Fmr. FBI Director Comey told a Senate hearing that the FBI had a legitimate reason to launch its investigation of the 2016 Trump campaign and defended the agency's general conduct.
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which approved the warrants, was not told that Page had done work for the CIA. That would have explained why he had contact with certain Russians. And it was not told that the infamous Steele dossier, which was used to bolster the application, was based largely on a discredited source with ties to Russian intelligence.
Committee Democrats, by contrast, said the inspector general's report concluded that the FBI had legitimate reasons for opening the investigation, after an Australian diplomat told U.S. authorities that a Trump campaign aide, George Papadopoulos, had said Russians offered him dirt on Hillary Clinton.
Comey agreed."The overarching investigation was very important," he said."The Page slice of it, far less, given the scope." Asked by Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., how these errors could happen on his watch, Comey said he now believes the FISA process had too many people involved, diffusing accountability.
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