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FBI Agents Pushed For A FISA To Investigate Foreign Government Targeting Hillary Clinton
by Chuck Ross, The Daily Caller:
- The FBI investigated a foreign government’s efforts to influence Hillary Clinton in 2015, going as far as seeking a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act order.
- But FBI documents released Sunday show that the bureau opted against a FISA. Instead, an FBI agent provided a defensive briefing to Clinton’s personal lawyers in October 2015.
- Sen. Lindsey Graham, who released the documents, said the records are evidence of a double standard at the FBI. The bureau obtained FISA warrants against a Trump aide and planted an FBI agent in a defensive briefing for Donald Trump and Michael Flynn in August 2016.
FBI agents in 2015 sought authorization to surveil foreign government operatives who sought to influence Hillary Clinton, but ultimately settled for a defensive briefing given to lawyers for the Democratic presidential candidate, according to documents released on Sunday.
One FBI agent involved in the investigation asked then-FBI Director James Comey in an April 2015 email for a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant, according to the documents, published by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham.
A FISA order was not granted in the investigation. Instead, an FBI special agent provided a defensive briefing to Clinton’s personal lawyers in October 2015.
Graham, a Republican, said that the documents are evidence of a double standard in how the FBI conducted investigations of foreign meddling regarding the Clinton and Trump campaigns.
The FBI obtained FISA orders against former Trump campaign aide Carter Page in October 2016 as part of its investigation into Russia’s meddling in the election. The FISA Court has been highly critical of the FBI over its surveillance of Page, citing numerous errors and omissions found in applications for the spy warrants.
The FBI provided defensive briefings to Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton regarding general foreign threats in August 2016. But unlike during its briefing for Clinton, the FBI used an agent in the Trump briefing to collect information as part of Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI’s counterintelligence probe of the Trump campaign.
