Much of the commentary about James Comey’s book has focused on the facts he reveals, the stories he recounts, and the opinions he expresses: He mocks Donald Trump’s appearance; he allows that he let his expectation that Hillary was a shoo-in shape his decisions about how she was to be investigated; he waxes woozy about the surreal experience of talking to a president-elect about prostitutes peeing; and—my personal favorite passage—he praises himself for being such a regular guy that he never cut in line at the FBI cafeteria. In other words, the book has been measured by what the former heir to J. Edgar has to say. Fair enough.

But what about what Comey doesn’t have to say?

What is one of the most consequential issues involving Comey when he was FBI director, an issue regarding Donald Trump when was candidate, president-elect, and president? The FISA “probable cause order” the FBI and Department of Justice requested and received and renewed putting Carter Page under electronic surveillance. This set of actions has proved to be among the most contentious in the whole Russia collusion probe. Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee have charged that the surveillance warrants were abusively and furtively won, with the Bureau and DoJ hiding key evidence from the FISA court. The feds built their application on the dossier assembled (if not fabricated) by former British spy Christopher Steele, but failed to mention to the FISA court that Steele’s work had been paid for by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign. The GOP memo on “Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Abuse at the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation” calls into question “the legitimacy and legality of certain DOJ and FBI interactions with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC).”

Given that it is James Comey’s signature on three of the four warrant requests (the original and two of the three renewals), you would think that the former FBI director would want to take on the accusations.

Without using the acronym FISA or FISC, Comey is happy to talk about the surveillance court—but only in a generic day-in-the-life-of-an-FBI-director sort of way.

https://www.weeklystandard.com/eric-felten/james-comeys-book-doesnt-mention-carter-page-or-the-steele-dossier