Former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, where she told lawmakers the Obama administration was not surveilling the Trump campaign in 2016.
Yates sparred with the GOP during her testimony as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) pressed her on a FISA application filed to monitor the former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
Cruz asked Yates when she became aware the Obama administration was surveilling the Trump administration.
“The Obama Administration was not surveilling the Donald Trump campaign,” Yates said.
Cruz clarified asking Yates, “So a FISA application is not surveillance?”
Yates argued Page was considered a former member of the Trump campaign at the time the FISA application was filed.
Watch their exchange below:
WATCH: Sen. @tedcruz grills Sally Yates.
— The Hill (@thehill) August 5, 2020
Cruz: "When did you first become aware that the Obama Admin. was surveilling the Donald Trump campaign?"
Sally Yates: "The Obama Admin. was not surveilling the Donald Trump campaign."
Cruz: "So a FISA application is not surveillance?" pic.twitter.com/IJSxalco49
Cruz grilled Yates asking her if the investigation into Page had anything to do with the Trump campaign.
Yates reiterated Page was a former member of the campaign.
Cruz asked Yates what the reasoning was behind filing a FISA application to investigate Page.
“There were a number of reasons. First, we had gotten the information that I was trying to point out here that the Russians had made the overture, that they wanted to be able to assist the Trump campaign,” Yates said.
Cruz questioned Yates about her time at the Department of Justice asking her if other political opponents of Obama were being surveilled.
“The answer to that is no, and I also think that there was also no information that the Russians were working to aid another candidate other than Donald Trump,” Yates said.
The Department of Justice told a court in January there was not enough evidence to continue to justify the investigation into Page signaling the FBI may have gone too far when investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, as IJR previously reported.