Rep. Jordan: FBI Used 'Garbage' Dossier to Get Warrants 'to Spy on Americans' Associated With Trump's Campaign

House Oversight Committee member Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said he is "convinced" that FBI officials used the salacious and false dossier about Donald Trump, paid for by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee, to get "warrants to spy on Americans associated with Donald Trump's campaign."

Jordan added that the FBI could clear up this issue "if they release the application that they took to court," but they refuse to do so. It has been reported that former Trump campaign officials Carter Page and Paul Manafort were spied on in 2016 by U.S. intelligence agencies after the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA Court) granted warrants to do so. 

 

Rep. Jordan, speaking on Lou Dobbs Tonight, said he believes it was FBI counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok "who took the dossier" to the "FISA Court." Strzok was working with Special Counsel Robert Mueller until this summer when his extra-marital affair and vehemently anti-Trump tweets were discovered; Strzok was reassigned to the FBI's human resources department in August.

"He's the guy who took the dossier, I believe," Jordan told Dobbs, "or part of the team that took the dossier and took it to the FISA court. It's the dossier that was paid for by the Democratic National Committee. Paid [ex-British spy] Christopher Steele who paid Russians to put this false op together. He [Strzok] is the one I think who was working with others to put this together and take it to the court. That's what we need to know."

"This is why we need a second special counsel which we called for months ago," said Jordan. "But every time we learn more, it just reinforces the idea that we need that second special counsel."

In the beginning of his Dec. 7 interview of Rep. Jordan, host Lou Dobbs asked, "Congressman, you gave FBI Director [Christopher] Wray quite a grilling today. Are you satisfied with the answers that you elicited?"

Jordan said, "Well, I'll be satisfied when they release the application that was taken to the FISA court. I'm convinced that most likely Peter Strzok was the guy who helped assembled that application, took it to the FISA where the court granted and that application was based on the dossier with all the garbage in it. That dossier was used as a basis for getting warrants to spy on Americans associated with Donald Trump's campaign. So they can prove I'm wrong by releasing the application. I hope they do that."

"Lou, there are couple of fundamental questions here," said Jordan.  "Did the FBI pay [ex-British spy] Christopher Steele? I asked that of Attorney General Sessions two weeks ago, he wouldn't answer the question. Did they actually vet this dossier, look at this dossier, go through this corroborative, corrected, look at it? Because it's been disproven."

"It's a bunch of lies," he said.  "It's a bunch of national enquirer garbage and fake news in this thing. Did they actually check it out before they took it to the FISA court which I'm convinced they do? Those are the sort of a fundamental questions."

"And all this can get cleared up if they release the application that they took to the court," said Jordan.  "He [Wray] said he couldn't do it, they're allowed to do that. They can give it to the Judiciary Committee, the committee with oversight of the Justice Department. They can do that. That clears up a lot of things."

"But I think they won't give it to us, because they did take that to Steele," said the congressman.  "I think they did use the dossier as a basis for the warrants to spy on Americans associated with President Trump's campaign."

Lou Dobbs then remarked, "Your charges put it straightforwardly that the FBI leadership is corrupt and acted in corrupt and unlawful manner to achieve a political purpose."

Congressman Jordan answered, "Think about [FBI agent] Peter Strzok, the guy who is dismissed from Mueller's team, that's what we learned this weekend. Here's the guy who headed the Clinton investigation up, interviewed [Huma] Abedin, interviewed Cheryl Mills, interviewed Secretary Clinton. He's the guy who took the exoneration statement, changed, 'grossly negligent' to 'extreme carelessness.' Grossly negligence is a crime."

"He changed it," said Jordan.  "He interviewed [Trump adviser Michael] Flynn. He ran the Russian investigation and they kicked him off for a few text messages because they're anti-Trump? There has to be more to this story. And I'm convinced the dossier is the key to this."

Later in the interview, Dobbs said, "Congressman, I am entirely sympathetic with your view on the special counsel, except for one thing. If we end up with twice what Mueller has created, the republic will be in serious threat, if it's not already. Look at what we've got here, as you pointed out today. We have a president whose entire administration is being threatened by a politically corrupt special counsel and politically corrupt leadership of the FBI."

Jordan said, "All billed on -- all billed on this dossier. And remember what the dossier is about. It was about the FBI working with the Democrat National Committee and their campaign to go after the other party's nominee and the other party's campaign. That is not supposed to happen in this country, and I think it did and all the evidence is pointing in that direction."

"That's why we need these answers," he said.  "Because if that took place, if that actually happened in the United States of America, that is as wrong as it can be and people need to be held to account who were involved in, making that all happen."

On Dec. 23 it was reported that Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe will resign in March or April 2018, which is when his full pension and benefits would kick in. McCabe's wife, Dr. Jill McCabe, received a little more than $700,000 in payments from two Democratic PACs in 2015, one headed by Clinton ally Terry McAuliffe. (Jill McCabe, a left-wing Democrat, ran for a state senate seat that year.)

In early 2016, Andrew McCabe helped to oversee the Hillary Clinton email investigation, a scandal for which she was exonerated by then-FBI Director James Comey in July 2016. (McCabe did not recuse himself from the Clinton case until one week before the 2016 presidential election.)

Andrew McCabe is also the FBI official whose emails show that the Hillary Clinton email investiagtion was designated "special" by the bureau and, contrary to procedure, a "decision was made to investigate it at HQ with a small team." 

Concerning Andrew McCabe's decision to retire, President Trump tweeted on Dec. 23, "FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is racing the clock to retire with full benefits. 90 days to go?!!!"