February 2, 2018

"The House Intelligence Committee has released its controversial memo outlining alleged abuses of secret surveillance by the FBI and Justice Department in the Trump-Russia investigation."

Says Byron York (Washington Examiner), summarizing it, without quoting any text or linking to any text.

ADDED: York asserts that the memo (which I haven't seen) says:
* The Steele dossier formed an essential part of the initial and all three renewal FISA applications against Carter Page.

* Andrew McCabe confirmed that no FISA warrant would have been sought from the FISA Court without the Steele dossier information.

* The political origins of the Steele dossier were known to senior DOJ and FBI officials, but excluded from the FISA applications.

* DOJ official Bruce Ohr met with Steele beginning in the summer of 2016 and relayed to DOJ information about Steele's bias. Steele told Ohr that he, Steele, was desperate that Donald Trump not get elected president and was passionate about him not becoming president.
AND: Now, you can read it for yourself: Here.

ALSO: I'm reading the memo, which is, basically, a list of 5 omissions from what was submitted to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC). According to the memo, the court, in order to protect "the rights of Americans" needs to see "information potentially favorable to the target of the FISA application" where the government knows this information, as it did for all 5 of these things:

1. The initial application (and the renewal applications) did not disclose the role of the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign in paying $160,000 to Christopher Steel to compile "the dossier." Nor did it show that Steele was working for Fusion GPS and Glenn Simpson, who was paid by the law firm that represented the DNC, or that "Steele was ultimately working on behalf of — and paid by — the DNC and Clinton campaign."

2. The application made a Yahoo News article (by Michael Isikoff) look like it corroborated the Steele dossier, when it just had material that came from Steele. The application "incorrectly" asserts that the Yahoo News material didn't come from Steele. Steele was later terminated as an FBI source for leaking to Mother Jones in October, but he should have been terminated for these leaks to Yahoo News back in September, which was before the first application to the FISC.

3. Before Steele was terminated as an FBI source, Steele told then-Associate Deputy General Bruce Ohr (who worked closely with Yates and Rosenstein) that he "was desperate that Donald Trump not get elected and was passionate about him not being president." That's presumably a quote from Ohr, not Steele, given the "was" (as opposed to an "am"). At the time, Ohr's wife worked for Fusion GPS, doing oppo research on Trump, and this info was presented to the FISC without specifying its origin.

4. This point doesn't specify an additional omission. It talks about internal opinion at the FBI about the inadequacy of the Steele dossier.

5. The application refers to Papadopoulos, and the Papadopoulos investigation was opened in July 2016 by Pete Strzok, who had to be reassigned because of his "demonstrated clear bias against Trump."

MORE: Here's the response from the Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee. It calls the majority's memo "a shameful effort to discredit" the Department of Justice and the FBI and "a transparent effort to suppress the full truth," so what I'm looking for as I read this is something terribly important that's missing from the majority's memo.
In order to understand the context in which the FBI sought a FISA warrant for Carter Page, it is necessary to understand how the investigation began, what other information the FBI had about Russia’s efforts to interfere with our election, and what the FBI knew about Carter Page prior to making application to the court – including Carter Page’s previous interactions with Russian intelligence operatives. This is set out in the Democratic response which the GOP so far refuses to make public.

The authors of the GOP memo would like the country to believe that the investigation began with Christopher Steele and the dossier, and if they can just discredit Mr. Steele, they can make the whole investigation go away regardless of the Russians’ interference in our election or the role of the Trump campaign in that interference.
That seems to be more of an attack on the minds of the GOP congresspersons than on the memo itself, which I don't think says anything about the larger investigation into Russian interference with the election. But I guess that's what the Democratic congresspersons mean when they say there's no context. It's a little contradictory: They want it to be more about the Russia investigation and less about the Russia investigation. But the Nunes memo purports to be about individual rights and the abuse of surveillance.
The DOJ appropriately provided the court with a comprehensive explanation of Russia’s election interference, including evidence that Russian agents courted another Trump campaign foreign policy adviser, George Papadopoulos.... The Majority suggests that the FBI failed to alert the court as to Mr. Steele’s potential political motivations or the political motivations of those who hired him, but this is not accurate. The GOP memo also claims that a Yahoo News article was used to corroborate Steele, but this is not at all why the article was referenced. These are but a few of the serious mischaracterizations of the FISA application. There are many more set out in the Democratic response, which we will again be seeking a vote to release publicly on Monday, February 5th....
So we need to wait for more. We're told there's something missing but not given the missing information.

933 comments:

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Drago said...

TIV: "So all we really had was a guy who had been paid millions by Hillary’s campaign for the service of smearing Trump, smearing Trump with no actual, you know, evidence."

Nonsense. We had our intrepid investigator Steele paying off Putin's Pals to get laughably false innuendo on Trump so we have lots and lots of already on the record and in testimony evidence that Putin's pals directly influenced our election by feeding false info about a candidate to oppo research which was then injected into our election by the dems and their pals.

So, naturally, its Trump's fault.

Naturally.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

I still don't like Trump's personal style much, but the man has guts.

He really did risk everything by running. I wonder if he realized that when he was coming down that escalator.

John Pickering said...

Some of Ann's readers aren't up to date on what's been reported about the state of Trump's finances and the sources of his current, undisclosed wealth. Just for example, he can't get a loan, his properties are rife with money-launderers, and his own kid said 'we get all our financing from Russia." You can look it up, or not.

Why is it incredible that this coarse and undisciplined person has gotten into a bit of a spot, owed money to some bad people, and now has to do their bidding? If that's even possibly true, why is that weak tea, if your interest, like Steele's and the FBI's, is in espionage?

Why would these people be opposed to Trump? Because they think he might be induced to treason.

tim in vermont said...

Nice try, Drago, but you are smearing Efram Zimbalist Comey!

Anonymous said...

I say we chalk this one up to experience.

The lefties don't care, so why should we?


I am sure President Trump will appreciate the free hand.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

Oh, BTW, McCabe never said there would not have been a warrant without the Dossier. Turns out that was fake news.

Anonymous said...

So, Picky-pick, now your point is that they had to go destroy the Constitution before they could save it?

Go back to your affected, effete (word of the day!)prose. At least that was worth a chuckle.

tim in vermont said...

Why is it incredible that this coarse and undisciplined person has gotten into a bit of a spot, owed money to some bad people, and now has to do their bidding? If that’s even possibly true, why is that weak tea, if your interest, like Steele’s and the FBI’s, is in espionage?

How’s about the FBI investigate your hypothetical without all of the leaks, without the reliance on Hillary’s campaign operatives, and with different people than the same plucky little crew that investigated Uranium One and the emails?

Just on the off chance that, perhaps, it’s not true?

The one doing Putin’s bidding was Hillary, Uranium One, shutting down Keystone, promising to all but end fracking, etc, etc. She also took 145 billion from him, and lo and behold, Bill get’s paid 17.5 milliion for a part time job as an employee of the Clinton Foundation.

You guys simply do not care about corruption. You want Trump eliminated, end of story.

Bay Area Guy said...

Not to add insult to our Dem friends in the "Get Trump Squad" and "The Weasel Brigade," but NYTimes political guru, Nate Cohn, not to be confused with Nate Silver, has a short piece up on polling in 2018 midterms:

The Last Two Weeks of Polls Have Been Great for Republicans. Do They Signal a Shift?

OPening graf: "Last month it seemed that Democrats might ride a giant tsunami to control of the House and Senate. Now, some are wondering whether there’s a Democratic wave at all."

tim in vermont said...

I think Inga forgot the “according to anonymous sources” part of her breaking news.

mockturtle said...

C***k says: "I'll need a $2500 retainer, and I will work at $450/hour."

They're paying RINO trolls that much now?

Inga...Allie Oop said...

What a piece of dreck this memo is. Every hour more information comes out just how bogus it is. How could you people fall for this nonsense?

“Schiff also said the memo mischaracterizes McCabe as telling the House Intelligence Committee behind closed doors that, as the memo puts it, "no surveillance warrant would have been sought... without the Steele dossier information.

Schiff said the FBI deputy director was emphasizing the interdependence of all elements of a warrant application.

The FBI has argued that the memo distorts underlying intelligence and omits facts about evidence the bureau used to obtain its FISA warrants to spy on Page. The FISA law is designed to make monitoring an American citizen possible only in cases where there is very strong evidence of wrongdoing, and can only be obtained when a larger FBI investigation has already begun.”

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/02/trump-nunes-memo-released-384977

Sebastian said...

So O stiffs Poland and Czech Republic on missile defense, Hill sets the reset, O says he will have more flexibility after the election, Hill leaves email open for Russian inspection, Clintons get $145M from Russians and $500K for Bill speech, O and Kerry let Russia do its murderous thing in Syria, Hill pays UK spy to launder disinformation from Russian operatives, FBI eagerly seizes on "unverified" Russian info to spy on Trump campaign, but Trump is the one "colluding" with Russia.

Matt Sablan said...

Inga correct. McCabe said they'd never even apply for a warrant without it. Not that it was required for the warrant. They needed it to even start thinking about the warrant.

tim in vermont said...

Schiff says, Politico, who is known to check with the Clintons before publishing stuff, reports. Must be true!

Anonymous said...

@Inga McCabe testified in December 2017 that "no surveillance warrant would have been sought from FISC without the Steele dossier information". I don't have the transcripts of his testimony, but I am sure the Committee does and more than likely what the memo says is accurate. Much as you wish it, McCabe's testimony is not "fake news."

gbarto said...

C'mon guys. This is a nothingburger. Everyone knows that law enforcement talks up shady informants and questionable information to get warrants all the time. Where do you think those wrong-address no-knock raids come from?

The only way you could possibly be outraged is if you believe the FBI has ever stood for anything other than its own power. Those who have read about its treatment of Dr. King surely know better.

Matt Sablan said...

If Schiff thinks McCabe perjyred himself, have to. The FBI didn't object to the language and found no fault prior to publication.

Drago said...

Inga: "Oh, BTW, McCabe never said there would not have been a warrant without the Dossier. Turns out that was fake news."

Where are the underlying documents for this laughably false claim?

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

I love that the FBI relies on RUSSIAN DISINFORMATION in order to get he FISA warrant on Page. You can’t write comedy with this much irony!

MeatPopscicle1234 said...

"Then really prepare yourself for the coming massive report out by Inspector General Michael Horowitz."

-----

Does anyone know why he canceled his appearance before Congress last Tuesday? I thought that was when he was supposed to present his findings.... What happened? Did someone get to him? When is this supposed to occur now?

Drago said...

Remember, the FBI had both a counter-intelligence agent and FISA court expert review the memo prior to sending to the White House and they identified no errors in fact.

tim in vermont said...

Russian disinformation paid for by Hillary and reported as “legal expenses” to the FEC.

Matt Sablan said...

Also. If the evidence is interdependent and the dossier is unverified, that doesn't strengthen the other evidence. It weighs it down.

Drago said...

MS: "Inga correct. McCabe said they'd never even apply for a warrant without it. Not that it was required for the warrant. They needed it to even start thinking about the warrant"

Inga only cuts and pastes.

There is precious little time for understanding and comprehension.

Matt Sablan said...

Also. No evidence of conspiracy between Page and Papa. So hiding behind the other investigation is just a rhetorical trick to pretend the issue predates the problem documents and actions.

madAsHell said...

So, they used "fake news" from frequently discredited Michael Issikof to support the veracity of the dossier. I think this explains some of Trump's talking points.

Drago said...

Comey himself has testified quite explicitly that dossier was salacious and unverified.

There is also FBI testimony that the FBI used circular verification by using a Fusion planted story at Yahoo news as an "independent" source helping to corroborate the dossier.

You can't make that stuff up.

YoungHegelian said...

Let's go completely speculative for a minute here, shall we?

We're assuming that because it has come to light in 2017 that various agencies under the Obama administration seemed to have performed surveillance of dubious legality on the Trump campaign that such dubious activities were a one-off.

I suspect, judging from the Obama administration's constant tendency to abuse federal regulations & agencies to their own ends, that this surveillance was not a one off. I bet we'll find that there was an enemies list & they were under constant surveillance. I'll even bet good money that we'll find that they performed surveillance on the Romney campaign, too.

Right now, this is speculative. But, I'll take a wager with anyone that by the end of the Trump admin, it won't be.

tim in vermont said...

Yeah, she is useful for bringing their talking points to our attention, but she doesn’t understand 90% of what she pastes here beyond a drooling “This has to be really bad for Trump because Democrats told me so!”

She still hasn’t got it through her thick skull that these are the same people in the press who convinced her it was safe to vote for Jill Stein and throw away her vote! She still trusts them.

Drago said...

madAsHell: "So, they used "fake news" from frequently discredited Michael Issikof to support the veracity of the dossier."

And Issikof got his story from the dossier....he just didn't know it.

And Fusion/Simpson shopped his BS to at least 4 other media organizations.

Matt Sablan said...

It sounds like Stzork and his mistress used the Papa investigation to attack Carter with a fig leaf of respectability.

Birches said...

How Inga could think Adam Schiff is reliable is laughable. He's lied about everything! Nunes has been correct and maligned by a complicit press.

Drago said...

For over a year the Hillary campaign and minions in the media swore up and down that Hillary and the DNC had absolutely zero to do with the hoax dossier.

For over a year the lefties lectured us all that any kind of talk was crazy conspiracy talk.

Perhaps even a "vast right-wing conspiracy".

mockturtle said...

If civil war happens, with the level of polarization we have, it will likely break along the lines of which news sources one watches/reads.

Matt Sablan said...

Authorized payments... What if the FBI provided the Clinton campaign the money? That would be an intelligence method or source that might want to be classified.

Anonymous said...

The memo certainly makes the timing of the FISA application look like that "insurance policy" Stzrok, McCabe, et. al. were working on.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

“How Inga could think Adam Schiff is reliable is laughable. He's lied about everything! Nunes has been correct and maligned by a complicit press.”

That you people think that Nunes isn’t a Trump hack you people are very naive. More than laughable, it’s stupid beyond belief. Nunes is a party to obstruction of justice.

Patrick Henry was right! said...

One question, why would Carter Page be surveilled for his "Russian ties" but Bill Clinton would not?

That is all.

Matt Sablan said...

What justice has been obstructed? Nines didn't hide exonerating evidence from court. McCabe did.

Matt Sablan said...

Nunes might be a hack. He's not the one leaking classified documents like Stzork, his mistress and Comey.

tim in vermont said...

There are many more set out in the Democratic response, which we will again be seeking a vote to release publicly on Monday, February 5th....

Gee, maybe Schiff shouldn’t have created a delay process for these memos. Delays for thee, but not for me!

And Comey says: “This is it?”

Pop goes the weasel!

You mean that anybody should be shocked that the FBI relied on Hillary campaign operatives to initiation the infestigation against Trump?

Politics ain’t beanbag!

Fabi said...

"Nunes is a party to obstruction of justice."

Lulz

Sprezzatura said...

"One question, why would Carter Page be surveilled for his "Russian ties" but Bill Clinton would not?

That is all."

Presumably Page was/is a special kinda dummy who didn't know he'd be caught in on-going taps of foreigners.

Duh.

BTW, are the DJT folks know claiming him as an important part of the DJT operation who was targeted by the deep state because he's soo important to the DJT folks?


Got it.

tim in vermont said...

“Justice” is defined as the removal of Trump from office, so yeah.

PackerBronco said...

"McCabe did in fact testify under oath that there would not have been a FISA warrant if not for the dossier. It was recorded"

- Tweeted by Representative Lee Zeldin (R)
============

Well that's pretty definitive. If a recording does exists and it's released then Schiff is proven liar. Not that that's going to change the mind's of leftists who will continue to quote him.

Lewis Wetzel said...

Time magazine says the memo doesn't matter.
What's more, " . . . former spokesman Mark Corallo reportedly prepared to testify about his concerns that White House communications director Hope Hicks could have contemplated obstruction of justice."
That's right. A second hand report that Hope Hicks "could have contemplated obstruction of justice."
Hicks denies it.
How Trump is going to hang on after this announcement I don't know. He better resign and leave the country. Is it too early to talk about "President Pence"? Or will wily Mueller snare Pence in his iron-jawed trap?

tim in vermont said...

McCabe hasn’t denied it, BTW, anonymous sources have.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

“Politics ain’t beanbag!”

That’s true, neither is Obstruction of Justice.

tim in vermont said...

Remember how the press and the Democrats screamed bloody murder about giving up the Fusion bank records, which, of course showed that Hillary had paid for the dossier?

It’s almost like a pattern, if one could only discern it!

Sprezzatura said...

BTW, if the deep state thought that the key to taking down DJT was to target Page, I don't think anybody needs to be to afraid of them.

Just Sayin'

tim in vermont said...

Sorry, but there ain’t going to be any Democrat majority to impeach Trump, unless something happens between now and election day to change the dynamic. So bizarre partisan theories of “obstruction of justice” aren’t going to carry the day.

Even partisan polster Nate Silver says the dynamic has shifted. The news is all good. Stock market correction due to higher wages and low unemployment.

I don’t see how you guys get to impeachment.

MeatPopscicle1234 said...

Blogger Unknown said...
I think what we're still missing is how the spying on Page would have benefited the Clinton campaign or the DNC, if at all. Even if we assume that DOJ/FBI were in cahoots with the Clinton campaign/DNC to spy on Trump campaign (more specifically Page), what did Clinton campaign/DNC get out of it?

--------------

Because Page wasn't the ultimate target.... Just the nose under the tent that they needed to then "inadvertently" capture conversations with the rest of Trump's campaign team... The ultimate goal was to bring down Trump, and everyone else (Flynn, Page, Papadopoulos, etc...) are just stepping stones to that end...

Bay Area Guy said...

, if the deep state thought that the key to taking down DJT was to target Page, ..

They weren't targeting Page -- Page was the pretext to get the warrant to wiretap Trump to hopefully find some dirt before the November election.

tim in vermont said...

Not to mention that the R’s are going to get firm control of the Senate, barring some new developments.

tim in vermont said...

The Page thing led to all of the unmaskings made by person or persons unknown under Samantha Powers’ name, since an unusual ton of such requests were made in her name, and she says she didn’t do it.

There is still a lot of stink here.

Bay Area Guy said...

What @Joshua Barker said

Oso Negro said...

Can’t we have a “Chuck and Inga” spin-off blog?

Michael said...

John Pickering
"Just for example, he can't get a loan, his properties are rife with money-launderers, and his own kid said 'we get all our financing from Russia." You can look it up, or not."

Give us a cite for the "can't get a loan" . And in the same sentence he can get all he wants from Russia, The "rife with money-launders" is a nice and libelous fiction.

Sprezzatura said...

1) All the deep state folks had meetings and texts and such to figure out how they could destroy DJT.

2) The Deed State decided to use the PP tapes to go after Page--the person that DJT folks said was, essentially, in charge of getting Starbucks.





Michael said...

On the matter of obstruction of justice it should be noted that other than Comey there are quite a lot of people at FBi

tim in vermont said...

Turns out that anybody who bought one of Trump’s condos is a now a business associate, because nobody would buy one otherwise.

PackerBronco said...

It's hilarious how leftists on this site will attack the memo, saying that it lacks the source documents and then will quote anonymous sources to undermine it.

tim in vermont said...

That’s the problem with engaging with ADSS, we answered his question, he ignored our answers, and kept yammering on. Troll.

Anne in Rockwall, TX said...

What realyy amazes me is that they were doing all this surveillance on the Trump team, and they found NOTHING!

Oso Negro said...

“Que la Chinga?” The Chuck and Inga show!

Sprezzatura said...

TinV,

Presumably that's your way of admitting that it's insane to suggest that there's an evil deep state that got together and concluded that the best way to destroy DJT would be to use PP tapes to go after Page.






Drago said...

Annie C: "What realyy amazes me is that they were doing all this surveillance on the Trump team, and they found NOTHING!"

Don't tell Pickering.

Pickering thinks if you violate the "lefties have hurt feelings" rule then any reason is valid to perpetually investigate Trump.

Matt Sablan said...

I've read the memo now. Unless the FBI paid Clinton to hire Steele or Steele still works for them, I can't see any information that endangers national security operations.

tim in vermont said...

Presumably that’s your way of admitting you can’t see past your partisan rooting interest and understand anything anybody says who doesn’t start out agreeing with you.

I would say read the replies to your question again, but that would be pointless. Obviously you are just trolling.

Matt Sablan said...

At the most charitable, McCabe and the others decided to chop down the whole forest of laws to get the devil.

FullMoon said...

I think it will take Trump more than two terms to drain this swamp. He should be VP when Pence wins.

Drago said...

BTW, you could take every single lefty argument and superimpose it on the John Doe investigations in Wisconsin and the faked up prosecutions of Ted Stevens, Tom Delay, Rick Perry, Oliver North, Scooter Libby, etc.

In every case every single BS line taken by the left today was employed in order to effectuate a specific outcome.

By the time the dust cleared of course all the damage the lefties hoped to inflict in some cases worked.

In particular, the faked up Ted Stevens prosecution which allowed the dems to gain a 60 seat majority for a period of time (but don't tell Inga, she doesn't believe the 60 seat majority the dems had for a period existed).

Sprezzatura said...

"Annie C: "What realyy amazes me is that they were doing all this surveillance on the Trump team, and they found NOTHING!""

Not True!

They were spying on the dude that the DJT folks said was in charge of getting coffee. Now the deep state knows many sugars DJT puts in his Java!

MeatPopscicle1234 said...

TinV,

Presumably that's your way of admitting that it's insane to suggest that there's an evil deep state that got together and concluded that the best way to destroy DJT would be to use PP tapes to go after Page.


------------

That's because there was NO FUCKING WAY that the FISA court would authorize spying on TRUMP directly... Even that would be a bridge to far for them and would make what they were doing blindingly obvious... Page was just a cut-out to get to Trump...

Sprezzatura said...

Now the Deep State will release the fact that DJT uses three little bags of sugar in his coffee when Page makes it for him!!

Matt Sablan said...

It is sad how little the left thinks of the 4th Amendment that they think this is fine.

Sprezzatura said...

And two of those little cream containers!@@@wweF@!!@#WEWE

BUMBLE BEE said...

THE BEST COMMENTERS IN PRINT. This has been a real hoot to read! Also IRS targeted Pro Isreal groups as well. Nellie Ohr's ham radio license, granted 5/23/16 figures into this somewhere, I can't wait to find out how (GOOGLE IT). We owe Judicial Watch, Admiral Rogers Professor Althouse our heartfelt thanks.

VERY special thanks also to Hillary Clinton for making this all possible

langford peel said...

I think Trump is going to only have one term. He is going to accomplish so much in his first term that the second would be an anticlimax.

He is old and rich and doesn't need this shit. He proved his point. If he continues to have more success governing as a conservative he can quit be beloved. Pence or Haley or Cotton could carry on and build on his success as the most conservative president since Calvin Cooliidge.

Sprezzatura said...

The 4th amendment protects all of our coffee orders.

John Pickering said...

Sorry for shorthanding, I should have said Trump can't get a loan in the US. He does have significant loans from Deutsche Bank, which has been in the news as a major agent for money launderers. Google Trump can't get a loan and you'll see various articles from WSJ and others. Breitbart and the Daily Mail haven't really covered.

No U.S. bank will lend Trump or his company a dime. You know why? Because he's a terrible credit risk. Where does Trump get his money? Someday perhaps we'll know.

Ann and her tribe, standing shoulder to shoulder with patriots Carter Page and Gen. Michael Flynn.

Sebastian said...

"I can't see any information that endangers national security operations."

Which makes concerted FBI/DOJ opposition all the more curious. They are circling the wagons not because this memo is itself dangerous but because it is a wedge that will pry open a bunch of black boxes, if you'll pardon the mixed metaphors.

As always, I am with YH: chances are, extrapolating from the IRS shenanigans and now the anti-Trump collusion, that Deep State Dems have done a bunch of this kind of stuff under O, more than we know up to this point.

tim in vermont said...

See, he’s pure trolling. We answered his question, he didn’t follow up, he just went off on his riff.

langford peel said...

Oh it looks like Mr Shitter has got off the pot and decided to drop a couple of swimmers into the pool.

Good to know that you don't care about the privacy rights of American citizens. Especially the ones who are foolish enough to work for Donald Trump.

tim in vermont said...

John, you forgot to call us racists!

Think of your brand!

Sprezzatura said...

"No U.S. bank will lend Trump or his company a dime. You know why? Because he's a terrible credit risk. Where does Trump get his money? Someday perhaps we'll know."

You're much smarter than the deep state. If the deep state was as smart as you they would have leaked gov recorded financial stuff re DJT. And, then use government survielence to obtain additional info from private entities.

Instead the Deep State planned to take him down by using the power of the surveillance state to monitor the dude who ordered his Starbucks.


Makes sense.

BUMBLE BEE said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Big Mike said...

This Pickering guy doesn't quite get the Fourth Amendment, does he? Inga neither.

Sprezzatura said...

69.0

BJM said...

"Inga: "So what."

The upside to the nothingburger is that the Dems will be okay with Trump doing the same in 2019, right Inga?

Sprezzatura said...

Snatch.


Sprezzatura said...

TinV,

Thanks for helping move the thread along.


tim in vermont said...

The Fourth Amendment was never intended to Keep Hillary out of office! It’s original intent!

Jim at said...

Please - if you haven't already - read John Pickering's post at 3:58.
Let it sink in.

Now you know to never, ever read another one of his posts again.

Chuck said...


Blogger Drago said...
...
We've already seen how LLR Chuck has taken to attacking Tom Cotton while defending Dick Durbin on immigration matters.


You moronic liar. I haven’t attacked Senator Cotton on immigration. That’s a lie and you know it.

I mostly agree with Cotton on immigration.

I mostly disagree with Durban on immigration.

What I wrote about the two of them is that I believed that Durbin told the truth about Trump’s “shithole countries” utterance. And that Cotton is lying if he denies. But who can tell, really, if Cotton will seriously stand by any denial? What he seems to want is to get away with saying that he didn’t “hear” that utterance. If Cotton is a serious denier on this then I believe he’s lying. Totally apart from any real immigration issues.

I think you knew all of that, and that you deliberately mischaracterized me anyway.

Here’s some advice for you which — knowing what an assclown you are — I expect you to ignore. If you were really curious about my position on something like immigration, you could ask. If you think we have different positions and you want an argument, you could state your case. You never do any of that.

Your specialty is loading up these comments pages with foul clutter like your comment that I quoted.

Mike said...

I think what's more telling is what the memo leaves out: whether the Steele information was corroborate, whether the stuff that was *material* the warrant was corroborated. It's also being reported that Nunes misquotes McCabe (he's the only one not directly quoted). And he definitely misquote Comey, who only said *parts* of the Steele dossier were salacious and unverified.

I'm also not seeing how this is a giant conspiracy to get Trump when 1) the FBI was onto Page long before his association with Trump' 2) this warrant was issued after Carter left the campaign.

"That is criminal, "

Since when? Warrants are issued every day in this country on far less of a basis.

Lewis Wetzel said...

Blogger Mike said...
. . .

"That is criminal, "

Since when? Warrants are issued every day in this country on far less of a basis.

FISA warrants?

Drago said...

Nunes Persisted.

And now, as expected:

Paul Sperry
@paulsperry_
BREAKING: The Senate Judiciary Committee also has a memo on Steele, the dossier and the FBI, and is working to get it declassified.

3:20 PM - Feb 2, 2018

Drago said...

Mike: "Since when? Warrants are issued every day in this country on far less of a basis"

Uh, yeah no. Not in the FISA courts which are governed by specific laws and requirements given the nature of the danger to civil liberties.

Which were all useless when the dems get in charge.

FullMoon said...

Feeling generous, here is a treat for Chuck that he overlooked. You're welcome, Charles.


https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/.../trump-state-of-the-union-ratings-colbe...

10 hours ago - Once again, Donald Trump is boasting about records he did not break. This time, the president has falsely claimed that his State of the Union viewership—45.6 million—was “the highest number in history.” In fact, his address garnered fewer viewers than Barack Obama's first State of the Union, and even

Oso Negro said...

Here’s a thought - what if nothing about the FISA warrant is exceptional for the FBI? What if their everyday work is just like this? Or what if this is an example of their best work?

YoungHegelian said...

@Mike,

Mike: "Since when? Warrants are issued every day in this country on far less of a basis"

Let us assume that your assertion is correct. If your assertion is correct, given what we know about all the shenanigans of 1) Hillary Clinton 2) Bill Clinton, 3) HRC's extended coterie, & 4) the Clinton Foundation, why were there no active FISA warrants out on any the four groups mentioned above, since they posed every bit the threat to our electoral system as Trump & his associates did, & many of them had (e.g. The Podesta Group, Uranium 1) known ties to Russia?

John Pickering said...

The FISA court and its warrants against the likes of Page and Flynn are an example of how the 4th amendment against unreasonable search or seizure is supposed to work. Carter Page was known to US intelligence as an associate of Russian spies even before the rise of Trump, and warranted his surveillance when he showed as one of Trump's foreign policy advisors.

Ann's readers, stand strong in your defense of Carter Page and Gen. Michael Flynn, patriots.

Sprezzatura said...

"Peter Strzok was investigating one Trump advisor, Papadopoulos, in July 2016; the FBI was obtaining a warrant to surveil another Trump advisor, Page, in October 2016. Two Trump advisors under federal investigation for possible collusion with Russia, a dynamite story that could have been leaked at any point to damage Trump. But it didn’t. If nothing else, you would have expected it to leak after Comey’s letter about reopening the Emailgate investigation was published in October, to soften the damage to Hillary from that by focusing public attention on Trump and Russia instead. But it didn’t leak. If Strzok and McCabe et al. were eager to prevent a Trump presidency, why didn’t they just use the material they already had to try to wreck him?"

https://hotair.com/archives/2018/02/02/revealed-the-memo/

tim in vermont said...

stand strong in your defense of Carter Page and Gen. Michael Flynn, patriots.

Keep beating the war drums, patriot!

Matt Sablan said...

Pickering per McCabe, they needed the dossier for the warrant. Would you let a bear cop arrest a suspicious youth on the word of a known liar with an axe to grind and a financial incentive to hurt the youth?

Matt Sablan said...

Page and Papa's investigations are unrelated as there is no known collusion between them. The insinuation they are related is spin.

Matt Sablan said...

And wed been hearing whispers of Trump associates under investigation for a long time. Steele and Clinton tried to get people to publish it and failed. That entire quote is misinformed.

Matt Sablan said...

As a general nicety, if you copy and paste something, please make sure it is relevant and accurate to our most up to date information.

tim in vermont said...

I wonder who the great patriot was who used Samantha Powers’ name to unmask a large number of “US Persons” in intercepted conversations that were then selectively leaked to the press?

You have any idea GWash? You see to think this stuff is all on the up and up, so you must have an answer for that little fact.

We are racists and unpatriotic. I get that, more loyal to our white race than to the country, you have made that clear in your posts, but who was doing these unmaskings?

YoungHegelian said...

@JP,

Carter Page was known to US intelligence as an associate of Russian spies even before the rise of Trump,

And they knew this exactly how? We have proof before us of the FBI fabricating evidence to make a case before the FISA court, & your response is: "Oh, but the stuff they had before on Page, that was the good stuff."

There is absolutely no publicly available evidence of that. We have now caught the authorities in a deep & politically damaging lie. I think that we as citizens must demand & receive proof in detail before we trust them again.

Matt Sablan said...

I dislike the headlines "Trump defies FBI and DoJ by releasing memo." He's the boss. He overruled them. They don't get to tell the boss what to do.

Francisco D said...

I strongly suspect that the general public will want to more about what has been going on in the Obama DOJ, despite the pathetic attempts of the DNC/MSM to distract and cloud the waters.

Every citizen should be happy to know more about how their elected officials and those they appoint are behaving.

We are their bosses.

Sprezzatura said...

Right Matt,

I didn't know that now cons are saying that the FBI did call up Lib Papers to leak that these investigations were going on, but the papers turned them down re reporting. Instead you heard whispers in your head (common?) but there were no articles based on the FBI sources who were trying to leak anti-DJT info.

That is a very fresh take indeed.

Matt Sablan said...

And frankly, if Rosenstein was asking him to help prevent Congressional over sight, he should be gone.

Matt Sablan said...

Were you not paying attention during the election and primary when people were floating the Trump is bankrupt memes and the like?

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

"Now, some are wondering whether there’s a Democratic wave at all."

Oh, I'm hoping for it. I hope the Democrats will wave to the camera before they do their perp walks into prison.

Matt Sablan said...

We even have Hillary Clinton's emails that were released via the Podesta fishing where they outline it as part of their strategy.

Sprezzatura said...

"There is absolutely no publicly available evidence of that. We have now caught the authorities in a deep & politically damaging lie."

Right, it makes more sense that they realized that this is the person who makes coffee for DJT, so that' why they decided to surveille him. It's absurd to think they had any reasons other than his role as the coffee boy for DJT.

FullMoon said...

Some other guy wrote:

If you put all the pieces together here's what you get. The DNC rigs the Democratic Primary Election against Bernie Sanders so Hilliary can win the nomination. Obama's administration starts to request surveillance on Trump, his family, his transition team, and anyone associated with him.

Donna Brazil gives Hilliary the questions to a debate. The DNC pays Christopher Steele to come up with a smear dossier about Trump. The mainstream media releases a taped conversation about Trump talking about grabbing women parts.

After all this Trump still wins the General Election. Obama orders an investigation into Russia meddling in our elections. Obama changes Executive Order 12333 to allow more agencies to have access to surveillance data. The Democratic Party comes up with a scandal that Trump Colluded with Russia to win the election with no evidence or proof.

This wild claim is backed up by the mainstream media. Obama hold overs start unmasking Trump's transition team and staff members then release the classified information to the mainstream media.

Why? Because the DNC and the Obama administration colluded with the intelligence community to thwart Trump's campaign efforts to get him elected president.

All this Russia collusion is an attempt to cover up the fact that the Obama administration, the intelligence community, the DNC, along with the mainstream media used our nations surveillance as a political tool to try to get Hilliary elected President.

StephenFearby said...

Over 700 comments. Wonder what the record is?

Best headline summation of the memo by the international online tabloid of record:


FBI memo reveals James Comey used dodgy 'golden showers' dossier to get Trump team surveillance warrant even though top officials KNEW it was paid for by Hillary and British spy who wrote it was desperate to keep him out of office


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5344921/Trump-green-lights-release-explosive-Nunes-memo.html


As of this writing, 5.3K comments

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Oso Negro said...

Here’s a thought - what if nothing about the FISA warrant is exceptional for the FBI? What if their everyday work is just like this? Or what if this is an example of their best work?

2/2/18, 5:29 PM

That's a damned scary thought.

You could be right though.

Sprezzatura said...

So Matt,

You're admitting that the FBI didn't try to leak to lib papers the fact that DJT folks were under investigation for Russian collusion. So, you've got no beef w/ my link (that goes to Hot Air (Alpha, so yah, I know what that means)).

Matt Sablan said...

The only thing that changed regarding Page is joining Trump. Nothing else but the unverified, inaccurate memo. So. Give me your theory why they spied on him while lying about how good and unbiased the dossier was.

PackerBronco said...

I love the argument that the FBI had other unimpeachable evidence so using the dossier is really a nothing burger.

Oh yeah. We all know that the BEST lawyers always include unsubstantiated flawed evidence from questionable sources to their other evidence because it just makes their case that much stronger.

FullMoon said...

Some other guy explains fisa warrent


"..for anyone not familiar with the key difference between FISA courts and any other courtroom you might be familiar with-- you can't defend yourself in a FISA court. It's a secret hearing. So, for this reason, anyone who seeks to obtain a FISA warrant HAS TO disclose ANY and ALL contradictory evidence or other evidence that would reasonably be presented by the other side. "

Matt Sablan said...

We know that the recordings recordings were spread throughout the Obama admin. We know people used fake credentials to access and declassify the names of people. You just needed anyone in Trump's campaign to backdoor spy on all of them. Coffee boy or not.

PackerBronco said...

Blogger Matthew Sablan said...
The only thing that changed regarding Page is joining Trump. Nothing else but the unverified, inaccurate memo.


Tell us again about the latest anonymous source attacking Trump.

wwww said...


So apparently the investigation started as a result of Papadopolous talking to the Australians?

Who were the Australians that he talked to? Were they Australian intelligence agents who then talked to the FBI?

Matt Sablan said...

Steele did. And the FBI knew and paid him anyway. We know Stzork and Comey both planted stories as well. So. Yes. The FBI was trying for the entire investigation to leak. That's why Comey briefed Trump on the known flawed dossier. So he could get the thing published.

Matt Sablan said...

Unverified inaccurate dossier.

PackerBronco said...

Blogger Matthew Sablan said...
Unverified inaccurate dossier.


My apologies sir.

Sprezzatura said...

Matt,

He was caught up in existing surveillance of foreigners. It's nonsensical to say he was specifically targeted because going after him was the way to take down DJT. What was the end game re knowing how many sugars and creamers DJT put in his joe?

Seems like if you got together w/ your evil Deep State pals and decided who should be targeted re surveillance re destroying DJT, Page ends up at the very bottom of the list.

Maybe this is exactly what happened, but then some did a reverse sort on the spreadsheet based on the column that measured importance and closeness to DJT. So, the Deep State thought Page was the top target.

That's a stretch--unless that guy in charge of the HI missile alerts was in charge of the spreadsheet.

readering said...

I detect frustration that the memo does not support thesis anyone going to jail over FISA warrants.

30yearProf said...

The FULL definition of lying (not the one the Media or FBI follows) encompasses two (2) courses of conduct. "Lying" consists in (1) MAKING any untrue statement of a material fact or (2) OMITTING to state a material fact necessary in order to make the statements made, in the light of the circumstances under which they were made, not misleading [i.e., untrue].

John Pickering said...

Please read the Nunes memo, to which Ann has linked.

The memo makes clear that after the first Page FISA warrant was issued, it was reissued three more times. Up until now, the reasons have been kept classified, but the rules require that progress in the inquiry has to be demonstrated before the warrant is reissued. Believe it or not.

The Nunes memo also asserts that the FBI withheld information from the court, not that they fabricated information. Nunes says the FBI didn't tell the judge enough about the source and motives of the Steele dossier. That's in dispute.

Steele and elements of the FBI may well have concluded Trump is being blackmailed by the Kremlin. That's not a problem for Ann and the tribe.




Matt Sablan said...

Anti: He had no new contacts of consequence except with Trump. You don't understand how surveillance works. They bugged or tapped or whatever a phone line or system. Then, they can listen to everything. It isn't a tiny invisible camera that only followed Page around.

YoungHegelian said...

@Sitter Space,

Seems like if you got together w/ your evil Deep State pals and decided who should be targeted re surveillance re destroying DJT, Page ends up at the very bottom of the list.

Why are you being so unimaginatively literal?

There are lots of reasons why Page might have been chosen:
1) The FBI misunderstood his place in the Trump hierarchy. They might have thought he was higher up than he was.

2) They knew Page's place, but wanted to use him as a wedge to expand the surveillance.

3) Page & Flynn are just who we know about so far. Remember, if this turns out to be a major political scandal, we are still very early in the discovery process.

Matt Sablan said...

The FBI led the court to believe Steele was honest with no motive or bias. That's... Not true.

buwaya said...

Fullmoon,

"All this Russia collusion is an attempt to cover up the fact that the Obama administration, the intelligence community, the DNC, along with the mainstream media used our nations surveillance as a political tool to try to get Hilliary elected President."

Exactly so.
Every conspiracy theorist in the US is now officially acknowledged to be correct.
And whatever uncertainty there has been about the "deep state" concept is dispelled.
It is indeed so.

All suspicions of the scope of this are also confirmed.

tim in vermont said...

I detect frustration that the memo does not support thesis anyone going to jail over FISA warrants.

Could you point out a couple of posts where you detect this? Or is it just more Democrat wishcasting?

30yearProf said...

readering. Warrant Affidavits are signed under oath. Lying by omission in one is perjury. Comey, Rosenstein, Yates, Bontre all signed applications. Other government agents signed under oath the attached Affidavits. And other DOJ lawyers knowingly prepared the false affidavits. A scrupulous prosecutor could probably make no less than a dozen indictments.

buwaya said...

And, of course, now it is no longer an exaggeration to say "you cannot be paranoid enough".

You really can't.

Sprezzatura said...

Matt,

Right, so they thought that finding out how DJT takes his coffee would lead to the destruction of DJT. Hence they kept following him to find out about DJT's coffee.

That makes sense to you.

tim in vermont said...

Why are you being so unimaginatively literal?

He’s a troll, you can’t get upset with him for trolling. It’s in his nature.

Matt Sablan said...

I didn't think anyone would go to jail. Abedin is still free after all.

Matt Sablan said...

No. Spying on Page was the excuse to surveil everyone in Trump's campaign. Because surveillance doesn't just capture the stuff said to or by your target.

wwww said...

I detect frustration that the memo does not support thesis anyone going to jail over FISA warrants.


Huh - does anyone know who the Australians were that Papadopolous talked to? I have no idea, and I'm not going to be making any assumptions unless i have the facts. If, in fact, Papadopolous said something incriminating to Australian intelligence about contact with Russian spies, I would want to know that fact. That sounds like a legit reason to open an investigation. If, instead, P. talked to some random surfer dude from OZ, and they opened an investigation, well...that's another story. I'm clearly gonna have to wait for the affidavit to be released or other evidence. Till then...

On the Memo:

To me it seems like a whole lotta energy with various people thinking it supports their "side." A lot of people making a lot of assumptions driven by motivated reasoning, without relevant, sufficient evidence.

So much of the Trump era is DRAMA. I'm looking at both sides of ya.

With much excitement on the current EPISODE but no one remembers much of that episode two weeks down the road. Stay tuned to the next EPISODE....If you're into that sort of thing.

I'll be bypassing this week's Episode of The Trump ERA: Drama Unlimited. For my family, it's Friday night, movie night and maybe watch a recorded episode of Star Trek Discovery.

Matt Sablan said...

Think of the camera at a bank. It doesn't just have video of the robbery.

buwaya said...

Some people are truly wee-wee'd up -

http://dailycaller.com/2018/02/02/msnbc-take-to-the-streets/

"Donny Deutsch said on MSNBC Friday that Donald Trump is a “dictator” and that “people need to start taking to the streets.”

“This is not something to analyze anymore. This is not ‘Oh, well, good day for Trump.’ This is frightening stuff. If you are an American, if you are somebody who is 80 years old and sitting at home and you’ve watched the greatness of this country, you should be terrified, and if you’re a 12-year-old and the future is in front of you, this is terrifying.”

“This is not time to analyze and pundit. People, this is a — we need a revolution at this point. And I’m not doing TV here — and going what is he doing? This is what’s going on.”
=================================================================================
Who was it that said that violence was coming?

YoungHegelian said...

@Matt S,

Abedin is still free after all.

And she will probably remain free. You know why? Huma knows where the bodies are buried. She knows where the bodies are buried for the Clintons, the Obamaites, the State Dept, the DNC, & now, seemingly, the FBI & the DoJ.

My guess is that Huma & Anthony have let it be known in their circles that in the event of their untimely demise, lots of incriminating evidence will be released by an anonymous lawyer to Fox News.

Matt Sablan said...

Would Carter Page have been put under surveillance as part of Clinton's campaign?

Susan said...

I don't know about you all but spying on the coffee fetcher for your enemy and expecting it to lead to the impeachment/incarceration of a president is just the sort of fine work I'd expect from the Duchess of Chappequa and her minions.

tim in vermont said...

If, in fact, Papadopolous said something incriminating to Australian intelligence about contact with Russian spies, I would want to know that fact.

Use your google machine, it’s all out there. Use papa’s name and Australian diplomat in the search.

Sprezzatura said...

"Think of the camera at a bank. It doesn't just have video of the robbery."

But the camera is pointed at/in the bank.

Surveilling Page is like setting up a bank camera a mile away, in a dead end alley next to the police station, and then hoping the bank robbers use that road for their getaway.


The deep state could have actually done something to harm DJT (they only needed to leak in-house and in-gov stuff they already had, but they didn't.

BJM said...

While Pelosi is getting all verklempt over the Memo endangering and/or compromising our intelligence services David P. Goldman make an excellent point:

No foreign intelligence service could learn anything from the House Republicans’ memo except that the FBI retailed the mercenary inventions of a retired British spook and concealed the provenance of its information. Some may consider it dangerous to expose senior officials of America’s counterintelligence service as political hacks and fools. They needn’t worry. America’s adversaries have been well aware of this for a long time.

Remember these are the same intelligence services that missed 9/11 and Benghazi.

richard mcenroe said...

Fabi 90% plus Democrats. That's pretty well stocked. There are Democrat-run cities that wish their drinking water was that pure.

Matt Sablan said...

No. See. Page was in the bank. The whole point is he was in the bank. They didn't bother watching him until he was close to someone they wanted to watch and could lie to the FISA courts to imply he was a spy so they could set up cameras everywhere around and in the bank. If you don't get this, then you just aren't trying to understand the argument.

buwaya said...

" If you don't get this, then you just aren't trying to understand the argument."

That is the modus operandi of this entity. One of them anyway.

tim in vermont said...

If you don’t get this, then you just aren't trying to understand the argument.

BINGO! He’s a troll.

YoungHegelian said...

@BP,

Some people are truly wee-wee'd up -

I'd be calling for a revolution, too, if what I saw in front of me was the very good chance that my side of the political aisle was about to get annihilated by the news, & soon to be followed at the polls.

Honestly, we have no idea where this scandal will go. But, remember what Watergate did to a relatively healthy Republican Party at the polls. If this scandal becomes as big as Watergate, what will it do to a party riven across racial, ethnic, & religious lines, able to hold power only in urban areas, & now (see the latest DNC income figures), dead broke?

I'm serious when I say that I think there's a 50/50 chance that by 2024 the Democratic Party may go the way of the Whigs.

Matt Sablan said...

Here's another analogy. You know the creepy guy at the library who goes there to hit on the cute librarian? Checking out books to stare at the girl is like surveilling Page as an excuse to really surveil the people and equipment he's in contact with.

buwaya said...

"Some may consider it dangerous to expose senior officials of America’s counterintelligence service as political hacks and fools. They needn’t worry. America’s adversaries have been well aware of this for a long time."

Indeed. If the US had to depend on its intelligence services for success in the Cold War it would have gone entirely the other way. The KGB et al ran rings around the US.

Unknown said...

Thought experiment: in 2009, we learn that the outgoing George W Bush justice department obtained a FISA warrant to spy on a member of the 2008 Obama campaign, using oppo research funded by the McCain campaign.

Somehow I don't think we'd have been hearing so much from the usual media suspects about how important "context" is...

exhelodrvr1 said...

Drago.
You achieved the rarely seen moron-assclown double!! That means your last salvo must have bracketed the target!! Fire for effect!

Sprezzatura said...

Okay Matt,

Page was a key player in the DJT administration. He was involved at the highest level. He's the anti-Shultz: he saw everything, he knows all.

So DJT et. al. have been lying when they say he was the uninvolved coffee boy. You know more about the DJT operation than DJT et. al. do.


Got it.

Francisco D said...

"Steele and elements of the FBI may well have concluded Trump is being blackmailed by the Kremlin"

You have made several assertions without any hint of supportive evidence. You are not even trying to support your claims about Trump's finances and Russian blackmailing. You simply state them as if they were fact.

Where do you pull these "facts" from?

Matt Sablan said...

In fact, this sort of reverse or backdoor warrant is a known thing and why we're not supposed to have a wide dispersal of the surveilled data. Obama changed that rule.

Matt Sablan said...

... You realize devices are tapped or surveilled right?

Never-Biden Never-Putin said...

Rosenstein will be gone soon.

McCabe and Rosenstein admitted all they had for the FISA request was the steele dossier.

Matt Sablan said...

So they argue that he works at X place let us monitor there. They now are watching what they actually were targeting: the Trump campaign.

Sprezzatura said...

"... You realize devices are tapped or surveilled right? "

You realize nobody CCs the coffee boy on anything other than the Starbucks order, right?

Matt Sablan said...

Oddly enough. If they told the court everything, they probably still would have gotten the order.

Matt Sablan said...

... Do... Do you know how data works?

buwaya said...

Facebook chatter is trending toward inciting people into taking to the streets - the Democrat chatter, that is.

But otherwise, in more sane places, its seen as cause for a spike in US political risk.

I have mentioned that several times.

The root cause is, I think, that its unclear where power lies.
Does Trump have control of his own government?
Is the rider in control of the horse?

Unknown said...

Curious why this was released on Friday afternoon, the traditional news dump time.

Sprezzatura said...

"The root cause is, I think, that its unclear where power lies.
Does Trump have control of his own government?"


Don't worry Buw,

There are regular reports that the government is being well cared for. Kelly keeps DJT away from the real control decisions.

Rest well.

Sprezzatura said...

"Curious why this was released on Friday afternoon, the traditional news dump time."

Right. To make a big splash the gov goes w/ midweek. Like the Fake News Awards.

mockturtle said...

Just heard on FBN that over 99% of FISA applications are approved. That's pretty scary in itself.

Michael K said...

His is an appointed position and I think Trump will put a little more due diligence into precisely who is put there this time.

He wont let Sessions compound his already gross list of stupidity and failure.


Part of Trump's problem, which Perot would have had if he had won in 1992, is that he has no allies in DC. His choice of appointees is narrow and then is made narrower by the abuse his nominees take from the left.

One solution, which I think they are adopting, is just to shrink the agencies and cut the numbers. I'm not sure State needs 50,000 Israel haters.

The IRS had way too much time to harass the Tea Parties. They are whining about needing more budget to implement Trump's tax cut. Fuck 'em.

Hari said...

This has become a "too big to fail" phenomena. At this point, either a significant part of the FBI and the DOJ needs to go down (along with the media that has been working hand in glove with them) or Trump has to go down.

“When you strike at a king, you must kill him.”

wwww said...

"Use your google machine, it’s all out there. Use papa’s name and Australian diplomat in the search."


ok, I did a quick search.

It looks like Papa told an Australian diplomat he had dirt on the Russians. I'm guessing the diplomat then altered the FBI or CIA. I'm hearing that the investigation on Papa opened up long before the dossier was brought to the FBI. I'm also hearing Page was boasting about contact with the Russian spies, and he's been under surveillance since 2013.


Unknown said...

Something new I learned from the memo: Associate Deputy AG Bruce Ohr, a senior DOJ official involved in the Russia investigation -- his wife WORKED for Fusion GPS, the Clinton/DNC-funded firm that procured the Steele Dossier.

This is in addition to Andy McCabe's wife -- who as we already know accepted hundreds of thousands of $ from a Terry McCauliffe PAC to run for state senate while McCabe was conducting his supposedly impartial investigation into the Clinton email scandal.

If the parties were reversed, this would be bigger than Watergate.

Sprezzatura said...

“When you strike at a king, you must kill him.”

You truncated the complete version:

“When you strike at a king, you must kill him. When you strike a coffee boy, meh.”

buwaya said...

"Part of Trump's problem, which Perot would have had if he had won in 1992, is that he has no allies in DC. "

True. I said this before the election, that if he won he would be entering a snake pit.

You are also right about Perot.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

In the 'look at what they do, not what they say' category, the Republicans happily, gleefully, with joy in their hearts, just passed the FISA reauthorization bill, yet they claim that this same bill has just recently been subject terrible, horrible, worst people in the world, abuse.

Obviously they don't believe what they are saying.

Matt Sablan said...

Let me try one more time to explain that when one uses government surveillance, it is not like a TV show. A charismatic lead doesn't break in while Page is in the shower or making breakfast or walking his dog or whatever and plug a USB into his computer and phone and work laptop, then sneak out. They do not then follow him in a van, shirt sleeves rolled up and say, "He's on the phone! Quick, get a trace!" Or: "He's sending an email. Hack it before he hits send!"

No. They most likely deliver a subpoena to a provider or cable service or some other third party and say: "Give us everything related to X location, server, individual, group, etc." Then, they sift through the hundreds to thousands of pages of document, destroying any unrelated to the investigation.

The point of backdoor surveillance is that you could, say, claim to be targeting Page, but then leak damaging things you find to the news media, like Stzork and Comey did. Or, you could say you're targeting Page, but really, you're fishing for something to fry Flynn with. Sort of like when a cop stops you for something silly, like crossing a double white, something he'd never stop anyone else for, but for whatever reason, he doesn't like you.

Now, there are supposed to be defenses built in against this. Namely, the distribution isn't supposed to be wide. Obama overruled that. The people accessing it and unmasking individuals are supposed to be held responsible. Somehow, hundreds were made using false credentials. Third: There are harsh penalties for leaking information outside the investigation. To this day, no one has suffered for it.

So, now do you at least understand the working theory of why the FBI targeted Page?

Seeing Red said...

Francisco D said...
"Steele and elements of the FBI may well have concluded Trump is being blackmailed by the Kremlin"

Pffft DWS and her Pakistani IT guys.

John Pickering said...

As some of Ann's readers know, Trump has refused to publish his tax returns in defiance of calls for transparency as regards his finances. So it's opaque, and leaves the impression that he has something to hide. On the other hand, numerous publications, not including Breitbart and the Daily Mail, have made inquiries. You can look them up or not, and believe them or not.

Where does a real estate mogul with no ability to borrow money in his own country get access to credit? His kid said, from Russia.

Will Ann and her readers concede that Trump is a businessman who's vain about his wealth? Will they agree that money is a powerful motive for him? Where does Trump get his money?

If as seems likely, in the absence of any disclosure from the President, he got it from Russia, isn't there the possibility that the Russians are demanding interest payments more significant than clipping coupons? How about installing a Russian spy as National Security Advisor?

Flynn is now cooperating with Mueller and Trump has to be worrying that his addled pal may finally realize he has a duty greater than his pocketbook.

Tribe, stand strong with Carter Page.

buwaya said...

"So, now do you at least understand the working theory of why the FBI targeted Page?"

The entity does not care. Not its purpose.

Seeing Red said...

Why would these people be opposed to Trump? Because they think he might be induced to treason.


Bubba sold us out to China and Obama to the Iranians.

Matt Sablan said...

"So it's opaque, and leaves the impression that he has something to hide."

-- Is that what you thought during the brief period Obama refused to publish his birth certificate, or what you think as Obama still refuses to publish his grades or other documents, or is it solely Trump's refusals that bother you?

Note: Neither refusal particularly bothered me.

Seeing Red said...

Will Ann and her readers concede that Trump is a businessman who's vain about his wealth? Will they agree that money is a powerful motive for him? Where does Trump get his money?


Where does Hillary?

tim in vermont said...

I guess when he calls us “Tribe” the whole loyalty to the white race over the US and racism is all blended in.

He is getting more economical in his insults.

Matt Sablan said...

"Flynn is now cooperating with Mueller and Trump has to be worrying that his addled pal may finally realize he has a duty greater than his pocketbook."

-- Flynn's sentencing hearing has been delayed. If he was cooperating, there'd be no reason to delay it with the new revelations.

mockturtle said...

"Part of Trump's problem, which Perot would have had if he had won in 1992, is that he has no allies in DC. "

True. I said this before the election, that if he won he would be entering a snake pit.

You are also right about Perot.


Both comments bear repeating. The reason Trump horrifies the swamp creatures, including those in the GOP, is that he didn't need their help, either financial or political. Neither did Perot but he lacked Trump's insouciance and got scared off by the PTB. But now they're bringing all their wrath to his presidency hoping he'll fold. I don't think he will but he does need OUR support. I try to email him maybe once a month telling him I'm behind him and support what he's doing and I'm sure there are plenty more emails of support.

Seeing Red said...

Then there’s the Norks.....

Matt Sablan said...

"If as seems likely, in the absence of any disclosure from the President, he got it from Russia, isn't there the possibility that the Russians are demanding interest payments more significant than clipping coupons? How about installing a Russian spy as National Security Advisor?"

-- Why would he need to install a spy as an adviser if he already was one? Moreover, why would Russia bother spending money on Trump, when Hillary *already was giving them everything wanted.* She was backing off American energy independence, wanted to give Russia more control in their geographic sphere, and was willing to take money from Russia to let them get major advantages in America. The only reason Hillary ever went sour on Russia is when she started losing the election -- so why would Russia burn a bridge that powerful for Trump... when they could get everything wanted with Hillary?

Matt Sablan said...

Remember: Obama promised Russia more flexibility, and no one thought this was bad. Clinton pocketed millions for political favors, and no one batted an eye. Carter Page and Papadopolus drunkenly boast "I've talked to some Russians for Trump," and a FISA court and the FBI get involved.

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