Rep. Devin Nunes said government surveillance will likely be a topic of discussion when President Trump visits California this week.
Trump is scheduled to make a trip to the San Joaquin Valley on Wednesday, his first visit to the area since taking office, as part of a four-day swing in the West to boost Republicans ahead of the 2020 election.
Politics, agriculture, and water supply are expected to dominate the conversation, but Nunes, whose district is located in the valley, spoke briefly Tuesday about another pressing topic bound to come up.
“I’m going to have a chance to talk to him [Trump],” the congressman told Fox News host Sean Hannity. “I’m sure this will come up: What is the FISA court going to look like in the future? That’s something that’s got to be fixed. This two-tier justice system that we have in this country is just totally unacceptable.”
Nunes, as the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, has been a leader in raising awareness of alleged FISA abuses against Carter Page, who was a member of Trump’s 2016 campaign. He also defended Trump’s tweets about the Justice Department at a time when the president’s commentary about politically sensitive investigations has bothered Attorney General William Barr.
Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz released a report late last year that identified at least 17 ”significant errors or omissions” in the Justice Department and the FBI’s use of British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s salacious and unverified dossier when pursuing FISA warrants to wiretap Page in 2016 and 2017 as part of a counterintelligence investigation into the Trump team’s ties to Russia.
At the conclusion of his investigation, special counsel Robert Mueller did not establish a criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.
A recent FISA court filing made public said the Justice Department found that “in view of the material misstatements and omissions,” the final two orders targeting Page “were not valid.”
With three FISA provisions expected to sunset in March, GOP lawmakers have threatened to take a stand against David Kris, a former Justice Department lawyer picked to advise the FISA court on the reform process, as some talk about begrudgingly abolishing the FISA court if their concerns about it being used to target political opponents are not addressed. Democrats in the House have requested FISA documents as they consider potential reforms and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham requested “transcribed interviews” with 17 DOJ and FBI employees as part of a separate inquiry.
