recent House Intelligence Committee memo that suggested wrongdoing by the FBI and the Department of Justice regarding the FISA warrant process.
Given the high degree of politicization regarding the memo and how it alleged the application for the warrant was based on a “salacious and unverifiable” document known as the so-called Russian dossier, McCaul said he thought it would be appropriate to release all the supporting documents for the FISA warrant.
“I believe that the entire FISA application, including the affidavit attached, taking out methods and sources, should be released to the American people, so we have a full context of what was the basis for the application from an evidence standpoint,” McCaul said. “I believe Americans, be it Democrat or Republican have a right to see that.”
McCaul also said the Justice Department Inspector General should investigate the politics of those that sought the FISA warrant.
“I do believe the Inspector General is looking into a couple of these FBI agent’s political motivations in relation to some of these politically charged investigations,” he added. “When I was at the Justice Department in the public integrity section, we prided ourselves on not being partisan. Nobody knew what your political affiliation was and that was for a reason. We were not supposed to bring our politics into that office because it undermines the integrity of the institution and the credibility. And that should not have happened in this case. The IG is looking at this particular investigation, but I would respectfully request and recommend that the IG also expand his investigation into this FISA warrant application to determine whether it was valid or not. And if it is not, it should not go forward.”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.