FISA Court Balks

For John, BLUF:  Here is where separation of powers comes into play.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Secret surveillance court puts pressure on DOJ over Carter Page warrant records

From Fox News' Mr Adam Shaw, 16 Feb 2018.

Here is the lede plus five:

The head of a top secret surveillance court, in an unusual letter to GOP lawmakers, seemed to put pressure on the Justice Department to consider releasing documents related to the 2016 surveillance warrant granted against a Trump campaign aide.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) was responding to requests from the House Intelligence and House Judiciary committees for transcripts of hearings and other documents related to the applications to spy on Trump aide Carter Page.

Republicans claim the Obama FBI relied heavily on the unverified anti-Trump dossier in their application and failed to adequately disclose the document's Democratic funding.

But in two letters from the court Thursday, Judge Rosemary M. Collyer made clear to Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., and his House Judiciary Committee counterpart -- Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va. -- that the information would be better obtained from the Justice Department.

“While this analysis is underway, you may note that the Department of Justice possesses (or can easily obtain) the same responsive information the Court might possess, and because of separation of powers considerations, is better positioned than the Court to respond quickly,” Collyer wrote to Nunes.

Collyer added that the court does not object to the Executive Branch giving such information to Congress.  She noted in her other letter that Goodlatte already has made such a request to the DOJ and FBI.

I don't think the FISA Judges want to take the fall for machinations of DOJ, including within the FBI.

Regards  —  Cliff