Congressional Republicans said on Wednesday that former top FBI lawyer James Baker revealed to congressional investigators that the FBI’s investigation into the Trump campaign was conducted in an “abnormal fashion” and was carried out with “political bias.”
Lawmakers were unable to provide many details about what Baker said because of a confidentiality agreement that was put in place. Fox News reports:
“However, they indicated in broad terms that Baker was cooperative and forthcoming about the genesis of the Russia case in 2016, and about the surveillance warrant application for Trump campaign aide Carter Page in October 2016.”
Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) called Baker’s closed-door testimony “explosive” in a statement to Fox News, saying, “This witness confirmed that things were done in an abnormal fashion. That’s extremely troubling.”
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) added: “During the time that the FBI was putting — that DOJ and FBI were putting together the FISA (surveillance warrant) during the time prior to the election — there was another source giving information directly to the FBI, which we found the source to be pretty explosive.”
As Written By Fox News:
Baker is at the heart of surveillance abuse allegations, and his deposition lays the groundwork for next week’s planned closed-door interview with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Baker, as the FBI’s top lawyer, helped secure the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant for Page, as well as three subsequent renewals. Prior to the deposition, Republican investigators said they believed Baker could explain why information about Steele and his apparent bias against then-candidate Trump were withheld from the FISA court, and whether any exculpatory information was known to Rosenstein when he signed the final FISA renewal for Page in June 2017.
Fox News asked Baker after the deposition about the handling of the Trump dossier, what he told Rosenstein about potential exculpatory evidence and whether he is the subject of an FBI leak investigation. Baker told Fox News he could not answer the questions. Baker, who had a close working relationship with former FBI Director James Comey, left the bureau earlier this year.
