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It has been reported by Fox News that a former FBI attorney admitted his personal involvement in the warrant application to spy on Carter Page during his time as a Trump campaign aide.

During a closed-door congressional interview, the ex-FBI lawyer also stated that there were other “unusual” tactics used during the FBI’s 2016 Russian investigation.

“I was aware of the [Russia] investigation,” Former FBI lawyer James Baker said to House investigators in October of 2018. Details of the transcript have been confirmed by Fox News.

When Republicans still controlled the chamber, Baker told House investigators, “I don’t want to see it at the end, like when it is about to go to the director [for] certification, because then it is hard to make changes then. So I wanted to see it when it was gelled enough but before it went through the process and before it went to the director. I wanted to see it and I wanted to read it because I knew it was sensitive.”

Fox released an excerpt from the official transcript:

Question: “So that is why you took the abnormal or unusual step in this particular situation because it was sensitive?”

Baker: “Yes.”

Question: “So you actually got involved because you want to make sure that, what?”

Baker: “I wanted to make sure that we were filing something that would adhere to the law and stand up over time.”

The former FBI lawyer also told lawmakers that it was not usual for him to be personally involved in these kinds of matters in his position.

“I did not … at that point in time when I was at the FBI … almost all of the FISA applications did not go through me,” Baker said.

Fox reports:

Fox News first reported last fall that Baker said his contact with a top lawyer working with the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign in late 2016 — as federal investigators prepared the surveillance warrant — also was unusual.

Baker said Perkins Coie lawyer Michael Sussmann initiated contact with him and provided documents, describing the contact with the private lawyer as unusual and the “only time it happened.”

Perkins Coie was a key player in the funding of the controversial anti-Trump dossier, which Republicans have long suspected helped fuel the FBI’s investigation. The DNC and Clinton campaign had hired opposition research firm Fusion GPS in April 2016, through Perkins Coie, to dig into Trump’s background. Fusion, in turn, paid British ex-spy Christopher Steele to compile the dossier, memos from which were shared with the FBI in the summer of 2016.

In October, a Perkins Coie spokesperson was questioned about Baker’s comments. They simply stated that Sussmann’s contact had no connection to the liberal firm’s representation of either the Clinton campaign or the DNC as a whole.

In a statement, the spokesperson said, “Prior to joining Perkins Coie, Michael Sussmann served as a cybercrime prosecutor in the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice during both Republican and Democratic administrations. As a result, Sussmann is regularly retained by clients with complex cybersecurity matters.”

“When Sussmann met with Mr. Baker on behalf of a client, the meeting was not connected to the firm’s representation of the Hillary Clinton Campaign, the DNC or any Political Law Group client.”

“Since then, Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., formally requested further information from the FBI about the contact. Further, conservative watchdog Judicial Watch launched a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit in December against ‘the Department of Justice seeking records of all meetings in 2016 between former FBI General Counsel James Baker and the Perkins Coie law firm,'” Fox explains.

President Trump tweeted last week, “Former FBI top lawyer James Baker just admitted involvement in FISA Warrant and further admitted there were IRREGULARITIES in the way the Russia probe was handled. They relied heavily on the unverified Trump ‘Dossier’ paid for by the DNC & Clinton Campaign & funded through a…”

“… big Crooked Hillary law firm, represented by her lawyer Michael Sussmann (do you believe this?) who worked Baker hard & gave him Oppo Research for ‘a Russia probe.’ This meeting, now exposed, is the subject of Senate inquiries and much more. An Unconstitutional Hoax. @FoxNews.”

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