Report: FBI and Justice Department Want Names Redacted from the FISA Memo

Redacted Document
Kristina Wong

FBI Director Christopher Wray and the Justice Department want all names redacted from the memo detailing alleged surveillance abuse, according to investigative journalist Sara Carter.

“BREAKING: @FBI Director Christopher Wray and DOJ wants all names redacted from #FISAMemo putting pressure on White House and House Intelligence Committee, Government officials say … is releasing names a threat to national security?” Carter tweeted Thursday.

The request is just the latest in the FBI’s attempt to stop the memo from being released, which a source on background told Breitbart News would likely happen on Friday.

The FBI on Wednesday afternoon released a rare statement saying it had “grave concerns” about the memo:

The FBI takes seriously its obligations to the FISA Court and its compliance with procedures overseen by career professionals in the Department of Justice and the FBI. We are committed to working with the appropriate oversight entities to ensure the continuing integrity of the FISA process.

With regard to the House Intelligence Committee’s memorandum, the FBI was provided a limited opportunity to review this memo the day before the committee voted to release it. As expressed during our initial review, we have grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo’s accuracy.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) fired back in a statement, calling those objections “spurious”:

“Having stonewalled Congress’ demands for information for nearly a year, it’s no surprise to see the FBI and DOJ issue spurious objections to allowing the American people to see information related to surveillance abuses at these agencies,” he said.

“The FBI is intimately familiar with ‘material omissions’ with respect to their presentations to both Congress and the courts, and they are welcome to make public, to the greatest extent possible, all the information they have on these abuses. Regardless, it’s clear that top officials used unverified information in a court document to fuel a counter-intelligence investigation during an American political campaign. Once the truth gets out, we can begin taking steps to ensure our intelligence agencies and courts are never misused like this again.”

The DOJ and FBI have clashed with House Intelligence Committee investigators throughout the committee’s probe into Russian meddling and potential collusion by the Trump campaign.

Last year, the committee subpoenaed records from the DOJ and FBI in August, but it was not until late December that the committee received access to the documents, after Nunes threatened to hold Wray and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in contempt of Congress, and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) intervened on behalf of Nunes.

Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC) tweeted Thursday that the FBI was right to have “grave concerns.”

“Having read ‘The Memo,’ the FBI is right to have ‘grave concerns’ – as it will shake the organization down to its core – showing Americans just how the agency was weaponized by the Obama officials/DNC/HRC to target political adversaries. #ReleaseTheMemo,” he tweeted.

Wray and Rosenstein reportedly went to the White House on Monday, to convince White House Chief of Staff John Kelly not to release the memo. On Wednesday, Kelly said he expected it would be released “pretty quick.”

“It will be released here pretty quick, I think, and then the whole world can see it,” Kelly told Fox News.

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