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:

1 – 200 of 933   Newer›   Newest»
exhelodrvr1 said...

Pretty clear why the Demos didn't want it released.

rhhardin said...

I'd go to the NYT.

buwaya said...

And, of course, the most interesting thing about all this is that the entire institutional leadership of the FBI and the DOJ and the various intelligence agencies knew all about this the whole time, and did through the whole investigation.

This sort of thing corrupts everyone.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Here's the cool thing about loyal progressive leftist democrats - they don't care. Corruption is just a stepping stone available to democrats for their ownership of power.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Schiff-ty-D says "it's all lies!"

Mary H said...

Text of memo is here:

http://thefederalist.com/2018/02/02/house-intel-memo-fisa-abuse-just-released-read/

Anonymous said...

There will be a new epithet in American politics: "You're full of Schiff!"

Bay Area Guy said...

I'd like Stormy Daniels to release her "Memos"

Humperdink said...

Schiff-ty-D says "it's all lies!"

Let's ask Schiff-ty if he would agree to release all the backup info and watch the look on his face.

tim in vermont said...

Not searchable or cut and pastable, of course.

https://www.scribd.com/document/370598711/House-Intelligence-Committee-Report-On-FISA-Abuses#from_embed

Levi Starks said...

Well I guess it confirms why reliable unnamed sources didn’t leak it to the New York Times.
Ok, let me rephrase that, confirms why the New Your Times choose not to print the document obtained from reliable unnamed sources.

StephenFearby said...

No wonder Adam Schiff fought so hard to suppress this information.

cubanbob said...

Mueller has a problem. He may find himself a person of interest in this widening scandal. A lot of people in DC are going to be needing criminal defense lawyers.

exhelodrvr1 said...


"We have met the enemy, and he is us."

This is what I expected, and I'm very glad that it is being brought to light. But it's also a sad day for America. Hopefully it will end up being a turning point.

Matt Sablan said...

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

-- I thought Page might've been able to be surveilled without it, but, I was wrong. As was much of anti-Trumpland.

Yancey Ward said...

The biggest thing there is that the origins of the dossier were known, but not shared with the FISA court. That is criminal, and there really is no innocent explanation for that either- it was hidden because they knew it might give a judge pause about authorizing a warrant.

The things we need now, however, are the details of how the DoJ used the Carter Page warrant- who among Page's contacts were subjected to FISA queries and unmaskings. I suspect that a daisy chain was used to basically monitor every single member of the Trump Campaign. And note, Congress probably still hasn't received from the FBI and the DoJ all the other applications made to the FISA court in the campaign of 2016. One little detail I have long wished had been cleared up, but no enterprising journalist has bothered asking is this- it has always been assumed that Michael Flynn's conversations with Kisylak were captured because Kisylak was under surveillance. This is, of course, plausible but not necessarily true. I have always thought it about as likely that is was Flynn that was under surveillance, not Kisylak. I would like to see this clarified at some point.

Fabi said...

I'm waiting on Chuck to post the DNC talking points before I decide.

Fabi said...

"The biggest thing there is that the origins of the dossier were known, but not shared with the FISA court."

steveuhr has assured us that the FISA court can handle this internally. Lulz

langford peel said...

We need another Special Prosecutor. I think the FBI inspector general would be perfect. We need to see his report.

The FBI needs to be reconstituted from top to bottom. Rip it out root and branch and start over. Pick out some expienced field agents and put them in charge. The grunts not the REMF assholes who run it now.

Matt Sablan said...

Man. Not a good couple of years for investigators hiding information from the courts. Bundy Ranch, Ted Stevens and now FISA court.

AllenS said...

Remember, this is one small memo, of many more memos to come. The plot thickens. I wonder what Mueller is thinking about right now.

PackerBronco said...

So now the big question is (to coin a phrase):

"What did Mueller know and when did he know it?"

Jersey Fled said...

According to Rush, Steele was specifically tasked to make the dossier read like an intelligence report by Fusion GPS.

Original Mike said...

”The biggest thing there is that the origins of the dossier were known, but not shared with the FISA court. That is criminal, and there really is no innocent explanation for that either- it was hidden because they knew it might give a judge pause about authorizing a warrant.”

Not sure we know when the FBI learned it was a democrat-funded product.

Humperdink said...

Rosenstein is toast.

PackerBronco said...

Not sure we know when the FBI learned it was a democrat-funded product.

I'm sure they'll pull an Obama and say it was when they read about it in the newspapers...

Tommy Duncan said...

This brings the firing of Comey into perspective.

Mark said...

Big fucking nothingburger.

Now wonder Ryan was cautioning against overplaying this hand.

MeatPopscicle1234 said...

From AOSHQ

Another huge point: The FISA Application cited a Michael Isikoff article as "corroborating information" for the Steele Memo, despite the fact that it was Steele who had leaked that information to Isikoff.

So, Steele "corroborated himself" by leaking to Isikoff and then saying "Look, Isikoff says so too."

Jersey Fled said...

Whoever signed the FISA application should begin preparation for his move to federal housing.

Fabi said...

"Big fucking nothingburger."

Keep hope alive!

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...


So - They committed perjury and lied to a federal judge to get a warrant to spy on Trump.

I'm not a lawyer, but that doesn't seem like a nothingburger to me.

Bay Area Guy said...

My favorite part of the Memo - when Comey testified under oath that the Steele Dossier was "salacious and unverified."

Sounds like he's talking about Stormy Daniels's bosom!

Original Mike said...

Looks like the FBI DID know when they went to the FISA court.

Big Mike said...

As Kim Strassel wrote yesterday (before the memo was released):

"If the FBI obtained permission from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to monitor Trump aide Carter Page based on information from the Christopher Steele dossier, that in itself is a monumental scandal. It means the FBI used a document commissioned by one presidential campaign as a justification to spy on another. Ignore any arguments that the dossier was not a 'basis' for the warrant or only used 'in part. If the FBI had to use it in its application, it means it didn’t have enough other evidence to justify surveillance." [emphasis mine]

Yancey Ward said...

Mike, I just read the text- the FBI knew before the first Carter Page application was filed. I think this was probably based on actual testimony in the closed sessions- likely from McCabe himself.

The memo is up at Axios.

Achilles said...

Rosenstein must be fired. Everyone who knew about this should be recused from the Mueller investigation.

Time for a special prosecutor to get to work.

Kathryn51 said...

So, Andrew McCabe testifies that the FBI would NOT have gone to FISA court BUT FOR the dossier. And they also used media reports (circulated by Fusion GPS and Steele) as corroboration.

But. . . .CNN is frantically reporting (because of all their "expert sources") that there was lots of other corroborating material that was also used.

Because. . . the FISA courts simply do not operate on such flimsy information!!

All one needs to do is listen to CNN to understand what the Dem memo says.

Fabi said...

"They committed perjury and lied to a federal judge to get a warrant to spy on Trump."

Conspiracy.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

No, Mark, this is pretty damning. And there's more to come...a lot more.

It's great to see leftists rush to defend lies and government corruption.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Media-Democrat spin will throw the earth off of its orbit. watch.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

The FBI investigation of the Trump campaign started in July 2016. The FISA warrant in question was granted in November.

The dates are a problem here.

langford peel said...

"Big fucking nothing burger."

So partisan Democratic elements of the FBI used a phony document commissioned as oppo research by the Hillary campaign to justify a FISA warrant to spy on the political campaign of the opposing party. Ultimately to spy on the President Elect in the hopes of deligitmizing him. While withholding the source of this information which if it were revealed would mean there would be no warrant.

Talk about your "Substantial omissions."

A nothingburger.

Achilles said...

Mark said...
Big fucking nothingburger.

Now wonder Ryan was cautioning against overplaying this hand.


At least 20 high level DOJ/FBI officials knew about a conspiracy to commit fraud in the FISC to get a warrant to spy on an opposing political campaign.

Sure. Nothingburger.

exhelodrvr1 said...

So, who has more credibility - Schiff or Nunes?

Big Mike said...

And thus I respond to Mark, this is emphatically not a nothingburger.

Fabi said...

Dana Boente signed the application.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Conspiracy.

2/2/18, 11:38 AM

As Joe Biden would say, this is a big fucking deal.

Jersey Fled said...

Right. The FBI "can't remeber" when they learned that the dossier was the result of OPPO research. They also did little to nothing to corroborate it's contents. This despite the "high bar" that the court requires on such requests.

Bay Area Guy said...

Has Carter Page been charged with any crime? No.

Has he been deemed to be a spy by the counter-intelligence services? Not likely.

Big Mike said...

@Bay Area Guy, learn how recognize the real from the fake.

Rick said...

This website is under heavy load (queue full)

This is the message at your link now. This means lots of interest so thanks to those above linking to other sources.

Original Mike said...

We need to extradite Steele.

Achilles said...

Inga said...
The FBI investigation of the Trump campaign started in July 2016. The FISA warrant in question was granted in November.

The dates are a problem here.


Of course they are.

Conspiracy. Fraud. Perjury.

Actual crimes. Unlike "Collusion." These crimes are grounds for a legitimate investigation. Not the Stalinist bullshit you are a fan of.

But I wouldn't expect a leftist to know the difference.

Humperdink said...

"Big f***ing nothingburger."

The Obama administration spying on an R presidential candidate, phony evidence paid for by the D candidate. Yep, nothing to see here. Cheery or grape Kool-aid?

Inga...Allie Oop said...

The Republican narrative is that the FISA warrant was granted based solely on the Dossier. We still don’t know that. Nunes’ Memo is incomplete. He doesn’t prove that there weren’t other sources and information that were considered. We need to hear more, this is shoddy.

Fabi said...

Three other signatures on the FISA application: Andrew McCabe, Sally Yates, Rod Rosenstein.

Nothingburger, my ass.

Humperdink said...

Need to hear from the FISA judge.

langford peel said...

The investigation started when the Democratic partisans in the FBI thought Trump had a chance to win. It took them some time to cobble together enough lies to get this warrant approved. You will note that a prior attempt was rejected. So they judge shopped and got an Obama appointed judge who would put the law aside to attack Trump. Much the way they judge shopped to get an unethical judge to stop the travel ban and other Trump initiatives.

This is a much bigger scandal than Watergate.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Wouldn't it go past conspiracy? I mean, they actually committed the acts.

Jersey Fled said...

I hope Dana is a girl.

Big Mike said...

Kim Strassel raises another point that Democrats would be glad to overlook:

"Somewhat lost in this narrative is what role if any the broader Obama administration might have played with regard to the dossier. What actions were taken by former CIA Director John Brennan, or former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper? Also don’t forget Bruce Ohr, the Justice Department official whose wife worked for Fusion GPS, and who himself met with Fusion cofounder Glenn Simpson. Or the Justice Department officials who approved court filings. If there was surveillance abuse, accountability shouldn’t stop with the FBI."

No it should not.

Bay Area Guy said...

Boente and Rosenstein need to come out and say they were duped -- or they become part of the problem.

Boente is a good guy; Rosentstein might need to go. He's a weak enabler type.

Xmas said...

Do FISA warrants and the charges stemming from them have a "fruit of the poisonous tree" rule?

Matt Sablan said...

"The Republican narrative is that the FISA warrant was granted based solely on the Dossier."

-- No. The narrative has always been that the dossier tainted the FISA process. Which, uh, it did. Even McCabe said so.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Big fucking nothingburger

Really? You already knew McCabe told Congress under oath that “the FISA warrant would not have been issued” without the fake dossier? You knew that? Bullshit. Your partisanship is blinding you to the abuses of people we entrust with our very liberty while they “gather facts.” Using campaign mud in lieu of facts is unAmefican and should bother you.

langford peel said...

We need to hear from the FISA judge under oath when he is testifying before Congress.

The people have a right to know.

The Congress has the right to provide oversite and to protect the rights of American Citizens. The members of Trumps campaign and indeed President Trump have rights.

Of course the Democrats only think that illegal alien criminals and garden variety cop killer black lives matters types have any rights.

So we have a basic disagreement.

Yancey Ward said...

The first Carter Page application was on October 21st of 2016. It was reauthorized three times at 90 day intervals, or if you do the counting, the last one reauthorization would have been in July of 2017. James Comey himself was calling the dossier "salacious and unverified" in June of 2017 after he, himself, had signed off on at least 3 out of the 4 applications put before the FISA court in this matter.

If the dossier was salacious and unverified in June of 2017, it was salacious and unverfied in October of 2016, and in January and April of 2017, three times James Comey signed the applications using the dossier as a source. What a fucking liar that sack of shit is.

Fabi said...

"He doesn’t prove that there weren’t other sources and information that were considered."

Sure, Inga -- the leaks that Steele made to the NYT, CNN, and WaPo were part of the circular corroboration. Lulz

readering said...

People are about to learn much more about FISA warrants than they ever wanted to know. meanwhile, POTUS will continue to make crazy pronouncements untethered to anything. Like his Doozy that Obama was tapping his phones.

langford peel said...

Oversight.

Over site is what many commenters are when a blog jumps the shark.

Original Mike said...

Where are the sources and methods that it was so harmful to reveal?

PackerBronco said...

We still don’t know that. Nunes’ Memo is incomplete. He doesn’t prove that there weren’t other sources and information that were considered. We need to hear more, this is shoddy.

So you now support an investigation in the actions of the FBI? Okay then.

Matt Sablan said...

Whoa. Wait. They FIRED Steele, knew there was factually inaccurate information in the dossier... but didn't tell any of that to the FISA court?

Imagine a beat cop testifying in regular court, but knowing that the report had been written by someone with a vendetta against the defendant, a known liar and who the rest of the police force had already refused to work with, but decided to pass off the information as good information to the jury.

There'd be Hell to Pay.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

"Your partisanship is blinding you to the abuses of people we entrust with our very liberty while they “gather facts.” Using campaign mud in lieu of facts is unAmefican and should bother you. "

Oh, Mike and Inga are fine with the feds abusing our liberty. They don't think we deserve liberty. We have the wrong opinions and people with wrong opinions deserve to be spied on.

The Stasi felt the same way!

Jersey Fled said...

Inga:

From what I understand, the memo states that the dossier was "essential" to the submission to the FISA court.

Humperdink said...

Inga said: "The Republican narrative is that the FISA warrant was granted based solely on the Dossier."

Did you miss AA's bullet point?

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

MikeR said...

Wow. What is the response again? That the dossier was not important because its contents were corroborated by other sources? That's going to be hard, since the dossier was wrong and nonsense.
Anyhow, if you want to claim that, so release the FISA requests themselves, suitably redacted. It boggles my mind that this "memo" was marked Top-Secret. Ridiculous; it has nothing in it at all that needs protecting. The only secret is how partisan the FBI has become.

Michael said...

We shall see if the left retains its love of the FBI when it is led by Tray Goudy. The left's lack of imagination is stunning. They never believe their rules can be used against them.

Unknown said...

900 LBS gorilla in the living room: "What did the White House staff know about the Comey directed the investigation and when did they know it".

Do you really think that Comey did not brief Lynch and the OJ staff of his actions?

Do you really think that Jarrette, Rice, Rhodes, and Power were left out of the Loop?

If Jarrette knew, (a big IF) then what about BHO?
This entire affair may (MAY) lead to BHO, POTUS.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

How will the DNC press spin this?

Jim at said...

Meanwhile, 200k jobs were added last month and wages were up 2.9 percent compared to a year ago.

But keep spewing your own partisan shit, leftists. It's all you've got.

Traitors.

Rick said...

Inga said...
The Republican narrative is that the FISA warrant was granted based solely on the Dossier. We still don’t know that. Nunes’ Memo is incomplete. He doesn’t prove that there weren’t other sources and information that were considered. We need to hear more, this is shoddy


This is completely false. The relevant question is not the existence of other information but whether that other information could have resulted in the application being granted without the Dossier. Further we know the answer to this question:

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

So we know from the FBI that the other evidence was so incredibly weak the application wouldn't have even been attempted. As usual the left wing response is partisan driven obfuscation.

langford peel said...

Once again the disloyal opposition is trying to take everything literal in order to obfuscate what is going on. When President Trump said Obama was trying to tap his phones he was using a short hand the normal Americans would understand. If he said that Obama and his minions were using the FISA court to illegally capture his communication under an fraudulently obtained warrant ....well their eyes would glaze over. Trump is a master communicator who put things in simple every day terms that the normals can understand.

We know what he means. This memo is just another proof that Democratic partisan have subverted the FBI, the FISA court and the Law for political purposes.

Francisco D said...

This is the tip of the iceberg. Much more to come.

Those who signed the FISA application will very likely go to jail. Others will certainly lose jobs.

It will be interesting to see how the MSM spins this because some of them are complicit.

Matt Sablan said...

"Like his Doozy that Obama was tapping his phones."

-- Uh... you realize the FISA court that we're discussing actually authorized surveillance ("tapping") of Trump's campaign, right?

PackerBronco said...

Blogger Dickin'Bimbos@Home said...
How will the DNC press spin this?


Rather, how will CNN, MSNBC, NY Times, etc. spin this?

Fabi said...

Yes, exiled -- we're way past conspiracy, but that's the point of departure. This is the biggest scandal in US history and it all falls on Obama, Hillary and their puppets in the federal apparati.

AllenS said...

Nov 29, 2017

(CNN)The Justice Department is breaking its silence on the circumstances surrounding the impending departure of one of its top career prosecutors after a month of speculation about whether he was forced out for political purposes, according to a letter obtained by CNN.

Last month Dana Boente, the current US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia and acting head of the national security division at the Justice Department, announced his plans to step down, upon Senate confirmation of his successors.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Inga @ 11:44

Your beef is t with Republicans. Your hero Andy McCabe told Congress under oath that the dossier was key. And the FBI officially is not disputing that fact. Try again.

Etienne said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

This entire affair may (MAY) lead to BHO, POTUS.

2/2/18, 11:51 AM

I'm sure he only found out about it by watching TV.

It pleases me to think of Jarrett, Rhodes and Power sweating bullets.

langford peel said...


"Do you really think that Comey did not brief Lynch and the OJ staff of his actions?"

What a great typo. The OJ staff. It is so on the nose that I can't stand it.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

No Inga- what is shoddy is that the democrats inside the FBI omitted critical information in their FISA requests. or - they lied.

The judge in the Bundy case threw-out the case because the FBI omitted information that was critical to the case and therefore compromised their integrity.

Cool part of being a dedicated loyal leftist is integrity means nothing to you. Lies and omissions are all part of the big plan.

Jim at said...

The dates are a problem here.

They always are with you, Ms. Encryption Key.

Lewis Wetzel said...

"Furthermore, Deputy Director McCabe testified before the Committee in December 2017 that no surveillance warrant would have been sought from the FISC without the Steele dossier information."
Lot of butt hurt for the Obama JD & the FBI there.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Allen S -

Shorter CNN - If a corrupt democrat hack is found to be a liar, we blame it on Republican partisanship.

Etienne said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Drago said...

Our own intelligence and law enforcement agencies attempted to frame a domestic opposition political opponent and then a domestic opposition President-Elect.

Yes.

Our own intelligence services ran a fake counter-intelligence OP AGAINST a republican politician to keep him from winning an election and then to try and OVERTURN the results of our election.

And these intelligence and law enforcement officials were teamed up in this OPERATION GET TRUMP by the entire Obama administration, Hillary Clinton and her entire team of POS henchmen and women, and the entire MSM with few exceptions.

LLR Chuck and Rosie O'Donnell hardest hit.

Scott said...

I just read the memo. Explosive hardly begins to describe it.

Everyone involved should be fired if government employees, lose all their pensions and benfits, and be prosecuted for criminal conspiracy. This is Watergate-level stuff except done by the FBI.

Unreal.

langford peel said...

I hope we can see Obama and Eric Holder fleeing down the highway in a White Bronco on the evening news.

Everything that is old becomes new again.


Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Exiled, you are misreading me or confusing me with someone else. I’m refuting Inga’s lame comment not endorsing it. WTF?

traditionalguy said...

It contains nothing we did not already know. The Dem/Obama/Soros/Clinton conspiracy was in charge of the FBI and the DOJ and many, many more Federal Agency functionaries...and most of them are still there for now.

It is a War. Trump has the Military and some of the Fox News people and 40% of the GOP on his side. The Losers are going crazy now without the Saudi Money flowing to them through slush funds run by Soros, and Gates, and Steyer, and Ford Foundation, and Rockefeller Foundation, and Anenberg Foundation. The rest of the smart money guys are supporting Trump toavoid confiscation of wealth by his 12/21/17 Declaration of Martial Law.

What Trump is Draning are the slush funds of stolen money.

Matt Sablan said...

"It contains nothing we did not already know."

-- It contains nothing we didn't already assume, but it confirmed a lot of things we thought, but could not prove.

grackle said...

The FISA Application cited a Michael Isikoff article as "corroborating information" for the Steele Memo, despite the fact that it was Steele who had leaked that information to Isikoff.

Fusion GP would leak parts of the fake Russian-sourced dossier to select MSM outlets and then the FBI would present the generated news articles to the FISA judges as “evidence” to justify spying on Trump. Details are here.

They were desperate to discover some dirt on Trump. Their big problem is that nothing was found. This is a deathblow (killshot?) to the Russian collusion narration.

Mueller has a problem. He may find himself a person of interest in this widening scandal. A lot of people in DC are going to be needing criminal defense lawyers.

I just saw Trump say, “We’ll see what Congress does.” Congress? I have NO faith in Congress. Depending on Congress to do its job seems like a poor strategy to me. What about the DoJ? Surely some law or another has been broken … Does Sessions have to wait on Congress?

What the DoJ and the FBI did as outlined in this memo was post-election. It was risky and some of the DoJ/FBI perps must have known it was risky. So, why?

I think they knew that they had to discredit and/or get rid of Trump so that the illegal stuff they did pre-election, during the Obama administration, would not be revealed.

Darrell said...

Somebody should repost Chuck's comments calling Trump a "fucking liar" for saying that Obama "wiretapped" him. Perhaps Chuck back and deleted them. History is fluid.

buwaya said...

This is the biggest scandal in US history as of now.
But, unless a great deal else stays buried, nothing near what is likely to emerge.

PackerBronco said...

The four FISA surveillance applications were signed by, in various combinations, James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Sally Yates, Dana Boente, and Rod Rosenstein.

Well I guess we know why Rod didn't want the memo released ... not seeing the national security angle there, Rod.

Matt Sablan said...

Per Ace: "When Comey "briefed" Trump about the memo, he also withheld from Trump the dossier's partisan origins as well as the unreliablity (and firability) of its alleged author."

Well, glad Comey was fired if he was lying to the President during briefings.

rcocean said...

Would anyone explain to me why this memo SHOULD NOT have been published?

I don't see any National security info.

I don't see any misleading information.

I don't see any "facts out of context"

Original Mike said...

”The judge in the Bundy case threw-out the case because the FBI omitted information that was critical to the case and therefore compromised their integrity.”

Don’t tell steve uhr.

langford peel said...

Why aren't these FBI traitors in bracelets doing a perp walk.

Sessions has to go. He has no balls. Appoint him to some sinecure. Put in a hard nosed prosecutor. Not Guiliani or Christie. Both of them are too tainted.

I am sure there is an ambitious hard nosed lawyer who would love to run at the chance to reap destruction on the Deep State.

buwaya said...

"So, why?"

Indeed.

Humperdink said...

"I see that Senator McCain is still alive .."

I haven't seen my senator Bob Casey (D-Rip VanWinkle) in awhile, so I am not sure if he is still on life support (sarc alert). He generally surfaces every 5 1/2 years to campaign.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Mike said...
Exiled, you are misreading me or confusing me with someone else. I’m refuting Inga’s lame comment not endorsing it. WTF?

2/2/18, 11:57 AM

Mike, my apologies, I meant to type "Mark."

I know you're one of the honest ones.

rcocean said...

Now, we know the whole "Trump russian collusion" was BS from the start.

So, what is Mueller investigating?

PackerBronco said...

So the first shoe drops ...


... from the centipede ...

buwaya said...

That would be wreak destruction.
One would reap heads perhaps, though that's a rather bloody metaphor.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

“Three other signatures on the FISA application: Andrew McCabe, Sally Yates, Rod Rosenstein.”

So what?

rcocean said...

McCain and Flake were both against publishing memo because it HURTS THE DEMOCRATS.

Matt Sablan said...

All this talk of Page being on the FBI's radar since 2013... but they still needed the dossier. Let's ask the question: Is Page only on their radar because of his political views?

traditionalguy said...

The reason the Dems were kicking and screaming about this Memo release is that it proves that ALL of the Russian Collusion evidence the same totally corrupt guys found came from an illegal search. Mueller is kaput.

rcocean said...

Miss Lindsey was against it too.

BTW, Remember when McCain said in June 2017, that "Trump Russia" was "Bigger than Watergate"?

Guess he was right. Only he got the wrong President.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Still wondering why it's OK for obama and Hillary to speak to Russians, but nobody else.

Humperdink said...

So how in the world is this memo classified? What security issues are at risk by releasing it? Other than revealing our beloved FBI leadership is collection of corrupt buffoons.

Drago said...

langford peel: "Why aren't these FBI traitors in bracelets doing a perp walk."

Because Christopher Wray is in an impossible position.

He wants to salvage the FBI reputation, he wanted to quietly let the culprits retire so it doesn't blow up the FBI reputation, he wants new rules in place to stiffen the requirements and return order.

In other words, Wray is doing what all bureaucrats do when everything is going to heck: save the institution, even if it means letting criminals go free...quietly.

Sorry Mr Director. You are probably a good guy and the word is that the guys coming to replace the lefty HQ creeps at FBI are good people and good Field Office people, so they were distant from the obama/Hillary DC corruption.

Michael said...

Most disturbing is that our G-Men are so fucking inept and, impossible not to say it, dumb. This is what comes from working in government where there is zero market competition and your sole path to success is sucking up and coming in on time. The slightest bit of intelligence is pumped up into brilliance. Comey. Dumb and smug.

Drago said...

Humperdink: "So how in the world is this memo classified? What security issues are at risk by releasing it? Other than revealing our beloved FBI leadership is collection of corrupt buffoons."

It's clear now that it was all more additions to the massive series of dem/lefty/LLR lies.

Original Mike said...

”Sessions has to go. He has no balls. Appoint him to some sinecure. Put in a hard nosed prosecutor. Not Guiliani or Christie. Both of them are too tainted.”

I think the recusal of Sessions was bullshit, but it exists. Given the crisis at the DOJ, Trump should replace Sessions so that the DOJ has an actual head who can procede with the necessary investigation.

Matt Sablan said...

"So how in the world is this memo classified?"

-- I assume it was born classified because of the topic, or maybe some of the stuff they agreed to remove was more detailed.

buwaya said...

Easy, Rosenstein is implicated.

Drago said...

And, of course, who was it that opened the fake pappydappydopolous investigation?

Strzok.

Why, of course.

Of course.

Not a smidgen of corruption.

readering said...

When folks calm down I encourage them to show purpose in their outrage by donating to ACLU.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Trump should have just publicly told Putin he’d have more flexibility after the election, as that phrase has been preapproved by the DNC-Media complex.

PackerBronco said...

Blogger Drago said...
Because Christopher Wray is in an impossible position.

He wants to salvage the FBI reputation, he wanted to quietly let the culprits retire so it doesn't blow up the FBI reputation


Those two desires are directly opposite of each. Wray is going to have to choose. One thing's for sure: "quietly" retiring is no longer possible.

langford peel said...

I would caution about one thing.

We are about to see some accidents and unexplained deaths of cut outs. The links in the chain that can lead to higher-ups.

You see that kind of thing in mob cases all the time. In cases like Seth Rich and the staged suicide of Mark Salling. They cut out one link in the chain and it serves as insulation to the big fish.

Achilles said...

Inga said...
“Three other signatures on the FISA application: Andrew McCabe, Sally Yates, Rod Rosenstein.”

So what?


That means Andrew McCabe, Sally Yates, and Rod Rosenstein are guilty of the definition of fraud and perjury, and prima facie guilty of conspiracy to commit fraud and perjury as all three of them probably discussed the fraudulent memo.

PackerBronco said...

Blogger buwaya said...
Easy, Rosenstein is implicated.


What did Rosenstein know? And when did he know it?

Fabi said...

"So what?"

You'll figure it out soon enough.

Drago said...

readering: "When folks calm down I encourage them to show purpose in their outrage by donating to ACLU"

Yeah, lets all send cash to the far lefties at the ACLU who are fully aligned with everything the left wants to do and only once in a great while will pretend to support some conservative somewhere in some small way to maintain the fiction that the ACLU has not swung hard left.

So uh, no.

All extra donations should go to republicans so they can clean readering's crooks out of the government.

Matt Sablan said...

Whoa. Wait. Steele also had "anti-Trump financial" motivations?

... How does this NOT deserve to have been known?

Nonapod said...

Yeah, it's both sad and risible that certain people's main concern around the releasing of the memo seemed to be that it would damage the great and noble institutions of the FBI and the DOJ. Those are some screwed up priorities. First of all, the conspirators already sullied those institutions with their actions. The damage has already been done regardless of this memo. The release of the memo just ensures that something can be done about it. Now the FBI needs to be purged and reconstituted.

PB said...

The only way to save the institution is to throw the book at the criminals. Letting them walk only sends the exact wrong message.

Seeing Red said...

The FBI investigation of the Trump campaign started in July 2016. The FISA warrant in question was granted in November.

The dates are a problem here.


Exactly. When was Trump secured as the GOP nominee?

Or when did it look like he was going to win the nomination?

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Where is Chuck anyway?

Drago said...

Inga: "So what?"

If one were ever to pen a biography of Inga's life, that would likely be the most appropriate Title.

Original Mike said...

”Those two desires are directly opposite of each. Wray is going to have to choose. One thing's for sure: "quietly" retiring is no longer possible.”

An interesting take on Wray’s task:

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/02/why_trumps_fbi_head_christopher_wray_urged_withholding_the_nunes_memo.html

Matt Sablan said...

Oh. Wait. It isn't that the warrant wouldn't have been gotten without the dossier.

The FBI wouldn't have bothered seeking it at all.

Francisco D said...

The communists did interfere in the election.

Except they were American and not Russians.

GWash said...

you guys have to cool your jets a wee bit... you do realize that this was written by trump and nunes and not really based on the facts of the situation.. trump is the guy that came up with the reason for the russian trump tower meeting with donny jr. as being about adoption...
so i guess you all believe that too...
why would the trump be so anxious to shut this investigation down if there was nothing to conceal, no 'collusion' ?
if there is one thing that trump is the biggest, best and most at - it's lying and i find it interesting that you all swallow his bs hook, line and sinker... if you had spent some time in NYC in the last 30 years you may be a little more cynical about him and more circumspect..
lets wait for the other shoes to drop before we crown him...

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Trump said those involved "should be ashamed of themselves."

Trump isn't often guilty of understatement, but that's the understatement of the decade.

Yancey Ward said...

Ann, you make an error in point 5- Strzok was reassigned in 2017, not 2016.

Unknown said...

Inga of course doesn't see the problem with the people signing the FISA applications.

Comey knew--KNEW-- the dossier was a lie, and had been created by the Clinton camp. He nevertheless said it was genuine FBI documents when he signed the FISA application. That's perjury, lying to the judge, etc.

And he did this after Trump was president. The FBI was using Democrat campaign material to spy on the President in an attempt to bring him down! Wiretapping the President all based on a lie created by his opponents, that they knew was a lie!

Inga, you have zero problems with this, it appears. This is Gestapo level stuff, and you are endorsing it.

--Vance

Fabi said...

Sessions' recusal is brilliant. There's no hint of interference from Trump's administration.

Lars Porsena said...

The Dems objected to its release, in part, because it would reveal classified info.
What part of this memo compromises classified information? I can't see any.

Original Mike said...

One easy take away is Schiff is a God damned liar. No national security risk in this memo.

What a surprise.

Howard said...

So many nothingburgers, so much time

Achilles said...

buwaya said...
Easy, Rosenstein is implicated.

This is what the memo is really all about. Rosenstein refuses to hold Mueller accountable. Rosenstein almost certainly committed conspiracy when he conspired with Comey and Mueller to get the Special Investigation started in the first place. Rosenstein has been part of several Clinton/Obama coverups.

Because Sessions has turned out to be such a pathetic loser Rod Rosenstein is the only thing holding back a real investigation of the DOJ/FBI. The democrats/stalinists are going to do everything in their power to keep him in place.

Drago said...

Mike: "Where is Chuck anyway?"

If he had any shame he would be under the bed eating bag after bag of oreos.

In reality, he is probably awaiting the appropriate talking points from MSNBC and Dick Durbin.

Because, after all, when it comes to whom does one believe in DC, LLR Chuck comes down with both feet on the credibility of US troop slanderer Durbin.

Seeing Red said...


When folks calm down I encourage them to show purpose in their outrage by donating to ACLU.


Why would I send my money to an outfit that bitched Trump said America too many times in his SOTU?

MeatPopscicle1234 said...

Trey Gowdy for AG?

Fabi said...

"you do realize that this was written by trump and nunes and not really based on the facts of the situation."

Hahahahahahahahaha!

GWash said...

fabi, the justice department is stocked with trump appointees... they are his and anyway are supposed to be independent of the executive branch... that is, if we are still following the constitution and traditions of the us and not some third world authoritarian govt model..
Also the current fbi dir. is trumps...

Humperdink said...

readering: "When folks calm down I encourage them to show purpose in their outrage by donating to ACLU"

Several decades ago, when I was young and stooopid, I requested help from the ACLU for my now deceased father-in-law. The local government was coming down on him at the behest of a wealthy local businessman. They were not interested. Opened my naive little eyes. My eyes are still open.

Unknown said...

So far, not a single Democrat or leftist commentator here at Althouse, aside from our lovely host, seems to think that weaponizing the FBI into just another peice of the Democrat campaign is a big deal.

Just imagine, if you will, if Trump was caught using the FBI to spy on, say, Kamala Harris. Using complete fabrications, no less. Can't you just see the ambulances outside of Inga's house as she has a rage-stroke?

But corrupt leftist g overnment? Why, that's a feature, not a bug.

--Vance

Drago said...

GWash: "you guys have to cool your jets a wee bit."

We have already dialed it down to 3/5ths of what it should be.

You should be familiar with that.

Now, go back and read your constitution. I know some of the words are big, but you can always google them.

Michael said...

GWash

Priceless!! excellent work. LOLOLOL

Pretending to be stupid takes courage and patience and an excellent writing style, not Nobel level but slow year pulitzer. Good shit, really. Har.

langford peel said...

I think Rothstein is the perfect cut out to be eliminated.

I hope he doesn't choke on a matzo-ball or get hit by a train or something.

I think he would flip on his masters if he was in the dock. So he should look over his shoulder.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

"They used something they knew was fake to get a warrant. Everybody involved in that needs to face consequences."

Drago said...

GWash: " they are his and anyway are supposed to be independent of the executive branch."

False.

But only utterly.

How is it possible to be this ignorant? How do you get dressed in the morning?

buwaya said...

"When folks calm down I encourage them to show purpose in their outrage by donating to ACLU."

Like all such institutions, this one, the ACLU, is thoroughly corrupt.

In this case it was born corrupt, as a communist front avant la lettre.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

"W/out dossier, there would've been no FISA warrant. Was admitted under oath by McCabe. DOJ/FBI already knew dossier's source was unreliable & shouldn't be used, but filed applic w/it anyways. Waited until after to fire Steele. Then applied for extensions on warrant anyways."

Fabi said...

"fabi, the justice department is stocked with trump appointees.."

There are 130,000 employees in the DoJ. Define stocked.

stevew said...

Proof there was collusion in an attempt to influence the outcome of the election!!!!

Just didn't involve Trump and the Russians.

-sw

Francisco D said...

"You'll figure it out soon enough."

No Fabi. Inga will not figure it out.

She is probably on the DNC website trying to come up with talking points.

Cutting and pasting has already started.

Yancey Ward said...

I will again point out- the material that Congress managed to get out of Wray and Rosenstein is apparently the FISA work releated to Page. There is evidence yet that Nunes' committee has yet received all FISA material related to the Trump Campaign. We don't know yet what was done with the Carter Page surveillance and how it was used to monitor other members of the Trump Campaign. We also haven't seen FISA material related to Manafort and how it was used to monitor the Trump Campaign. Remember, the FISA warrants are not your standard issue court warrants for suveillance of the targets of criminal investigations- if you capture, lets say, a phone conversation of Page with another US citizen, that other party is supposed to be masked in the details by the NSA prior to giving it over to the party, in this case the FBI, that has the warrant. It will interesting to see the volume and identities of all the unmasked people caught up in the Carter Page and Paul Manafort warrants. I am willing to bet that it is pretty much everyone in the Trump Campaign still with him in November of 2016. Using a single warrant and 702 queries, it is possible to create a surveillance blanket that encompasses the entirety of Trump's operation.

dreams said...

"What did Rosenstein know? And when did he know it?"

I heard someone on Lew Dobbs say that Rosenstein is know as Frank Burns by those within the FBI.

buwaya said...

"Rod Rosenstein is the only thing holding back a real investigation of the DOJ/FBI."

Maybe he is, but I doubt he alone is doing the "holding back".
I suspect there are an awful lot of fellows with their fingers in the dike.

Drago said...

Katie Pavlich sums it up well:

Katie Pavlich

@KatiePavlich
All along, it was the Clinton campaign, some in Obama's DOJ and Fusion GPS that were colluding with a foreign entity to influence the election. The exact thing they've accused the Trump campaign of doing, they are guilty of.

10:06 AM - Feb 2, 2018

Expect LLR Chuck to launch a full scale attack on Katie based on this. And if Katie has a child with special needs, watch out!

Humperdink said...

Inga: "So what."

Hillary: “What difference does it make?”

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Drago wrote:
All extra donations should go to republicans so they can clean readering's crooks out of the government.

2/2/18, 12:10 PM

Not so quick, you wouldn't want them to go to pols like Flake or McCain or Collins or certain other Life Long Republicans....

exhelodrvr1 said...

Trey Gowdy not running for re-election would make him more available then he would be otherwise for further investigation into this mess

PackerBronco said...

Blogger Unknown said...
So far, not a single Democrat or leftist commentator here at Althouse, aside from our lovely host, seems to think that weaponizing the FBI into just another peice of the Democrat campaign is a big deal.


Or they take the other argument and claim that this memo is "unverified" and "incomplete". Now if they REALLY believed that (and are not just putting forward talking points), they would be calling for an independent investigation of the FBI and DOJ to get to the bottom of this.

I'm not holding my breath waiting for their calls for such an investigation.

Portia said...

readering said...
When folks calm down I encourage them to show purpose in their outrage by donating to ACLU.

2/2/18, 12:07 PM


hah hah hah. the aclu would defend those doj/fbi buffoons

Michael said...

Drago
Give GWash credit for taking on the role of the dumbest person on the internet. It takes skill, real skill. Not so much as that lady commenter who comes around with the most fantastically cloying posts but still a certain level of expertise to tease out the stupid from something perfectly obvious. My hat tips to him and I am sure he laughs along with me. Surely. He. Does.

Achilles said...

Drago said...

So uh, no.

All extra donations should go to republicans so they can clean readering's crooks out of the government.


Optimistic. The democrats have refused to accept election results for 50 years and have worked to build power that doesn't rely on elections. That is what this DOJ/FBI scandal is all about.

When they are in danger of losing this power they will resort to violence. The last 2 years of Antifa/BLM has just been a warm up. White cops in particular better check their armor.

Bay Area Guy said...

Memo to Bob Mueller: Shut it down!

Drago said...

Fabi: "There are 130,000 employees in the DoJ. Define stocked"

The number is literally about "2".

The dems (with strange McConnell complicity) have been allowed to slowball the nomination process.

#Resist!

So you see the dems doing the 2-step attack: Dems in Congress stop and Resist! Trump from putting his people in place other than the very top slot and then the little cannon-fodder trolls then run around lying about the agencies being "stocked" with Trump appointees.

Tank said...

Everything the Clintons touch turns to shit.

Drago said...

The entire obama/Clinton operations are s***show.

Achilles said...

buwaya said...
"Rod Rosenstein is the only thing holding back a real investigation of the DOJ/FBI."

Maybe he is, but I doubt he alone is doing the "holding back".
I suspect there are an awful lot of fellows with their fingers in the dike.


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.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Howard said...
So many nothingburgers, so much time

2/2/18, 12:13 PM


What exactly do you consider a "nothingburger" Howard? The conspiracy to commit fraud? Perjury? Spying on political opponents?

buwaya said...

"The dems (with strange McConnell complicity) have been allowed to slowball the nomination process."

Interesting, isn't it?

Critter said...

Wow! Obama Administration was corrupt to its core. These actors at FBI and DOJ were all political appointees or self-described anti-Trumpers. Obama ran his administration from the West Wing as much as possible. It's impossible for me to conceive that Obama did not know all about this, and relied on cutouts to provide plausible deniability.

Add to this the IRS scandal and we may have the most scandalous administration in the past 100 years. Let's hope the truth will out.

langford peel said...

If ever there was a need for a special prosecutor this is it.

The only way for bad cops to operate is if good cops turn their backs.

The Democrats would crucify a beat cop who shoots a crack head who is trying to kill him but wave off the corruption of the FBI for partisan purposes as "nothing to see here" and old news.

To say that the DOJ is filled with Trump loyalists is laughable. Most of the appointees in all of the agencies are part of the Swamp. Or the Deep State in the form of the FBI and CIA. When Trump went out of the box with someone like Mike Flynn the minions of the Deep State did all they could to destroy him and his family.

Trump needed to appoint a foot soldier as head of the FBI. A Sargent not a general. Someone in the Bureau who solves crimes and is not political. They would see that these are crimes and would follow it wherever it goes.

Bob Boyd said...

Lying to the FISA court seems kind of....what is the word I'm looking for... weaselly! That's it. Seems like something weasels would do.

dreams said...

Devin Nunes is considered to be doggedly determined. Perseverance, I expect Trump with help from people such as Devin Nunes to persevere in cleaning up the FBI, along with making our country great again. MAGA!

Patrick Henry was right! said...

Do you know who advise Sessions to recuse himself????????

Rosenstein!

Resign today.

Original Mike said...

Think about the fact that JOURNALISTS were arguing against releasing this information.

Ann Althouse said...

"Ann, you make an error in point 5- Strzok was reassigned in 2017, not 2016."

Thanks. The date related to when Strzok opened the Papadopoulos investigation, not to when he was reassigned (for which the date isn't given). Fixed.

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