During a joint session of the House Judiciary and Oversight committees on Aug. 31, 2018, a former top lawyer for the FBI Trisha Anderson described to lawmakers the “unusual” way the surveillance request targeting Trump and his campaign was handled by top DOJ and FBI officials.
WASHINGTON EXAMINER – Trisha explains she was normally responsible for signing off on Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act applications before they reached the desk of her superiors for approval. She added that the “linear path” those applications typically take was upended in October 2016, with FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates signing off on the application before she did. Because of that unusual high-level involvement, she didn’t see the need to “second guess” the FISA application.
According to Trisha, “My approval at that point was really purely administrative in nature. In other words, the FISA had already substantively been approved by people much higher than me in the chain of command such as McCabe, Yates, and Baker who all played key roles in reviewing it. “
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The normal chain of command wouldn’t have allowed people such as Andrew McCabe and Sally Yates to sign off on a FISA application before she did.
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