Cleaning Up After Comey

Justice Dept concedes that two warrants on Carter Page were improper.

from The Editorial Board of the Wall Street Journal

Well, what do you know. The Justice Department now believes that at least two of its four secret surveillance warrants against former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page lacked probable cause. 

That striking admission was disclosed in a Jan. 7 judicial order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that was declassified Thursday. Presiding FISA Judge James Boasberg wrote that “DOJ assesses that with respect to the applications in Docket Numbers 17-375 and 17-679, ‘if not earlier, there was insufficient predication to establish probable cause to believe that [Carter] Page was acting as an agent of a foreign power.’”

Those were warrants sought by the FBI that we now know, thanks to reporting by our Kimberley Strassel and Inspector General Michael Horowitz, were based in major part on false information ginned up by Christopher Steele, who was financed by Democrats. Judge Boasberg’s order says Justice doesn’t “take a position” on the other two FISA warrants on Mr. Page, which could mean they are still being investigated by U.S. Attorney John Durham.

Recall that the fourth warrant was approved in June 2017, after Robert Mueller was named special counsel. That could affect the legality of information he collected under the order and may have used in prosecutions. Recall, too, the media sneers at anyone who questioned the provenance of the warrants. 

This is good news for Mr. Page and the country. The former adviser is getting his reputation back after three years of smears, and the FBI is slowly being forced to acknowledge its terrible mistakes while James Comey and his crew ran the bureau. Let’s hope there is more transparency and accountability to come, including the public release of much more information related to the FISA warrants and the genesis of the counterintelligence probe of the Trump campaign.