News Reports Prompt Senate Request for FISA Info

Two top Republican senators have asked for all the surveillance warrants the FBI requested from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (FISA) Court as part of the Bureau's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, including possible collusion with the campaign of Donald Trump.

In seeking the warrants, Senate Judiciary Committee chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Crime and Terrorist Subcommittee chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) have cited stories by the BBC, as well as CNN (which President Trump continues to brand as "fake news").

The two networks have reported that the Justice Department had asked the court for authority to monitor members of the Trump presidential campaign, but the court denied the request, advising the FBI to narrow its focus.

Grassley and Graham said, based on the reports, they want copies of both classified and non-classified requests.

Both Congress and the FBI are investigating Russia’s meddling in the presidential election and whether the Trump campaign colluded in that effort. The president has said any suggestion of that is fake news served up by media “enemies” in service of his Democratic opponents, who he says are trying to undermine his presidency.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.