DOJ Releases FISA Warrant Application for Carter Page

The Justice Department late Friday released a redacted copy of the controversial Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant application on former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page that Republicans said showed bias at the DOJ and FBI, The New York Times reports.

The warrant was approved in 2016 and allowed the FBI to conduct surveillance on Trump’s former foreign policy adviser.

Republican Rep. Devin Nunes of California in February wrote a memo claiming that a scandalous but unverified dossier and a news article were some of the sources used to begin spying.

Democrats rebutted the claims, writing that the FBI and DOJ would have been “remiss in their duty to protect the country had they not sought a FISA warrant and repeated renewals to conduct temporarily surveillance of” Page, “someone the FBI assessed to be an agent of the Russian government.”

The DOJ application was heavily redacted and read:

“This application targets Carter Page,” the application said. “The F.B.I. believes Page has been the subject of targeted recruitment by the Russian government.” A line was then redacted, and then it picked up with “undermine and influence the outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential election in violation of U.S. criminal law. Mr. Page is a former foreign policy adviser to a candidate for U.S. president.”

Material in a FISA warrant is considered highly classified, and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court proceedings are also conducted in secret.

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