Former FBI Director James Comey (Photo: Screen capture)

(CNSNews.com) - The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, in a declassified document dated Jan. 7, said it has been notified about "material misstatements and omissions" in two of the four FISA applications filed on Carter Page, a Trump campaign volunteer.

The FISA court said the Department of Justice "assesses" -- thanks to the work of the DOJ inspector general -- that the final two FISA application renewals contained "insufficient predication to establish probable cause to believe that [Carter] Page was acting as an agent of a foreign power."

That means the surveillance should have stopped sooner than it did.

Further, the FISA court said it "understands the government to have concluded, in view of the material misstatements and omissions, that [the two final FISA renewal applications] were not valid."

The filing notes that the Justice Department "apparently does not take a position on the validity" of the other two FISA applications, but it is believed to be looking into that.

Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas), appearing on Sean Hannity's show Thursday night, noted that the FISA warrants were a key part of the Trump-Russia investigation:

I mean, this is really staggering news. First of all, it's a great day for Carter Page. The government just admitted that they violated his civil rights. I'd love to be his lawyer. But the more profound impact here is, this is an admission that a counter-intelligence investigation against a sitting president was illegally continued. That's really earth-shaking news. And it's the same Democrats...that started the Russia impeachment hoax are some of the same folks involved in perpetuating this Ukraine impeachment hoax that we're unfortunately dealing with in the Senate trial.

Ratcliffe said he was one of the few people allowed to see the FBI’s FISA applications, and he reminded Hannity that he "told people that Carter Page's rights had been violated, and that the...FBI was spying on the Trump campaign."

House intelligence committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), on the other hand, told Americans that the FBI, DOJ and Obama administration "had done everything right. He knew that wasn't true," Ratcliffe said.

FISA applications are stamped "verified," but the Justice Department inspector general reported in December that the FBI committed "17 significant inaccuracies and omissions" in four sequential FISA applications to surveil Carter Page.

“We identified significant inaccuracies and omissions in each of the four applications—7 in the first FISA [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] application and a total of 17 by the final renewal application,” the IG report said.

“As a result of the 17 significant inaccuracies and omissions, we identified relevant information was not shared with, and consequently not considered by important department decision makers and the court, and the FISA applications made it appear as though the evidence supporting probably cause was stronger than was actually the case,” said the report.

The final FISA renewal application was signed by then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe. The one before that was signed by then-FBI Director James Comey and Justice Department official Dana Boente.









