FISA Is Not Law-Enforcement – It’s Not Interference with Justice Department Independence for White House to Ask for FISA Information

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Andrew C. McCarthy:

In my earlier post, I explained that the Obama camp is disingenuously responding to revelations that, during the presidential campaign, the Obama administration conducted an investigation, including wiretapping, against Trump associates and perhaps Donald Trump himself. As I elaborated, one avenue of response is to conflate the Justice Department’s two missions – law-enforcement and national security. We can see this strategy playing out in the New York Times coverage of the controversy.

According to today’s Times report, a Trump official said that White House counsel Donald F. McGahn II is “working to secure access” to what is believed to be “an order issued by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court authorizing some form of surveillance related to Mr. Trump and his associates.” Presumably, this means the Trump White House is seeking to review the Justice Department’s applications for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) surveillance of Trump associates, and perhaps Trump himself, from June and October 2016, including any orders issued by the FISA court – as my post explains, it has been reported that the Obama Justice Department’s June application was denied, but its October application (which apparently did not name Trump) was granted.

The Times report continues (the italics are mine):

It would be a highly unusual breach of the Justice Department’s traditional independence on law enforcement matters for the White House to order it to turn over such an investigative document.

Any request for information from a top White House official about a continuing investigation would be a stunning departure from protocols intended to insulate the F.B.I. from political pressure. It would be even more surprising for the White House to seek information about a case directly involving the president or his advisers, as does the case involving the Russia contacts.

After the White House received heavy criticism for the suggestion that Mr. McGahn would breach Justice Department independence, a different administration official said that the earlier statements about his efforts had been overstated. The official said the counsel’s office was looking at whether there was any legal possibility of gleaning information without impeding or interfering with an investigation. The counsel’s office does not know whether an investigation exists, the official said.

To re-emphasize what I explained earlier: a FISA investigation is not a “law-enforcement matter” or “case.”

A law-enforcement matter is a criminal prosecution. That is the mission in which there should never be any political interference because it involves the strictly legal matter of whether there is evidence that penal statutes have been violated. In such a situation, White House intrusion would be political interference in a proceeding that is essentially judicial in nature, involving the potential removal of liberty from a citizen.

National security surveillance is not a judicial proceeding by nature. The point is not to remove a person’s liberty – the focus is not the citizen and his rights at all. National security surveillance is about the political responsibility (i.e., the duty assigned to the political branches in our constitutional system) to protect the national security of the United States against threats from foreign powers. This function is not judicial in nature. There was no judicial role in it at all until 1978 when Congress, in the post-Watergate era, enacted the constitutionally dubious FISA law.

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According to the fake news its only interference when a republican president dose it

Towergate Will Be Investigated: Congress Will Probe Trump’s Claims Obama Bugged Manhattan Home

The Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee says his panel will probe President Donald Trump’s allegations that Trump Tower was wire-tapped by President Obama’s administration. Rep. Devin Nunes, Rep for California, said his committee ‘will make inquiries into whether the government was conducting surveillance activities on any political party’s campaign officials or surrogates’, the chair said in a statement Sunday afternoon.

Earlier Sunday, Senate Intelligence Committee member, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., suggested his committee would look into the matter as well. ‘We’ve already begun an inquiry on the intelligence committee into Russia’s efforts to undermine confidence in our political system,’ Cotton said.

‘That inquiry is going to be thorough, and we’re going to follow the facts wherever they lead us. And I’m sure that this matter will be a part of that inquiry.’

Cotton’s committee chair, Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., made a broader statement. ‘As I’ve said since the beginning and have repeated since, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence will follow the evidence where it leads, and we will continue to be guided by the intelligence and facts as we compile our findings,’ Burr said Sunday.

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk …

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