Donald Trump on Friday suggested Barack Obama directed an effort to cheat the FISA system in order to spy on his 2016 campaign.
‘Personally I think it goes all the way,’ the president said on ‘Fox & Friends.’
He also predicted the revelations that come out of Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s review of FBI efforts to obtain warrants to survey his former campaign aide Carter Page under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act will be the ‘biggest scandal in the history of our country.’
Donald Trump suggested Barack Obama directed an effort to cheat the FISA system in order to spy on his 2016 campaign
President Trump called into ‘Fox & Friends’ on Friday morning
President Trump has long pushed that forces inside the government when Barack Obama was president tried to deny him the presidency
Horowitz is set to release his report next month but CNN reported his probe has resulted in a criminal investigation into an FBI official suspected of ‘altering’ a document in the warrant application to spy on Carter.
‘What you’re going to see – I predict – will be perhaps the biggest scandal in the history of our country,’ Trump told Fox News.
He went on to add you have ‘a lot of very very bad people. And you know a lot of people say deep state, I don’t like to use deep state so I just say really bad and sick people.’
‘Are you suggesting it could actually go up into the West Wing of the Obama administration?’ Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade asked him.
‘This is my opinion. I said it a long time ago,’ Trump said.
The president has long claimed nefarious forces inside the U.S, intelligence community conspired in an attempt to deny him the presidency.
Before his ‘Fox & Friends’ interview, Trump reacted on social media. ‘Hello, here we go!’ he tweeted.
The alleged document-tampering into the warrant application for Page was uncovered during Horowitz’s probe into the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation, and subsequently referred to U.S. Attorney John Durham for criminal investigation, CNN reported on Thursday.
The FBI sought and was granted a FISA warrant In October 2016 to surveil Page’s communications and access all of his stored emails and texts. Such warrants are issued by special federal courts convened in secret to make decisions about the application of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
To obtain the warrant, the FBI had to convince a judge there that probable cause existed that Page was a foreign agent. The 90-day warrant was renewed three times, but Page has never been charged with any crime.
The president has long claimed nefarious forces inside he U.S, intelligence community conspired in an attempt to deny him the presidency; a new criminal probe has given his complaint some new legs
Former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page is seen above; a new report says an FBI official is being investigated for tampering with documents used to obtain the FISA warrant against him
U.S. Attorney John Durham (above) has opened a criminal investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe; an FBI official is now reportedly a subject in Durham’s investigation
It’s unclear which FBI official is under criminal investigation for allegedly tampering with documents in the warrant application.
The names of the supervisory special agent or agents who submitted sworn statements to support the FISA application and renewals were redacted when the applications were publicly released.
Former FBI director James Comey signed off on the FBI evidence in the applications prior to being fired by President Donald Trump in May 2017.
Former FBI Deputy Director Andy McCabe signed off on the subsequent renewals.
The alleged FBI document tampering is expected to be addressed in Horowitz’s IG report, which is undergoing final classification review.
In a letter sent on Thursday to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, Horowitz said he expected his office to be able to release the report on December 9 ‘barring unforeseen circumstances.’
Former FBI director James Comey (left) and former FBI Deputy Director Andy McCabe (right) both signed off on FBI evidence in the FISA warrant application and renewals targeting Page
Inspector General Michael Horowitz (above) says he expects to release his report into the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation on December 9
Attorney General Bill Barr has pledged to make the report public with only the redactions needed to protect classified national security interests.
The report is expected to examine how closely the FBI stuck to the law and rules when it went to a secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court beginning in 2016 to obtain authorization to conduct electronic monitoring of Page.
The report will also examine how British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s ‘dirty dossier’ became key FBI evidence.
The dossier, which was funded by Trump’s Democratic political opponents, was cited prominently in the FISA warrant application to surveil Page.
Steele’s dossier claimed that Page was a secret intermediary to the Russian government and had personally hatched the idea to leak stolen DNC emails during the Democrats’ nominating convention. Those claims have never been proven, and Page strenuously denies them.
Steele was questioned at length last summer by representatives of the Inspector General’s office in connection with the forthcoming report.
The IG report will also examine how British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s (above) ‘dirty dossier’ became key FBI evidence, including in the Page FISA application
Page, a one-time foreign policy adviser to Trump’s 2016 campaign, recently sued the Justice Department, accusing it of violating his privacy by failing to give him an opportunity to examine the IG report before publication.
Durham, the chief federal prosecutor in Connecticut, is conducting a review of whether U.S. spy and law enforcement agencies acted properly when they initiated and pursued investigations of possible ties between Trump and his campaign and Russia.
A person familiar with the matter confirmed in late October that Durham’s inquiry had become a criminal investigation.
Durham has visited Italy as part of his probe, reportedly to try to dig up information on Josef Mifsud, a mysterious Maltese academic.
John Durham has reportedly been trying to learn more about Josef Mifsud (above), a mysterious Maltese academic who indirectly triggered the Trump-Russia probe
It was Mifsud’s tip to Trump presidential campaign adviser George Papadopoulos that Russia had ‘dirt’ on Hillary Clinton which triggered the FBI investigation into possible Trump campaign ties to Russia.
FBI insiders call Mifsud a Kremlin agent — but Trump supporters allege that he has ties to Western intelligence, including MI6, and claim he may have been a plant to incriminate the Trump campaign.
Mifsud hasn’t been seen publicly for months, but last week an Italian publication received an encrypted file with a voice recording claiming to be Mifsud speaking on November 11.
In the recording, the voice denied being an agent of any national intelligence service, insisting he was merely an academic.