Don Jr: ‘This is bulls**t’ – Protests mount over choice of ‘Trump-hater’ to oversee FISA reforms

Screengrab CSPAN

It’s easy to understand why so many believe that the Deep State is always going to look out for itself.

U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C. is demanding answers for why David Kris, a former Obama administration lawyer, was appointed to oversee FISA reforms, calling Kris a “completely unacceptable choice.”

“There need to be answers for why David Kris was picked to oversee FISA reforms,” Meadows tweeted. “He’s repeatedly downplayed blatant FISA abuse in the past and dismissed the damning IG report’s findings. How can he fix a problem he doesn’t even understand? Completely unacceptable choice.”

FISC presiding Judge James E. Boasberg said in a Friday order that Kris would be an “amicus curiae to assist the Court in assessing the government’s response” to reforms the FBI was ordered to make to its FISA application process in the wake of the DOJ inspector general’s report that found 17 significant errors and omissions.

The FBI was also instructed to re-verify all previous warrant applications involving the bureau attorney who falsified evidence against former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.

One of his two “big conclusions” on the IG report was that it “repudiates the claims of a coup and related deep-state conspiracies in the FBI as advanced by President Trump and his supporters,” Kris tweeted in December. The second being that while the errors found were “very serious …they don’t support any claim of deep-state conspiracy or political bias.”

Kris has appeared on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” and has supported the FBI’s surveillance practices on the left-wing blog Lawfare. There is an unmistakable anti-Trump feel to his Twitter feed, as seen in a July 2018 tweet that said the “walls are closing in” on Trump.

Independent journalist Mike Cernovich was reportedly the first to call attention to the appointment, noting in a tweet that Kris went on Maddow’s show and lied about FISA abuses.

Rep. Devin Nunes, ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the choice of Kris “is shocking and inexplicable.”

“It’s hard to imagine a worse person the FISC could have chosen outside [James] Comey, [Andy] McCabe, or [Adam] Schiff,” Nunes said. “It’s a ridiculous choice. The FBI lied to the FISC, and to help make sure that doesn’t happen again, the FISC chose an FBI apologist who denied and defended those lies. The FISC is setting its own credibility on fire.”

Appearing on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” Nunes pointed out that Kris was critical of his 2018 memo about surveillance abuses by the FBI against former Trump aide Carter Page.

“Of all the people in the swamp … this is the guy that you come up with?” Nunes asked. “The guy that was accusing me of federal crimes? The guy that was defending the dirty cops at the FBI? … The court must be trying to abolish itself. There is long-term damage.”

Kris defended the FBI’s actions in a March 2018 Lawfare post, and wrote that Nunes “falsely accused the FBI of deceiving the FISA Court.” Kris, a former assistant attorney general for national security, also questioned whether Nunes should face obstruction of justice charges.

President Trump took to Twitter Sunday to protest the appointment, tagging Nunes.

The president tweeted: “You can’t make this up! David Kris, a highly controversial former DOJ official, was just appointed by the FISA Court to oversee reforms to the FBI’s surveillance procedures. Zero credibility. THE SWAMP! @DevinNunes @MariaBartiromo @FoxNews.”

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1216429943925723139?s=20

Donald Trump Jr. was even more explicit: “This is bullshit. They’re not even going to look. They’re just going to protect themselves and their corrupt institution.”

Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume also panned the appointment of Kris, linking to an article by The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway critical of the choice.

Carter Page wasn’t impressed either, calling the review process “a big circle jerk.”

https://twitter.com/carterwpage/status/1215814128914141184?s=20

In fact, no further reason is needed to question Kris’ appointment than the fact that former Attorney General Eric Holder came to his defense:

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