The President does not need to go to the FISA court to get anything. He simply needs to order it produced to him by his subordinates in the executive branch. He is the head of the executive branch and they are required to give him whatever documents he asks for. There is no statutory exception whereby federal bureaucrats get to pick and choose what they give to the president. A president might decide as a matter of policy, that he will not ask for documents concerning an investigation of himself or his associates, but constitutionally he is permitted to ask for and obtain any document in the hands of the executive branch, which includes the DOJ, FBI, NSA, CIA, etc...
Exactly. We already know the June application was turned down. That’s irrelevant in respect of obtaining the application itself from Obama’s underlings. That’s original material of an unsuccessful first attempt to get Trump.Now the only issue is if the ‘material’ was digitized and consequently destroyed. Then it is likely a motion or application would have to be made to that court for production. The same would apply to the successful application in October.
But another issue arises as well. Are the applications by law in-camera? Is the Judge in either case a compellable witness by Congress?