Hawley Calls for ‘Major Reform’ to the FISA Process following Russia Probe Abuses: ‘We Cannot Allow This to Keep Happening

Senator Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) called for “major reform” to the FISA process during an interview on Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight, in the wake of the recent Inspector General report detailing the errors and omissions included in the FBI’s warrant to surveil Trump-campaign adviser Carter Page.

The FBI in 2016 investigated the Trump campaign over allegations the campaign conspired with Russian operatives to influence that year’s presidential elections. During the investigation the FBI obtained a FISA warrant to surveil Page by relying on the largely discredited Steele dossier.

Intelligence Community IG Michael Horowitz found 17 “significant errors” in the FISA process used to surveil Page, and much of the information used in the applications “was inconsistent with, or undercut, the assertions contained in the FISA applications.”

“This is unprecedented in our history,” Hawley said. “The Democratic Party paid for this dossier that we now know is totally fake. They fed it to the FBI and the FBI used it and lied to [the FISA court]…four times, in order to intervene effectively in a presidential election.”

“There’s got to be major reform,” Hawley continued. “We cannot allow this to keep happening.”

The Federal Intelligence Surveillance Court, which grants FISA warrants, issued a rare public rebuke of the FBI on Tuesday in response to the IG report.

“The frequency with which representations made by FBI personnel turned out to be unsupported or contradicted by information in their possession, and with which they withheld information detrimental to their case, calls into question whether information contained in other FBI applications is reliable,” the court wrote.

Senate Republicans pledged to reform the FISA process last week during a hearing on the IG report. Several senators praised Utah Republican Mike Lee, a longtime FISA skeptic who has warned of potential abuses of the program.

“I wish Mike Lee weren’t sitting here two people from me right now, because as a national security hawk, I’ve argued with Mike Lee in the four-and-a-half or five years that I’ve been in the Senate that stuff just like this couldn’t possibly happen at the FBI and at the Department of Justice,” said Senator Ben Sasse (R., Neb.) at the hearing.