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Full Title: Ex-top FBI lawyer: 'Gratuitous' to name Dems who funded Steele dossier in Carter Page FISA applications The FBI's former top lawyer defended the bureau's controversial surveillance warrant applications against a member of President Trump's 2016 campaign. As general counsel, James Baker said he "wanted the burden on me to a significant degree" in preparing the paperwork to obtain Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants to wiretap one-time Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. In front of a packed room at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., Baker was prompted to discuss the Trump dossier compiled by ex-British spy Christopher Steele....

Former top FBI lawyer James Baker offered a robust defense Friday of the bureau’s investigation into President Trump and his 2016 campaign, taking aim at Trump’s allegation that the inquiry was tantamount to a coup and describing how he sought to ensure agents’ work was on solid legal footing. “There was no attempted coup,” Baker said bluntly. “There was no way in hell that I was going to allow some coup or coup attempt to take place on my watch.” The comments, which came at a taping of the Lawfare podcast in front of a live audience at the Brookings...