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Headline Roundup December 15th, 2019

Concerns with "Serious Errors" by FBI in Warrants to Spy

Summary from the AllSides News Team

"Basic, fundamental and serious errors" by the FBI, especially in getting a warrant from the FISA court to "spy" on American citizens, has raised serious concerns about civil liberties from the left, center and right. Information presented to the FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) court was described by Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz as misleading with 17 examples of “significant inaccuracies and omissions” including one case when a lawyer with the FBI altered an email to help persuade the court to approve a warrant to spy on a Trump campaign aide. While many groups from the left that normally would be outraged by infringements on civil liberties by national security authorities remained relatively silent, presumably because criticism would politically benefit President Trump, others like the ACLU called for reform. Many on the right were not only outraged by these actions against civil liberties, but also how the FBI under the Obama Administration used misleading and altered evidence to obtain permission to spy on a political rival's campaign. They felt that even if the Inspector General could not find direct evidence to prove bias, the underlying bias was self evident and their actions were corrupt.

Featured Coverage of this Story

From the Left
The FBI's warrant system for spying on Americans is a mess, the IG report shows
The FBI's warrant system for spying on Americans is a mess, the IG report shows

NBC News Digital

Analysis

Analysis: The report found an FBI process so rife with errors that the bureau's director immediately issued a statement saying he would begin reforms.

Given the unsupported claims President Donald Trump has made for two years about the FBI's Russia investigation — calling it a witch hunt cooked up by his political opponents — the conclusion by the Justice Department watchdog that the probe was justified was big news.

But the other major findings of the inspector general's report — that there were serious problems with the way the FBI...

Open on NBC News Digital
From the Center
Horowitz offers troubling picture of FBI's Trump campaign probe
News

Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz delivered a troubling picture of missteps taken during the FBI’s investigation into Trump campaign associates on Wednesday, saying his findings should not be viewed as a vindication of the bureau.

Horowitz, testifying for more than five hours before the Senate Judiciary Committee, outlined the findings of his 20-month investigation into the bureau’s probe, saying he found “basic, fundamental and serious errors” as part of the FBI’s process.

“We are deeply concerned that so many basic and fundamental errors were made by three separate,...

Open on The Hill
From the Right
The FBI’s Corrupt Cops
The FBI’s Corrupt Cops

National Review (News)

Analysis

White-collar criminals should hope for one thing this Christmas: that they get to live under the Horowitz rules.

Michael Horowitz has testified that he found no evidence of political bias on the part of the decision makers who, under the Obama administration, relied on hilariously implausible “evidence” and falsified evidence of their own in order to launch a federal investigation of the Trump campaign. Rather than political bias, Horowitz says, the investigation uncovered a series of “basic and fundamental” errors. Democrats are cheering that aspect of the report, because they...

Open on National Review (News)
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