FISA Warrant Back in Spotlight After GOP Boycott of Intel Hearing

The Republican Party, fresh off of the successful acquittal of Donald Trump during the Senate impeachment trial, is looking to turn back the clock a few months and get to the bottom of an issue that was seemingly overshadowed by that Democratically-concocted affair.

Before UkraineGate, there was RussiaGate – the lengthy scandal involving a wild conspiracy theory that the 2016 Trump campaign had help from the Kremlin in defeating Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election.  After 22 months and $25 million, however, Special Counsel Robert Mueller recommended no charges for the President, rendering moot the Democratic narrative.

But just how this conspiracy theory came to be is still a bit of a mystery, and it may very well revolve around a FISA warrant that was approved based on known-to-be-faulty evidence from a debunked dossier.  If that’s the case, then the Deep State really did have it out for Donald Trump back in the run-up to the 2016 election.

Now, Republicans are doing all that they can to bring attention back to this potential bombshell.

Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee boycotted a hearing Wednesday on emerging technology and national security, calling it a “distraction” and contending that the panel should be focused on “urgent and critical concerns” like a recent watchdog report identifying errors and abuses in the FBI’s domestic surveillance program.

Republicans outlined their concerns in a letter to the committee’s chairman, Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), and the GOP side of the dais sat empty as the hearing began.

“Given the committee’s access to highly sensitive information, it is concerning that you prioritize publicity events rather than the more productive work that occurs in the committee’s classified spaces,” they wrote, in a missive led by ranking member Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) and signed by the panel’s eight other Republicans.

Many have seen this boycott as blowback for the impeachment inquiry undertaken by the Democrats and spearheaded at times by Schiff himself.