November 22, 2019

"The Justice Department inspector general has found evidence that an FBI employee may have altered a document connected to court-approved surveillance of a former Trump campaign adviser..."

"... but has concluded that the conduct did not affect the overall validity of the surveillance application, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter. The person under scrutiny is a low-level FBI lawyer who has since been forced out of the agency, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss material that has not yet been made public. They declined to identify the lawyer.... That conduct did not alter Horowitz’s finding that the surveillance application of former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page had a proper legal and factual basis, the officials said. [Inspector General Michael] Horowitz has been exploring various aspects of the Russia probe but was focused in particular on applications the FBI filed with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to monitor Page’s electronic communications.... Separately, Attorney General William P. Barr tapped U.S. Attorney John Durham to explore the origins of the FBI probe and U.S. intelligence agency activities aimed at the Trump campaign, and Durham is expected to pursue the allegation surrounding the altered document to see whether it constitutes a crime, people familiar with the matter said.... Conservatives have alleged that a medley of wrongdoing occurred during the investigation, which was eventually taken over by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, and they are likely to seize on any criticism that Horowitz directs at those involved in the probe...."

WaPo reports.

218 comments:

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n.n said...

Still falling for Russian collusion?

Russia is a competing interest. It is also a proximate ally to mitigate the progress of Obama's greater Middle East wars and against common threats and global risk. The effort to collaborate with special interests to force a coup in Kiev, with anti-Putin Russian interests, British and Italian agents etc., was probably poorly conceived, except for the profit of globalist interests (e.g. immigration reform), Cold War enthusiasts, and the labor, environmental, and monetary arbitrages games (e.g. Green industrial complex) played in China etc., which may explain the curious timing of the uprising in Hong Kong that threatens to delay or abort negotiations.

Crazy World said...

Bring it on President Teflon Don.

fizzymagic said...

The Deep State is a Chimera....

Chimera. You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Perhaps a quick trip to the dictionary would help you.

Big Mike said...

GTMO will need more military to guard all those a Democrats that surely will be imprisoned there.

They won’t live to reach it. I am certain they will Epstein themselves.

Ann Althouse said...

"Chimera. You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. Perhaps a quick trip to the dictionary would help you."

Maybe a slow trip to the dictionary for you.

"Chimera" has meant — among other things — an imaginary monster or a horrible imagined thing since this 1500s.

Big Mike said...

@Althouse, so fizzymagic is right —because there is nothing imaginary about the Deep State.

Have fun on your run; I am going back to bed.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Michael said...

Let me get this straight. An FBI lawyer alters documents in order to get a warrant. The alterations aren't enough to invalidate the warrant, but enough to get the lawyer fired. Oh, and by the way, the public is not allowed to know the name of this trusted public servant.

Rusty said...

The usual suspects masturbating in public again. There are other, more interesting threads.

Ken B said...

@BigMike
Yep, Althouse has simply missed the boat on chimera. So let’s review

Howard: the deep state is a (fancy word implying there is no deep state)
Fizzy: standard princess bride joke about fancy word, implying the deep state does exist
Althouse: fizzy you don’t understand, Howard was suggesting the deep state does not exist.

Point to Big Mike

Bruce Hayden said...

“Let me get this straight. An FBI lawyer alters documents in order to get a warrant. The alterations aren't enough to invalidate the warrant, but enough to get the lawyer fired. Oh, and by the way, the public is not allowed to know the name of this trusted public servant”.

Kevin Clinesmith?

Interestingly disclosed by Strzok’s and Page’s favorite journalist to leak to, Devlin Barrett, who first disclosed that this FBI atty had worked for Strzok, then his article was amended by the WaPo to remove that fact, and instead disclose that this FBI atty had been fired. Which apparently left Kevin.

Bruce Hayden said...

“Interestingly disclosed by Strzok’s and Page’s favorite journalist to leak to, Devlin Barrett, who first disclosed that this FBI atty had worked for Strzok, then his article was amended by the WaPo to remove that fact, and instead disclose that this FBI atty had been fired. Which apparently left Kevin.”

Ok, bad taste quoting yourself, esp since it shows lack of foresight.

These leaks have essentially disclosed that the general defense by the FBI, and likely DOJ, is very likely to be that the person in question did everything right, and would have come to the correct results if only they had had the right facts to work with. Not their fault. They went through the right motions, filled out the right forms, etc. The big takeaway is that most of the FISAgate scandal is going to be blamed, by DOJ IG Horowitz by agents outside the DOJ (and FBI). This, by necessity means the CIA. They essentially provided the legal predicate to the FBI to open the Crossfire Hurricane criminal investigation. Clinesmith is gone, so he is also a convenient target of blame.

But the other interesting aspect here off that leak is that it comes from Devlin Barrett, Peter Strzok’s favorite target for leaking. And it has been suggested by several to look at MSM sources of leaks to determine who a leaker is. This means to me that it is likely that this leak came from Strzok, and is being utilized to try to protect himself from repercussions from his part in filing the fraudulent FISA applications. He can claim that he got bogus information from this guy and depended on it for his part of preparing the FISA applications (we know that is BS, because he was the one guy at the FBI who seems to have known how all the pieces fit together, and had a relationship to the CIA and in particular Brennan). Lisa Page also apparently leaked to this reporter, but didn’t have a direct role in FISA application approvals, and doesn’t appear to be speaking with Strzok (partially for her marriage, and partially because she has very likely been flipped for some time now).

Ann Althouse said...

“ @Althouse, so fizzymagic is right —because there is nothing imaginary about the Deep State.”

If it’s Princess Bride humor, fine, but the trip to the dictionary business sounded like snarky elitism to my ear.

Ann Althouse said...

And “chimera” is a hard word with a scientific literal meaning.

daskol said...

A chimera is a chimera is a chimera

Michael K said...

The big takeaway is that most of the FISAgate scandal is going to be blamed, by DOJ IG Horowitz by agents outside the DOJ (and FBI). This, by necessity means the CIA. They essentially provided the legal predicate to the FBI to open the Crossfire Hurricane criminal investigation. Clinesmith is gone, so he is also a convenient target of blame.

This, the CIA theory, is also probably true. CTH has been on this now for a while. There were a lot of foreign connections , MI6 etc, that also suggests CIA. I think Truymp has been under a lot of pressure from Deep State types to back off since MI 6 and Australia are involved. I think he should go balls to the wall and out them all since many are probably Remainers in UK and Atty General types in Israel typing to take down Bibi.

Josephbleau said...

Sheridan’s comment inspires a question for Godel, Can a sufficiently corrupt system be rectified under its own rules? Our founding fathers conjecture was no, but I await the refined proof.

Lewis Wetzel said...

I suspect that the people who believe in a deep state define it differently than those who do not believe in a deep state.
My definition of a deep state would be the individuals and factions of the state that believe the state has legitimate interests that compete with the interests of the people's elected representatives.

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