U.S. CONGRESSMAN BILL JOHNSON Proudly Representing Eastern and Southeastern Ohio

Congressman  Bill Johnson (R-Marietta) released the following statement after the declassification and release of a memo on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) prepared by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Majority: 

I am glad the memo was released today. I read it, and last week called for it to be released. This is just one piece of information; I will be reading the House Democrats’ memo when it is available as well  – and it should also be released to the public. I also look forward to reading the FBI Inspector General’s report when it is completed. There is still a lot of information yet to come forward before we get the full picture.

But, the bottom line is that manufactured work products produced from a political process should not be used to obtain warrants to conduct surveillance on American citizens. Using secret documents in a secret court must have the highest safeguards to protect both national security and civil liberties.

The declassified memo contains deeply disturbing allegations. It certainly does appear that the FBI and Department of Justice used a partisan campaign document to get a warrant to spy on a rival campaign, by omitting critical information from the court - like where the still unverified information came from.