Watchdog finds new problems with FBI wiretaps

WASHINGTON — An inspector general uncovered pervasive problems in FBI wiretap applications, according to a memo released Tuesday detailing a review that grew out of a damning report last year about errors and omissions in applications to target a former Trump campaign adviser as part of the Russia investigation.

The followup audit by the office of the Justice Department’s independent watchdog, Michael Horowitz, revealed a pattern of sloppiness by the bureau in using powerful tools to eavesdrop on American soil in nationalsecurity cases. But it also helps the FBI politically because it undercuts the narrative among President Trump and his supporters that the bureau cut corners to surveil the adviser, Carter Page, as part of a politically motivated conspiracy.

Horowitz’s investigators reviewed a random sample of 29 applications by the FBI for court permission to wiretap someone as part of a terrorism or espionage investigation under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA. They found problems with all 29 of them.

In 25 of the applications, the review found an average of about 20 problems each. One alone had 65 issues. The four other applications could not be scrutinized at all because the FBI could not locate the socalled Woods file, where it is supposed to catalog supporting documentation for each factual claim in a FISA application.

“We do not have confidence that the FBI has executed its Woods Procedures in compliance with FBI policy, or that the process is working as it was intended to help achieve the ‘scrupulously accurate’ standard for FISA applications,” the inspector general report said.

The report took no position on the scale of the errors, whether they were minor or could have changed law enforcement officials’ decisions to seek wiretap orders or a judge’s decision to approve them.

In a statement appended to the report, the FBI said it accepted the findings but also said that it believed it is addressing the source of the problems through corrective steps it put in place following the earlier report about Page — like greater training and new checklists that officials preparing documents for FISA applications must follow.