Jim Baker on FISA Errors
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 10 April 2020
⏱️ 46 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Jim Baker served as general counsel for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He was also the counsel for the Office of Intelligence Policy and Review at the Justice Department, where he supervised FISA applications. He joined Benjamin Wittes in the virtual Jungle Studio to discuss Inspector General Michael Horowitz's shocking report on inaccuracy in FISA applications, and the problems at the FBI that led to these errors.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following podcast contains advertising to access an ad-free version of the LawFair |
| 0:07.2 | podcast become a material supporter of LawFair at patreon.com slash LawFair. |
| 0:14.7 | That's patreon.com slash LawFair. |
| 0:18.2 | Also, check out LawFair's other podcast offerings, rational security, chatter, LawFair |
| 0:25.6 | no bull and the aftermath. |
| 0:34.0 | This kind of thing, these inaccuracies in applications, again, even if they don't rise to the level |
| 0:41.3 | of materiality. |
| 0:42.3 | And again, we don't know that, but let's assume for a second that they don't. |
| 0:46.0 | They still, it's just, be speaks, a sloppiness, a lack of attention to detail, a lack of investment |
| 0:52.5 | of resources, ethical lapses that just are unacceptable. |
| 0:57.4 | And so it erodes the confidence that the court has in the justice department. |
| 1:02.8 | I think it would erode the confidence that the attorney general would have in the FBI |
| 1:07.3 | and other elements of the government that file these applications. |
| 1:11.0 | And that gets out to the public and then the public doesn't have confidence in it. |
| 1:14.0 | And that's why you and I are sitting here talking today because this is public and it |
| 1:18.6 | has caused people to question what in the world the FBI is doing and rightly so. |
| 1:25.1 | I'm Benjamin Wittis and this is the LawFair podcast April 10, 2020. |
| 1:31.7 | Jim Baker was the general counsel of the FBI. |
| 1:35.4 | He was also the counsel for intelligence policy and review at the justice department where |
| 1:42.6 | he supervised FISA applications. |
| 1:46.3 | Jim was in the hospital last week, not with COVID-19, when the justice department's inspector |
| 1:53.2 | general Michael Horowitz delivered a shocking report on inaccuracies in FISA applications. |
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