Testifying in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday morning, fired FBI Director James Comey was asked about the validity of the FISA warrant application against former Trump campaign official Carter Page. Comey admitted if he knew now about the false and doctored information used to obtain the warrant, he would have never signed the application for submission to the court.
"Knowing then what you know now, would you still have signed the warrant application against Carter Page?" Chairman Lindsey Graham asked.
"No, I would have wanted a much more complete understanding," Comey responded.
However, earlier in his testimony Comey attempted to relieve himself of responsibility for the contents of the application.
James Comey just said the FBI director has no responsibility, before signing a FISA application, to determine whether the allegations within it are true.
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) September 30, 2020
Graham: Knowing then what you know now, would you still have signed the FISA warrants to spy on Carter Page?
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) September 30, 2020
Comey: No.
It's a strange claim for Comey to make given that he denies the actual facts about Steele and Page that led the FISA court to condemn the warrants.
And by the way, the FBI knew the dirty Russian dossier was full of false accussations and used it anyway to obtain a FISA warrant against Page.
#ComeyHearing: Lindsey just got Comey to admit that he would not have signed off on the FISA warrants that he certified if he knew then what the public knows now.
— Arthur Schwartz (@ArthurSchwartz) September 30, 2020
Reminder: Comey knew then what the public knows now.