Investigating Intelligence and Political Scandals

Perhaps the most profound moment of the last decade of my career occurred in March of 17.

I had just done a story that got Sean Hannity's attention, so I was on Fox News.

It was about a rapid rise in unmaskings,

where Americans' intelligence is looked at even though there's no warrant.

They unmask your name, and they know what you said to someone overseas,

and they don't get a warrant for it.

And it had gone up like 200-300% in the last year of Barack Obama, which is very odd.

It was odd to the FISA court. That's why they put the data out.

They were concerned that this was a trend.

I just thought it was a good civil liberties story, so I wrote it.

And at that point, I had been repeatedly told,

don't waste your time on Russia collusion. It's going nowhere.

And by the way, from some of the most senior leaders of the FBI and the Justice Department,

the very people who might also have gone out and told us there was something there

when there wasn't, but they were telling me it wasn't.

Got home about 10.45, 11 o'clock at night.

My wife's already in bed. I pull in the driveway,

and there's a blue sedan sitting in front of my mailbox with its yellow fog lights on.

And I pull in the driveway, and these two GI men get out of their car.

It's about 11 o'clock at night.

And as I'm getting out of my car, I say, are you Mr. Solomon?

They're like, I don't know. Am I being arrested? What's going on?

They throw cuffs at me. Did I break some classified secret I shouldn't today?

They're like, you don't know who we are. We can't tell you who we are,

but you're at the tip of a very large iceberg, and we hope you drill into it.

And I'm like, what in God's name are you guys talking about?

Well, that thing you were reporting on television.

Yeah, it was the FISA court filing.

It is the apex of a very large scandal, and you need to drill down in it.

And I'm like, all right, walk me through this guy.

Well, we can't tell you. It's all classified. Okay, that's not very helpful.

Can you give me something of more generic description?

Yeah, we work in the intelligence community,

and our agencies were asked to participate in one of the greatest political dirty tricks

in history, and if it isn't stopped, and one day when it is uncovered,

we will lose the tools that keep you and I safe at night.

We won't be able to find terrorists, and we won't find spies,

because these tools will be taken from us because we abused them in the last couple years.

And I'm like, holy mackerel, what's going on here?

So they couldn't give me much more detail, but they inspired me to start wondering

about whether I was missing something big.

And I got home by that time, and there were 20 minutes, it depends, about 11, 20 at night.

From 11, 20 at night to 2 in the morning, I wrote a long email to my then work sister,

Sarah Carter, who was just a fantastic reporter.

Now the drugs are for President Trump.

And I just tried to remember everything they told me.

Like, Sarah, I don't know what the hell these guys are trying to tell us,

but tomorrow morning, let's wake up and find out.

And that sent us on our journey.