Report: Justice Department Disclosed Political Links in Wiretap Request

The court that granted a warrant request from the Justice Department to wiretap a former campaign adviser to President Trump was not duped into approval by anti-Trump officials as Republican lawmakers claim, The Washington Post reports. Two U.S. officials cited by the Post say the Justice Department informed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that some of the information in the warrant request was paid for by a political entity, contrary to claims made in a Republican memo released Friday. The memo, written by House Intelligence Committee Republicans and alleging wrongdoing in the FBI’s Russia investigation, had claimed the FBI misled the court by failing to disclose that a report cited in the warrant request for former Trump aide Carter Page was partly funded by the DNC. That report, by ex-British spy Christopher Steele, was said to be “essential” to the Justice Department and FBI’s warrant application in the Republican memo. But an official cited by the Post on Friday said the Justice Department provided “ample disclosure of relevant, material facts” in securing the warrant and revealed that “the research was being paid for by a political entity.”