A Necessary Change

On Tuesday, Just the News posted an article about some changes being made to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to prevent the kind of abuse of the Act that we saw during the 2016 presidential campaign.

The article reports:

Seeking to address massive failures during the Russia probe, FBI Director Chris Wray and Attorney General William Barr announced Tuesday sweeping new reforms to ensure future warrants targeting Americans under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act are accurate, legal and free from political influence.

The changes include the creation of a new audit office to review FISA applications and new vetting to ensure the accuracy of agents’ evidence when seeking to spy on U.S. citizens. The Justice Department also created new protocol governing when surveillance can be conducted on elected officials and candidates for office.

The changes, memorialized in two separate memos, are an outgrowth of a DOJ inspector general report last December that identified 17 instances of misconduct, erroneous evidence, factual omissions and mistakes in the pursuit of a FISA application targeting former Trump adviser Carter Page during the Russia collusion investigation. Last month, a former FBI lawyer pleaded guilty to falsifying evidence during the probe.

The article notes:

“FISA is a critical tool to ensuring the safety and security of Americans, particularly when it comes to fighting terrorism. However, the American people must have confidence that the United States government will exercise its surveillance authorities in a manner that protects the civil liberties of Americans, avoids interference in the political process, and complies with the Constitution and laws of the United States,” Barr said. “What happened to the Trump presidential campaign and his subsequent administration after the President was duly elected by the American people must never happen again.”

That’s fine, but when are all of the people who were involved in the misuse of FISA warrants going to be held accountable?