Democrats are afraid of Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, becoming President Donald Trump's next director of national intelligence because they are concerned about how he'll work on reforms of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, Rep. Jim Jordan said Tuesday.
“I think they’re scared (Ratcliffe) is going to clean FISA up,” the Ohio Republican told Fox News' "America's Newsroom," pointing out that Ratcliffe identified issues with the FISA process three years ago.
"It also shows that (Rep.) Adam Schiff was wrong," said Jordan. "They don't like the fact that Adam Schiff was wrong and John Ratcliffe was right."
Republicans were vindicated by Inspector General Michael Horowitz's report, Jordan added.
“It was John Ratcliffe and a handful of others who saw this and called it out, so it's no wonder the Democrats don’t want him to be nominated as the head of DNI, but he’s the right one for the job," said Jordan.
Jordan, the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, said Republicans don't want reauthorization of FISA, but instead that reform is considered "paramount."
“In summer 2016, the FBI launches an investigation and spies on four American citizens associated with the president’s campaign and, to make matters worse, they further spied on them by going to the FISA court to spy on (former Trump campaign aide) Carter Page and they lied to the court 17 times,” Jordan said.
Jordan's comments came after Attorney General William Barr met with Senate Republicans to discuss reforms for the program, which began in the mid-1970s. It allows the government to use electronic devices to gather information between foreign entities and connections in the United States. The Patriot Act, approved after the 9/11 attacks amended the FISA program, which is up for renewal on March 15.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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