Opposing view: Democrats’ memo doesn’t refute abuses

Now that Congressman Schiff ’s FISA memo is public, Americans can read for themselves the egregious violations the Schiff memo fails to refute, because they are irrefutable. The fact remains that the FBI and Justice Department went to a secret court with secret documents for a secret warrant to spy on a U.S. citizen. To obtain this warrant, they submitted an unverified dossier, failing to disclose that the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign paid for it, and that the source was unreliable and was soon thereafter going to be fired.

Furthermore, the Schiff memo doesn’t refute that other key information was not disclosed to the judges: Dossier author Christopher Steele was a source for the Yahoo story used in the FISA court to corroborate the dossier; the wife of Justice official Bruce Ohr worked for Fusion GPS, the research firm that hired Steele; Steele and Fusion GPS directly fed Ohr their file to be submitted to the court; and Carter Page and George Papadopoulos weren’t actually associates. Unfortunately, this is just a small sampling of the information that should have been submitted to the FISA court but wasn’t.

The government needs to disclose evidence that both helps its case and hurts it. FISA collection on an American is an extremely powerful tool, and any abuse is a huge problem. In other courts, a citizen facing charges has the right to be present with counsel, engage in discovery, and present evidence. Proceedings are often open to the public, videotaped and transcribed.

At a FISA court, the process is very different, with the government being the only party presenting evidence. Nowhere would it be more important to present the evidence supporting not only the government’s case but also the evidence against the government’s case, because the person to be spied on is not otherwise represented. Addressing this issue should be of concern for all Americans, regardless of political affiliation. Sunlight is the best disinfectant, and this abuse requires transparency, accountability and solutions.

Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.