One day after Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he will ask the Justice Department inspector general to investigate alleged FISA surveillance abuse, Donald Trump erupted with a Wednesday morning tweet:
“Why is A.G. Jeff Sessions asking the Inspector General to investigate potentially massive FISA abuse. Will take forever, has no prosecutorial power and already late with reports on Comey etc. Isn’t the I.G. an Obama guy? Why not use Justice Department lawyers? DISGRACEFUL!”
On Tuesday, after announcing a new task force to curb opioid prescription abuse, Sessions was asked if his department will investigate Republican claims that an opposition research document — paid for by the Democrat Party and the Hillary Clinton campaign — formed the basis of a FISA warrant to spy on Carter Page, an unpaid Trump campaign adviser.
“We believe the Department of Justice must adhere to the high standards in the FISA court,” Sessions replied. “And yes, it will be investigated. And I think that’s just the appropriate thing, the inspector general will take that as one of the matter’s he’ll deal with.”
Trump has blasted Sessions for recusing himself from the Trump-Russia probe.
“Sessions should have never recused himself, and if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me before he took the job and I would have picked somebody else,” Trump told the New York Times in July 2017.
And in various tweets, Trump has criticized the Justice Department’s failure to look into Russian meddling during the Obama administration; Sessions’ “very weak position” on “Hillary Clinton’s crimes”; and (in July) Sessions’ failure to replace acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, who has since resigned.
DOJ-IG Michael Horowitz is currently investigating the way the FBI handled its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s “extremely careless” handling of work-related email. Press reports say his report on the Clinton case is expected to be released in March or April.
The IG’s investigation recently turned up a cache of politically charged, anti-Trump, pro-Hillary emails between two senior FBI agents involved in an extra-marital affair.
(Courtesy CNSNews.com)
