CNSNews.com) – The FISA warrant obtained by the FBI to spy on Trump campaign volunteer Carter Page has finally been released to the public, but it’s so heavily redacted, it’s meaningless — and can be misrepresented by Democrats — unless President Trump agrees to declassify it, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), chairman of the House intelligence committee, told “Sunday Morning Futures” with Maria Bartiromo.
Nunes and other Republicans say the FBI and DOJ obtained the warrant by giving the FISA court opposition research — the salacious Steele dossier — paid for by the Democrat Party and the Hillary Clinton campaign.
And Nunes says it’s even worse than people may think. As he wrote in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed: “If people think using the Clinton dirt to get a FISA is bad, what else that’s in that application is even worse.”
Nunes said committee Republicans wrote to President Trump in June, asking him to “declassify up to 20 pages.”
“So the president has the letter from us. I think his lawyers are looking at this to see if they can declassify it sooner rather than later. But the sooner this comes out, the better off we all are. Because what I’ve said is, what’s left that’s redacted, the American people really need to know what’s underneath of it,” Nunes said.
“Those of us who have providing oversight over this issue — we’ve had several of our members who have painstakingly going through it piece by piece. And we are quite confident that once the American people see these 20 pages, at least those that will get real reporting on this issue? They will be shocked by what’s in this FISA application.
Nunes said he doesn’t know if President Trump has read the redacted portion:
“All I know is we sent him a letter back in June asking him to declassify the 20 pages or more — I mean if they can declassify — the more, the better. But I think the bulk of what we would like to see are 20 pages in the last FISA that was signed by the Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.”
Nunes repeatedly has warned that “there is a stall game going on at the DOJ and FBI.”
“They are trying to stall as much as they can that, hoping and betting that Republicans would lose the House in the fall. And if that happens, then you’ve essentially shut down everything. Rod Rosenstein will not be held for contempt, FBI will not be held accountable.
“All of these investigations will be shut down, everything will be buried and you will be left with media narratives saying oh, what the public can’t read, what you really can’t read — what’s blacked out, that’s the really bad stuff against Carter Page and the Republicans and the Trump campaign.
“That’s why the sooner the president declassifies this, the better. And I think the American people need to understand how important it’s going to be to get out and vote in the election.”
Nunes said he believes Rosenstein should be impeached for failing to produce documents subpoenaed by Congress, although the articles of impeachment introduced last week by conservative Republicans have been put on hold for now.
“I think there are grounds for impeachment, and we should hold him accountable,” Nunes said. “I think Congress has given them way too much power. The way I understand it is, is the Judiciary Committee and Oversight Committee got commitments on Friday, I think the Speaker also got commitments — from what I understand — that documents will be provided.
“So we’re short a few documents, we are supposed to see those this week. But in addition to that, interviews/depositions will begin over August. So we will have members of Congress that will be flying back to Washington during August to conduct interviews with very important witnesses that need to be interviewed as it relates to getting to the bottom of this the Russiagate scandal.”
