Senator asking chief justice to probe FISA-court abuse

U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts (official photo)

The attorney general, the Justice Department inspector general and the Senate are investigating.

And now a senator says he'll ask Supreme Court Justice John Roberts to investigate.

The issue is the Obama administration's use of a political opposition-research "dossier" to obtain permission from a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to spy on the Trump campaign back during the 2016 election.

Attorney General William Barr has called such spying a big deal and says he is reviewing the matter. The DOJ inspector general is expected to release a report soon. And Republican senators members say they want to probe the origins of the FBI and special counsel investigations of Russia collusion.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa noted in a hearing with Barr Wednesday that Mueller apparently ignored in his collusion probe the opposition-research document funded by Hillary Clinton's campaign and the Democratic National Committee that was based on Russian sources.

The Washington Examiner reported Thursday Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said he will ask Roberts to investigate possible abuse of the FISA court.

Graham, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he will call Roberts to ask, "Would you please look and see what happened?"

Roberts, as chief justice, appoints judges to the secret court.

The Examiner noted that last February, the House Intelligence Committee, then chaired by Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., released a memo presenting evidence the anti-Trump dossier was used to obtain a FISA warrant and three renewals to spy on Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.

But the court was not told of its author's anti-Trump bias and its funding by Democrats.

"Republicans have often cited the use of the dossier as misinformation used to improperly monitor Trump and his campaign during the months leading up to the 2016 presidential election while Democrats argued in a rebuttal memo that the FISA process was not abused and the Justice Department and FBI 'met the rigor, transparency, and evidentiary basis needed to meet FISA's probable cause requirement,'" the report said.

Nunes previously has asked the FISA court to hold the FBI accountable for misleading the judges about the dossier. He argued that not doing so would further damage the credibility of the FISA process, the report said.