Republican congressman Matt Gaetz fact checked CNN anchor Jake Tapper Tuesday over alleged FISA warrant abuses by the Department of Justice.
WATCH:
Gaetz is alleging that the DOJ improperly obtained a FISA warrant to spy on the Trump campaign using the unverified Steele dossier.(RELATED: Read The House Intelligence FISA Memo In Its Entirety)
Tapper asked how Gaetz knows that anything improper occurred before the FISA court since he is not a member of the House Intelligence Committee.
“We have received briefings from the FBI regarding the elements of their application,” Gaetz said. “We’ve also read the memo from the House Intelligence Committee…and that memo laid out pretty clearly that the principle piece of evidence, the first piece of evidence, was this dossier that was paid for by the DNC.”
Tapper shot back that George Papadopoulos’ meeting with an Australian diplomat was the impetus for the investigation into the Trump campaign.
“No, that was a memo from Peter Strzok that did initially launch the investigation but that didn’t lead to the application before the FISA court,” Gaetz explained.
Gaetz added of the FISA application, “They gave no indication that the DNC was involved in paying for [the Steele dossier], no indication that Christopher Steele was involved, there was only a vague reference to Glenn Simpson.”