December 17, 2019

"The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court ordered the government Tuesday to explain what the FBI will do to ensure the bureau does not mislead judges again..."

"... when applying for surveillance orders like those used in the 2016 investigation of the Trump campaign. The four-page order from Judge Rosemary M. Collyer, the presiding judge of the FISC, takes the FBI to task for 17 omissions and errors contained in applications to the court to secretly monitor the electronic communications of Carter Page, a former Trump adviser.... 'When FBI personnel misled (the Justice Department) in the ways described above, they equally misled the FISC,' Collyer wrote. 'The FBI’s handling of the Carter Page applications, as portrayed in the (inspector general) report, was antithetical to the heightened duty of candor' expected of FISC filings. Collyer is the judge who signed the very first surveillance application for Page sought by the FBI in October 2016.... 'The frequency with which representations made by FBI personnel turned out to be unsupported or contradicted by information in their possession, and with which they withheld information detrimental to their case, calls into question whether information contained in other FBI applications is reliable,' Collyer wrote."

WaPo reports.

177 comments:

Beasts of England said...

And if you do it again, you’ll be in big trouble!! Scary!

Marshall Rose said...

Does this mean the FISC is not going to rubber stamp everything as they always have?

Achilles said...

Collyer was in on it.

She is just covering her ass.

narciso said...

how about sanctions, fines, or even the comfy chair, they were relatively nonplussed when the prospect was appearing,

Beasts of England said...

I thought Contreras approved the initial surveillance application...

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Comey, Clapper, Brennan, Schitt, Strozk, Chariamella - to the firing squad. for starters.

Achilles said...

The IG was an Obama appointee.

Obama didn't fire him. Obama fired Walpin when he tried to do his job.

It is clear the IG report was as much a white wash as the IG could pull off. This means that this has been at least as bad as I have told you for years.

Obama knew and was involved in an effort to spy on a political opponent.

Obama and the other conspirators used the government apparatus to try to undermine a lawfully elected president and perform a coup.

Obama and the entire cabal are traitors and there is no more covering this up.

They all need to hang.

Big Mike said...

They all need to hang.

These days the government uses lethal injection.

But I suspect Achilles at 3:38 is right. I suspect Marshall Rose (just above him) will be disappointed.

narciso said...

no, he wasn't on the original panel, strzok tried to get him on it, but they already had a ful set, this is violation of rule 13 of the fisa code, I know seriously, it makes you wonder how thorough the approval process is generally, I'm guessing not at all,

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Dissolve the corrupt FBI and CIA for starters. Sex abuser Bill Clinton, his money grubbing money whore wife... send the message. Private Servers for international Pay to play. It should tickle down like a pee stained mattress from the top of Mt. Schitt into Christopher Steele's living room.
Force Nancy Pelosi to clean it up with a tooth brush.

BarrySanders20 said...

Why did the DOJ lawyers defraud the court? Same reason the criminals the DOJ locks up commit crimes: Because they thought they would get away with it. What were the odds Hillary would lose? And what were the odds Trump, if he won, would survive the coup long enough to expose them? A risk worth taking.

Rabel said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jersey Fled said...

Suprised WaPo opened this up for comments. Wonder what their loyal readership has to say about this since I won't lower myself sign up or suscribe.

Lucien said...

The agents and DOJ lawyers involved need to be designated with the equivalent of Brady letters.

BarrySanders20 said...

Collyer could actually take significant action against the people responsible for defrauding her and exposing an already disreputable court to ridicule. Judges hate to be lied to or mocked, and this is both. We'll see if she is serious or not.

Rabel said...

“When FBI personnel misled (the Justice Department) in the ways described above, they equally misled the FISC,” Collyer wrote.

I'm not a lawyer but I think that's illegal.

It's likely that Comey knew this was coming - which would explain the walkback in his Fox interview yesterday.

But congratulations to the Post for doing a fine job of putting the best shine on this disaster for the FBI - "misled" in the letter becomes "errors, omissions" in the headline.

Seeing Red said...

Now something is said?

ga6 said...

CYA Big Time.....

YoungHegelian said...

I got a an idea that's so fucking crazy it just might work!

How about instead of trusting the team that formulates the request to come up with exculpatory evidence have a team within the FBI whose job it is to present "the defense", i.e. a team that presents the reasons why the subject should not be an object of surveillance. The "prosecutors" should have to prove their case, and, as in a court of law, the defense operates from the presumption of innocence (i.e. surveillance is not licit).

I mean, jeez, even in the Roman Catholic Canon Law investigation into the canonization of a person, the Church Court has The Devil's Advocate, whose task it is to argue that the person is not worthy of sainthood ("Hey, that third miracle was card trick!"). Clearly, turning loose the FBI on some poor schmuck does more harm to the poor schmuck himself & the fabric of the Republic than having an extra saint or two, but the RCC seems to believe in safeguards more than the DoJ!

Beasts of England said...

Thanks, narciso!!

narciso said...

remember judge lamberth, didn't sign off on one of the warrants, because he felt they had provided weak info in the past,

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

SUPERCUT — Media to Americans: Of course the Trump dossier is true!

Rabel said...

And the man who appointed Collyer to the FISA court will be presiding over the Senate impeachment trial!

It's a small world.

Unknown said...

Somehow the phrase "rats scurrying off a sinking ship" comes to mind...

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

@Rabel

... congratulations to the Post for doing a fine job of putting the best shine on this disaster for the FBI - "misled" in the letter becomes "errors, omissions" in the headline.

Would we expect anything else? The offical democrat party propaganda journal cannot abide any truth without spinning it for The Party.

Lucid-Ideas said...

"Your Honor,

Thank you for your inquiry. We plan to ask congress to defund them. Barring that, to fire anyone with a rating of GS-9 or higher.

Best,
Office of the President of the United States."

M Jordan said...

I’m sure the FISA court was in on the winks and nods but I’ll take this as a good sign anyway. It reveals CYA is kicking in, the early tremors before the full scale earthquake. The house of cards, to mix metaphors, is falling.

AllenS said...

What is scary about this thread is this: WaPo reports.

Whoa! You know what they say, if you've lost the WaPo you've lost Bumfuck America.

Michael K said...

I thought Contreras approved the initial surveillance application...

I did, too. I think Collyer might be presiding. I also remember her doing something else. Maybe she rejected the first FISA warrant. Can't remember.

Contreras is a buddy of Strzok and recused himself when then water started to heat up.

Browndog said...

John Roberts wants to know if FISA can still be a rubber stamp, or if judges have to actually do their job.

FullMoon said...

BFD.

M Jordan said...

I saw elsewhere someone speculating that this could open the floodgates to overturning all kinds of previous FISA-related cases. Terrorists could walk.

Thanks, Obama!

Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...

Just imagine if this had been done to Obama. It would have been the biggest political scandal in modern history.

Michael K said...

How about instead of trusting the team that formulates the request to come up with exculpatory evidence have a team within the FBI whose job it is to present "the defense"

How about we repeal FISA ? Andy McCarthy was close in NR last week.

Moreover, counterintelligence powers, which are vital to protecting our nation from terrorist attacks, hinge on public and congressional support. They will lose that support if they are exploited for political purposes.

Browndog said...

Maybe when yo get an application to spy on a political campaign during an election instead of an application to spy on a guy named Mohammed in Pakistan you should ask a few questions.

gspencer said...

This letter from Collyer is a CYA letter, "It wasn't our fault."

Here the FISA court was played, and all it does is issue this mamby-pamby you-better-shape-up letter.

Contempt of court in the most egregious way possible, and the court is taking no serious action against these lawyers?

Dave Begley said...

Why not a Motion to Show Cause why Comey should not be held in contempt? He signed the application.

Everyone who signed should be called up for a Show Cause hearing.

Toothless.

rhhardin said...

There are morons on the court, perhaps even fellow travellers. She's doing deflection. Nobody would be fooled by the applications.

TJM said...

These FISA judges are now in c/y/a/ mode. They must have known what was going on, but "Orange Man Bad" colored their "thinking."

gspencer said...

"And the man who appointed Collyer to the FISA court will be presiding over the Senate impeachment trial!"


John Roberts is a very compromised man. Compromised because he oversees the FISA court generally and because he appointed the FISA court judges which issued those warrants the purpose of which was to spy on Trump qua candidate and Trump qua president.

And compromised because Roberts’s on record rebuking Trump on the recent “Obama judges” remark. In short, Roberts’ ability to act as an impartial is non-existent.

28 U.S. Code section 455. Disqualification of justice, judge, or magistrate judge,
(a) Any justice, judge, or magistrate judge of the United States shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.
(b) He shall also disqualify himself in the following circumstances:
(1) Where he has a personal bias or prejudice concerning a party, or personal knowledge of disputed evidentiary facts concerning the proceeding.

See also Federal Rules of Evidence, Rule 605,
The presiding judge [in a trial] may not testify as a witness at the trial.

Narayanan said...

Blogger Browndog said...
John Roberts wants to know if FISA can still be a rubber stamp, or if judges have to actually do their job
______&&&&&&++++++
Isn't wielding rubber stamp surefire way to avoid agenda and agency?
And self-respect.
What would RBG say?

Achilles said...

Browndog said...
John Roberts wants to know if FISA can still be a rubber stamp, or if judges have to actually do their job.

John Roberts loyalties in this should be obvious ever since his Obamacare decision.

It is clearly no to the constitution or this country.

Ken B said...

I think a real court, treated this way, would look for more than “plans”. But any little bit helps I guess.

Shouting Thomas said...

Impeachment was timed to try to bury the IG Report’s proof that Obama, Hillary and the FBI spied on Trump’s campaign.

Sharc 65 said...

"how about sanctions, fines, or even the comfy chair"

I bet this is already in the works, based on the requirements of the order so far. The order essentially requires a candid assessment of what actually went wrong, and what steps the FBI is taking to fix what went wrong. The judge cites the IG report but otherwise keeps her cards close to the vest. At this point, I dare the FBI to lie to the court in January about what actually went wrong -- but of course it will, rather than admitting its misdeeds. The judge gets to sit back and retain jurisdiction (note that the case caption is not specific to any particular warrant previously issued). She can then point out the inevitable omissions in the FBI's *sworn* response that she's personally aware of, and the real contempt hammer will fall...

Rabel said...

Also worth noting that the Post did not provide a link to the full letter.

More than CYA, it is a damning indictment of the people in charge at the FBI.

Collyer asked why she should trust the FBI's representations in the future - the more important question is - how can I trust your representations in the past?

This opens a huge can of worms - gigantic, ugly penis worms.

Achilles said...

BarrySanders20 said...
Collyer could actually take significant action against the people responsible for defrauding her and exposing an already disreputable court to ridicule. Judges hate to be lied to or mocked, and this is both. We'll see if she is serious or not.


She can't take serious action.

She is going to be a defendant soon.

If she takes serious action the snitches will out her.

Durham already has flippers.

Trump plays a long game. I wonder if he saw the train wreck letting the Democrats win in 2018 would create.

Dave Begley said...

Why is the judge not punishing these liars for their past conduct?

Instead she's saying, "Show me why you won't do it again." Of course they are going to come up with something, but they are liars.

Judge, "Ok, bank robber. I'm not going to send you to jail for what you did. Just tell me you won't rob banks in the future."

Bank robber, "Yes, judge. No more bank robbing. I promise. Cross my heart; hope to die."

Mark Nielsen said...

Jersey Fled: "Suprised WaPo opened this up for comments. Wonder what their loyal readership has to say about this since I won't lower myself sign up or suscribe."

You don't have to subscribe to read the comments. I scanned them, and it's a mix. There are some honest WaPo readers who are concerned about the implicit erosion of civil liberties. There are also many willing to excuse anything because Orange Man Bad. A currently popular mental gymnastics move seems to be waiving the whole thing off under the explanation that the IG found the FBI made some paperwork errors (which is understandable in such a complicated process!) but that he also concluded the investigation was clearly warranted, and in any case Trump is still guilty and still stole the election with Putin's help. I'm not sure there's any cure for that level of voluntary reality distortion.


Narayanan said...

What repercussions to Brady materials in Flynn's case?

Does this help Sydney Powell?

Francisco D said...

These FISA judges are now in c/y/a/ mode. They must have known what was going on, but "Orange Man Bad" colored their "thinking."

Judges are just as likely as anyone to be influenced by the Democrat propaganda media.

Trump was widely mocked in the elite circles that judges travel in. He was seen as a loose and dangerous cannon. Hence, there was no presumption of innocence.

The coup attempts on the Trump Presidency will be something for the history books. Legal and law enforcement systems have been severely abused and changes need to be made.

The more I hear inane lefties talking about Trump as totalitarian, the more scared I am that they are projecting their own totalitarian impulses.

gspencer said...

"She is going to be a defendant soon"

Maybe, but she has the defense of absolute immunity, so any suit ain't going anywhere.

Dave Begley said...

Every single person that signed those FISA applications should have to pay serious personal fines; not money the government would reimbursement them for.

$100,000 minimum.

Molly said...

The FISA court is not the only court that relies on honest representations by lawyers. Lawyers are officers of the court, and when, for example, a prosecutor tells the judge this is all the evidence we have that might be exculpatory, the judge accepts that as a fact. The reason the FISA court is so annoyed is the system only works if the DoJ and FBI are honest and straightforward. The court legitimately asks, "Is this the only time you lied? or are there more FISA warrants that are based on lies?" And am I alone in wondering what will happen when prosecutions based on (any) FISA evidence come to court-- will judges throw out the FISA evidence?

n.n said...

Judge, "Ok, bank robber. I'm not going to send you to jail for what you did. Just tell me you won't rob banks in the future."

Let there be social stability. $100... billion dollar limit.

Bank robber, "Yes, judge. No more bank robbing. I promise. Cross my heart; hope to die."

Oh, social justice. Let us bray.

Rockport Conservative said...

I believe a little introspection is due from the court as well. Did they actually review or ask the right questions?

narciso said...

so for a year, they surveilled carter page, because he gave a speech in Moscow, and someone told steele, that he had a part of the rosneft deal, which would have worked out great for sochin, but there's a reason they sent him to Mozambique, on three different occasions they found no evidence, but they continued the surveillance, it's something out of minority report or enemy of the state, I surmise this was sop for the Baltimore office where Rosenstein came from, but it doesn't speak well of him, now Weissman and strzok, they are like inspector javert,

Tomcc said...

As the saying goes: "the horse is out of the barn". Writing a stern letter seems like a very "administrative" gesture. At least she didn't call for a national conversation to promote the healing process.

Kathryn51 said...

Michael K said...
I thought Contreras approved the initial surveillance application...

I did, too. I think Collyer might be presiding. I also remember her doing something else. Maybe she rejected the first FISA warrant. Can't remember.

Contreras is a buddy of Strzok and recused himself when then water started to heat up.


Contreras was the judge that signed off on Flynn's plea deal - and then was removed from the case ( it was later re-assigned to Judge Sullivan). I can't remember if he was removed right before or right after the FBI Lovers text messages were publicly released. But he was clearly compromised.

Dave Begley said...

Think about what those FBI liars put this country through. The FISA warrants were premised upon the Steele Dossier. Hillary and the Dems paid for it. It was all lies.

Hillary wanted to use the Steele Dossier to win the election. After she lost, she put this country through 3 years of investigations and total BS.

If there was no FISA warrants granted, there'd be no Mueller Report and no three years of investigations.

The FISA warrants were the proximate cause of all this grief and BS. That's why very serious sanctions are in order. Those FISA applications NEVER should have been signed.

Otto said...

Just another nail in the coffin for Strzok and McCabe. Durham will send them to jail. Comey also goes if Durham uncovers some new evidence or some underling squeals.
Wonder if lisa page will get jail time.
Want Graham to investigate Rosenstein and Yates . Especially want to see Yates go to jail after her sanctimonious behavior during the early days of the collusion inquiry.

narciso said...

cta, your backside is exposed, one doesn't want to harp on this too much, but this was garbage from Baltic slithy toves like milian, carried by halper to steele, on this ground, one loses any expectation of privacy, the maneuvers around manafort were nearly as byzantine, it reminded me of a scene in the 500, where the mitch mcdeere character drills into a gym locker, to find the bribe,

Amadeus 48 said...

It's about time.

Roberts should clean house at FISA. Collyer can stay, but they have to stop acting like patsies. The whole point of FISA is to keep the bastards honest. It is an ex parte proceeding. The court should put the FBI through the fire to get one of these warrants on Americans.

This whole episode has been revealing and disgusting.

Francisco D said...

The court legitimately asks, "Is this the only time you lied? or are there more FISA warrants that are based on lies?" And am I alone in wondering what will happen when prosecutions based on (any) FISA evidence come to court-- will judges throw out the FISA evidence?

It is not just FISA warrants that judges will start to question a lot more.

Smart defense attorneys will capitalize on the IG report and FISA Court abuses. Expect to se more than a few convictions overturned after tons of cases are appealed more presumed DOJ/FBI lies and misrepresentations.

The real stain here is not on Trump for being impeached, but on the Obama Administration for seriously damaging the rule of law. I guess he was transformative in that sense.

Dave Begley said...

If the FISA court was a real court, it would hold a public hearing. The FBI people who signed the FISA applications would have to put on real evidence that they did not intentionally sign those FISA applications. That's what a show cause hearing is.

Why didn't the FBI tell the FISA court that Hillary paid for the Steele Dossier? Why didn't the FBI tell the court that Steele wanted to get Trump? Why did that one guy change the evidence about Carter Page? Why didn't the FBI tell the FISA court that Page worked for the CIA?

There needs to be evidence.

If the FBI liars don't satisfy their burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt, the court can fine or jail the liars.

This is basic stuff. This is an incredible failure on the part of the judiciary.

Kathryn51 said...

Molly said...
The FISA court is not the only court that relies on honest representations by lawyers. Lawyers are officers of the court, and when, for example, a prosecutor tells the judge this is all the evidence we have that might be exculpatory, the judge accepts that as a fact.

I read only the Althouse excerpt (not going to pay WaPo), but Collyer is still white-washing the role of the "DOJ lawyers". Apparently, the FBI lied/misled the DOJ attorneys - therefor they are off the hook for signing the FISA. Never mind that they were pushing for speed, no matter that they didn't ask any questions. Never mind that SALLY YATES signed the application BEFORE her underling lawyer (forget the name) signed it.

Bruce Ohr is covering up for Yates (his boss) when he claims that he never told her about his secret meetings with Steele - just why did he leave her in the dark? Because he knew She Did Not Want To Know. She should be disbarred, the sanctimonious bitch.

Gk1 said...

Wow, seems like a pretty stiff rebuke for "minor paper work errors" as my liberal colleagues keep telling me. I'll start paying attention once some of these fuckers go to jail and are frog marched out of their homes at 4:00am in handcuffs. Until then? Zzzzzzz

Clyde said...

Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus.

Browndog said...

I was surprised to hear Andrew McCarthy say he thought the FISA court should have never been created, and should be abolished.

donald said...

This isn’t even rating a chyron on CNN at this moment.

donald said...

Oh and as I hit post, they now tease it.

Just being fair.

Browndog said...

If there was no FISA warrants granted, there'd be no Mueller Report and no three years of investigations.

Moreover, they told us the mere existence of the FISA warrants was proof enough that Trump and his campaign were working with the Russians because you had to have rock solid evidence to get one, and they got several.

Iman said...

60 months in Leavenworth - and a 5 year supervised parole - would help all concerned.

donald said...

They gave it about 90 seconds. That’s it.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Hillary and her party are a disgrace to history.

donald said...

David Axelrod said about 15 minutes ago that Russian involvement in the 2016 was “elaborate”.

donald said...

It wasn’t as elaborate as the fraud perpetrated on the FISA court amirite!

Tank said...

Oooooooh, a strongly worded letter and a demand that they promise not to do it again. Yeah, that's gonna do it.

Once upon a time I was sitting in Court watching a shoplifter being sentenced for a "first offense." I asked the lawyer sitting next to me how many times he figured the lady shoplifted before she got caught (i.e. her first offense). He thought a moment and said...500, and we both laughed, because we knew he was right.

SDaly said...

How about we repeal FISA ? Andy McCarthy was close in NR last week.

It goes beyond FISA to the FBI as an institution (and local police offices are known to lie in probably cause affidavits).

You can never eliminate corruption entirely, and institutions need to be able to function with that understanding. However, when corruption reaches a certain level, the entire institution begins to collapse. Like the Catholic Church and priest sex abuse, the level of corruption at the FBI and DOJ have reached that stage.

wildswan said...

I wonder how this affects General Flynn. I think the FBI needs to turn over to Judge Sullivan all the evidence showing how the General was coerced into a guilty plea by FBI agents who actually knew he was not guilty but who went ahead and ruined his life, destroyed his finances and threatened his son with jail. If they don't do it now, it will all come out later further wrecking the FBI.

Listening to the Comey interview, I did realize he was throwing Strzok under the bus ("Far down the chain, so far down I couldn't see, far down where everything is so small and close together, someone did wrong. Not me.") and Strzok seems the type to pull as many as possible into the abyss with him. Maybe he's talking and this FISA order is responding to that.

Amadeus 48 said...

This is extremely embarrassing for the FISA court (You had one job...).

They have been in a CYA mode ever since Contreras "was recused" from the Flynn case, being replaced by Sullivan. Contreras accepted Flynn's guilty plea. Notice the language "was recused". He didn't recuse himself. I believe that Contreras signed at least one of the FISA orders. When Nunes blew the whistle (talk about a whistleblower), someone up the chain--maybe Collyer, maybe higher, obviously said this looks terrible. Get Contreras out of there and get a judge in there who will give the DoJ a tough time. As discussed in other places, Sullivan had reamed the DoJ in the Stephens case. Flynn's biggest problem continues to be that he never has withdrawn his guilty plea--there is only so much that Sullivan can do.

I think the pieces are really moving around the board now. The Senate is going to crap on Schiff, Wadler, Pelosi and co. Trump is going to take a victory lap and pardon Flynn after he is sentenced. After that, a bunch of House members are going to try to save themselves. Then Durham is going to hit the leaders of the coup attempt.

Maillard Reactionary said...

I don't think we can realistically do without an FBI and CIA, performing as they were originally intended to do.

Human nature being what it is, political pressure on both organizations is inevitable as are failures of individuals in them to act in accordance with their oaths. Expecting otherwise is naive.

What is needed is accountability: Felony convictions, hard time in the Federal Pen, and pensions cancelled.

There will still be those who will think they can get away with it, but I think real penalties, enforced, would help keep most of the waverers honest.

What is this bullshit with big shots in the Government never being held accountable? We all know how far we'd get if we tried it.

AZ Bob said...

Now that members of Congress are questioning the efficacy of the FISA court, we have the court doing what it should have done long ago. It is like shutting the stable door long after the horse has escaped.

narciso said...

well the uk didn't set up political police special branch till the early 20th century, similar with domestic and foreign intelligence, they had a colonial service, the ones hinted at in kim, but that was a different element, French intelligence, well the dreyfus case tells you everything you need to know about them, at that same point in time,

Michael said...

Stop!! They said. And if you do it again we shall again say Stop!!

mccullough said...

If the FISC were actually a real court instead of hacks, they would have scrutinized the third application. The first two warrants turned up nothing. A real judge would have started raising some tough questions then.

This is a bullshit order.

Amadeus 48 said...

wildswan--if you think about it a little bit, you realize that your summary of Flynn's mistreatment fits a lot of defendants in federal prosecutions. Giuliani was famous for doing that in the Southern District of New York. For example, they got Michael Millkin to plead by squeezing his brother, Lowell. It happens all the time. What you describe is considered good practice by US Attorneys and FBI agents all over this country. Don't kid yourself.

mccullough said...

Flynn is hoping for a pardon.

His problem is he didn’t ask to withdraw his plea. He’s turned up enough evidence that the judge would allow him to withdraw his plea and to go to trial. But he doesn’t want to.

narciso said...

correction 1883, with the ira, one thinks if the tables were turned and the right surveilled Pelosi, Clinton, et al, well they'd still be busy three years later,

Wince said...

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court ordered the government Tuesday to explain what the FBI will do to ensure the bureau does not mislead judges again...

"Forty lashes with a wet noodle! "

Mike Sylwester said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Michael said...

Amadeus 48

The Federal conviction rate is around 95%. Amazing record, eh?

walter said...

Per his interview, get Comey back in there to clean things up.

Mike Sylwester said...

Excerpts from the first pages of the FISA warrant that the judges signed:

[quote]

The target of this application is Carter W. Page, a U.S. person, and agent of a foreign power ....

Carter W. Page [redacted] knowingly engage in clandestine intelligence activities (other than intelligence gathering activities) for or on behalf of such foreign power, which activities involve or are about to involve a violation of the criminal statutes of the United States, or knowingly conspires with other persons to engage in such activities and, therefore, is an agent of a foreign power ....

The FBI believes Page has been the subject of targeted recruitment by the Russia Government [redacted] undermine and influence the outcome of the 2016 U.S. Presidential election ....

[end quote]

All of those statements that the judges signed are nonsense.

stevew said...

Brett Baier had a report that there have been 1,081 FISA applications for surveillance and just 1 has been denied. That's 99.9% success rate. He then contrasted this with Comey's insistence that the process for securing a FISA warrant is rigorous and difficult.

Heh, tell us about it...

Achilles said...

Amadeus 48 said...
It's about time.

Roberts should clean house at FISA. Collyer can stay, but they have to stop acting like patsies. The whole point of FISA is to keep the bastards honest. It is an ex parte proceeding. The court should put the FBI through the fire to get one of these warrants on Americans.

This whole episode has been revealing and disgusting.



Roberts and Collyer are part of the machine.

If they stay on this will happen again. They clearly do not have any principles and do not deserve to be Judges.

They are both an integral part of this injustice. Without them this would never have happened.

Exile should be the lightest penalty discussed.

Yancey Ward said...

You know what- fuck the FISC! How about these fucking judges hold a fucking hearing and get these corrupt lawyers sworn in and ask them direct questions about the applications and the evidence backing them rather than just rubberstamping everything. When someone has to get and take an oath, perhaps, just perhaps, they will take more care to do their fucking jobs right.

rsbsail said...

What the FBI did was not an omission or an error. An error is a misspelling or a transposition of a number.

Kevin CLinesmith changed a CIA document to have the exact opposite meaning. That was deliberate act. He, among others, have ruined Carter Page's life.

General Flynn lied to the FBI. He is paying the price.

Clinesmith, an agent of the government, lied to the FISA court. He should go to prison.

Original Mike said...

Well, the obvious, and just, method to make sure it doesn't happen again is to prosecute the offenders. Isn't that how it's supposed to work?

Tim said...

How about jail time? Tha should work. You or I sure as hell would go to jail.

Achilles said...

stevew said...
Brett Baier had a report that there have been 1,081 FISA applications for surveillance and just 1 has been denied. That's 99.9% success rate. He then contrasted this with Comey's insistence that the process for securing a FISA warrant is rigorous and difficult.

And that 1 application that was rejected, the first Page surveillance request, was left out of the IG report completely.

The IG report was an attempted white wash.

Considering it laid out obvious treason that should tell everyone how bad this actually is.

BarrySanders20 said...

In her order today, Collyer references a previous order she issued on December 5 and indicates it also will be made public. She may have gotten out ahead of the IG report knowing something was coming. I suspect the scope of the "something" surprised her, which triggered this follow up public order. There likely will be more to come after the FBI makes its sworn statement to her about past applications.

Iman said...

Build some stocks for that lanky sonuvabitching geek Comey and put him on display in the Smithsonian.

rsbsail said...

If lying to the FBI is a crime, then lying to a court to obtain a warrant should also be a crime, with the same penalties.

Douglas B. Levene said...

Forgive me for thinking out loud here. The court has jurisdiction over the lawyers who appear before it. It can sanction them, disbar them, refer them to bar disciplinary committees, hold them in contempt. That covers the lawyers who signed the false affidavits and warrant applications. I'm not sure what power the court has over the FBI officials who signed those documents. Probably it could hold them in contempt. So that's what the court should do if it really cares: issue an order to show cause why the signers of the false and misleading FISA warrant applications should not be held in contempt.

Sebastian said...

"The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court ordered the government Tuesday to explain what the FBI will do to ensure the bureau does not mislead judges again..."

Unless the wrongdoers are prosecuted, it will happen again. And the FISC is itself part of "the government," so it should apply all its powers--or refer the FISC lies to other courts for further judgment.

The whole exploitation of domestic spying and Crossfire Hurricane and the collusion hoax were predicated on the deep-staters sense of invulnerability: they thought they could get away with it. They still think so. As do Hillary and her minions, having had their sins absolved by the same deep-staters.

Amadeus 48 said...

The FISA process is a joke. It comes out of all the political wrangling about when can intelligence and counter-intelligence officials listen in on Americans. It is an attempt to deal with the tensions between a free society and the needs of national security. It involves ex parte hearings where the target is not present and has not been notified. The only people with an interest present are those who want to listen in.

The theory was that the listeners would be bound by their honor and their oaths to provide all exculpatory information so that the court could see that there really was an unambiguous case for going forward. Andrew McCarthy used to sing psalms about wonderful and honorable those great chaps in the Southern District of New York were, and how no warrant would ever be forthcoming that wasn't necessary and that hadn't been subject to the highest levels of scrutiny.

Now it gets tricky. I am going to give you a list of familiar names, all of whom have been US Attorneys or assistant US Attorneys: Patrick Fitzgerald, James Comey, Rudy Giuliani, Loretta Lynch, Robert Mueller, Rod Rosenstein, Jeff Sessions, Andrew Weissman, Preet Bharara. Would you trust any of these people to provide objective, fair evidence, including exculpatory information, to a tribunal that could violate the privacy of your communications?

I think that question answers itself, but that is what we have been doing under FISA.

David Begley said...

Yancey Ward has it right.

elkh1 said...

Jail all those involved may make a tiny dent to the culture of corruption.

Amadeus 48 said...

I'd say a 99.9% success rate by the government indicates that the FISA judges are patsies. Probably chumps, too.

But we've all seen this before in various bureaucracies, haven't we? My question is why MSM keeps falling for it.

Oh, yeah they are on the other side.

Trump's right. The media are the enemy of the people. They are the lickspittles and bootlickers of the Deep State. They are American Pravda.

readering said...

Douglas: The order puts the blame on the FBI for lying to and keeping stuff from DOJ lawyers submitting the applications.

Michael K said...

The FBI and CIA and FISA courts have destroyed any confidence in these institutions. They all need to be dismantled.

Peacefully if possible.

Michael K said...

readering said...
Douglas: The order puts the blame on the FBI for lying to and keeping stuff from DOJ lawyers submitting the applications.


They all had to know. The CIA set up the FBI as a patsy to take the blame if this went wrong but they all knew.

robother said...

In what sense is the FISA Court even an Article 3 court? There is no adversarial procedure, no case or controversy to it at all. A search warrant in a criminal case can be subjected to objection when evidence derived from it is introduced in court. In a "counterintelligence" investigation, which was the designation employed by the FBI here, and continued in the Mueller investigation, even the US citizens whose wires were tapped were never indicted (or, I daresay, given the FBI's knowledge of the illusory nature of their Russian "collusion," never intended to be indicted).

The fact that Article 3 judges have gone along with this FISA scheme, to lend the color of law to an ex parte procedure to wiretap US citizens, including members of a Presidential campaign, is profoundly disturbing, and likely unconstitutional.

Bay Area Guy said...

Memo to Judge Collyer and all judges on the FISA Court;

"How does it feel to be a rubber stamp federal stooge?"

/s Bay Area Guy

Owen said...

Amadeus 48: you’re killing it.

I particularly concur in your prediction (at 5:03?) of how this is going to evolve from here. Maybe I’m just naive, but I think Trump is playing a deep game. Plus he is lucky —both objectively and in his enemies.

Regarding Collyer’s order to the FBI: yes, it’s a CYA but what is its scope? Is she limiting her demand for re-certification of the accuracy etc of “the applications,” only to the handful of applications for the Carter Page warrant and its renewals? I don‘t see a specific limit in her words, and the obvious danger she addressed is a systemic one: corruption of the QC process used for EVERY ONE of the thousand or so applications for a FISA Court warrant. Is she not opening a “gigantic can of worms,” (as said by “Rabel,” supra) where FBI must ( impossibly) re-certify the truth and accuracy of every single application?

tim in vermont said...

I wonder if readering feels betrayed by this. No I don’t. Of course he doesn’t, any more than ARM or Inga. You guys who have been carrying Hillary’s water since she cooked up Russian “collusion” have been played for fools by the Democratic Party.

Maxwell said...

Does FRCP 11 only apply to private lawyers and not to US DOJ lawyers?

tim in vermont said...

Remember that story on CNN a couple weeks back how Trump is unfit because he doesn’t trust the intelligence agencies to tell him the truth? He would make a lousy FISA judge, that’s for sure!

stephen cooper said...

Actually it is pretty cool to be reading the news in a time when for the first time in more than 2 centuries the Ivy League Boys and their sycophants get exposed for having tried to stage an unlawful coup.

Not that I spend more than 4 minutes a day reading about the coup I already know the score, just like most other Americans

Amadeus 48 said...

readering--Have you read the order? Actually, the FBI makes the application, and the AG, the Deputy AG or the Assistant AG for National Security Division of the Justice Department must also approve it. The applications come from the FBI and are reviewed and approved for compliance with criteria and requirements by the National Security Division of the Justice Department.

tim in vermont said...

Meanwhile the “Intelligence Committee” in the House is in on it. I think their plan is to make us all so disgusted with our own country that we just leave.

mockturtle said...

Big Mike sez: These days the government uses lethal injection.

That's a pussy way for hardened criminals to die. Bring back hanging! Public hanging!

Josephbleau said...

The law that says you will be jailed if you lie to the FBI should be repealed. If they are liars they don't deserve to demand the truth.

Dude1394 said...

The cover up and the whitewash begins. The fbi is corrupt and so are the FISA judges. This country is truly screwed.

Paul said...

"The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court ordered the government Tuesday to explain what the FBI will do to ensure the bureau does not mislead judges again..."

Unless you FIRE THEM.. they will do it again. That is the only way to 'ensure the bureau does not mislead judges again.'

Heads should roll (figuratively.)

Amadeus 48 said...

Owen--If you haven't, go read Collyer's order. There are a couple of interesting things in it.

Things heated up in October and November 2019 when "the government" provided information to the Court about the FBI lawyer who changed documents. On December 9, 2019, the court first learned about the 17 material misstatements and omissions set forth in the OIG report.

Stay tuned.

Michael K said...


Blogger Amadeus 48 said...

readering--Have you read the order? Actually, the FBI makes the application, and the AG, the Deputy AG or the Assistant AG for National Security Division of the Justice Department must also approve it. The applications come from the FBI and are reviewed and approved for compliance with criteria and requirements by the National Security Division of the Justice Department.


My daughter, who is a lawyer and FBI agent, wrote FISA warrants when she was in the Detroit office. I don't think readering knows anything about this.

readering said...

Personally, I'm more upset with the leaks from the FBI NY office that actually affected the outcome of the 2016 election, but I don't defend the FBI. Personally know a couple of the former FBI GC's from Bush and Obama era's who were straight arrow ex AUSA's and lived next door to a straight arrow agent part of the time growing up, but I've always been leery of the processes set up after 9-11 that were ripe for abuse. Tying this to Obama and Clinton election aims just crazy.

Narayanan said...

With SC Mueller there is still the undisclosed Scope Memos ?3?

Is Judge Collyers order akin to Scope Memo for Investigators of FBI's sloppy process?

But is Wray be up to the Challenge? Who is available to Barr to assign to do it?

Yancey Ward said...

Really, read that order. Collyer is just passing the buck back to the agency that lied and covered up. The guys in the FBI and the DoJ are passing the buck back to the people who worked for them. No one is taking the blame, and worse, no one is actually doing anything about it. Collyer approved one of the Carter Page applications (the first one, if memory serves)- where are the transcripts of the hearings she held to ensure the information in the application was accurate and complete? Where is the sworn oaths of the agents responsible for collecting all the material used as evidence described in the application- oaths certifying they have complied fully with the laws and the regulations?

Just look at the fucking applications! All of them are signed by people who apparently don't have a fucking clue about what is put into them- James "I am too important for my job" Comey signed more than one of these applications, and then went on television just a couple of days ago and claimed he didn't know jack shit about what was being collected and cherry picked. There is apparently no line anywhere in this corrupt process where someone puts his own fucking ass on the line by signing these documents- all the people collecting the information get to cherry pick what gets passed on, and don't have to sign a fucking thing. The entire process seems deliberately designed cover the ass of anyone involved- the people signing the documents get to lay the blame off on underlings, and the underlings get to play fucking stupid and say, "Oops, mistakes were made."

You want to fix this, make people have actual skin in the game when picking what evidence gets presented to the court. Like, for example, 10 years in ass-pounding prison if you sign off on something and get your ass caught putting a finger on the scale. How about prosecution of judges who don't hold actual detailed hearings with everything recorded so that actual blame and consequence can be properly distributed when fuckups happen.

Yancey Ward said...

Who wants to take a bet that if you examined 100 random FISA warrants and the underlying evidence that was known at the time of application, that you wouldn't find the agents shading the evidence on all of them to one degree or another.

Charlie Currie said...

This is from The Conservative Treehouse - you might find it interesting enough to read more on that site regarding the FISC, Judge Collyer and Admiral Rogers:

Collyer outlines in her order how the DOJ-NSD and FBI reported issues to the FISC in October and November prior to the IG report release. Essentially, Collyer infers the DOJ informed the court that additional FISA applications should now be considered unreliable as a result of the FBI Office of General Counsel compromise (Kevin Clinesmith):

The Oct/November DOJ notification led to a December 5th order by Judge Collyer.

On December 9th, when the IG report was made public, the FISC was given a declassified version of the report and was able to review for the first time. It was from that IG review that Collyer was able to establish the full context of the fraud upon the court. The court was given no advanced notification as to the totality of fraud upon the FISC other than a preliminary ‘head’s up’ on the OGC Clinesmith compromise.

As a result of the IG report, Collyer is now telling the DOJ to declassify her response of December 5th, because she is going to make it public. Judge Collyer is not asking the ODNI (ostensibly now AG Bill Barr), to declassify her response – she is telling him to declassify it.

Yancey Ward said...

Let's just take Kevin Clinesmith as an example for how the process is nothing but a CYA operation. He only is in trouble because he literally forged an e-mail that he used in the last application. If he had just buried or ignored the e-mail from the CIA officer, the effect would have been exactly the same, but Clinesmith would be in the clear today.

David Begley said...

Yancey Ward:

Are you a lawyer?

I’m absolutely astounded about how pathetic this Order is.

To make things worse, Tucker Carlson had on some nat. security lawyer on TV claim this Order is extraordinary and really great stuff. Tucker basically agreed. Incredible.

readering said...

Sorry, know former FBI GCs under Clinton and (younger) Bush, not Obama.

Yancey Ward said...

Just to make clear my last point- what Clinesmith did with the last renewal was no different than was was done on the original application, and the first two renewals. The Crossfire Hurricane team had the CIA's description of the Page's work for them all along, and yet completely mischaracterized it in the original application, and never corrected the mistake. All Clinesmith did was alter the CIA officer's followup e-mail to cover the trail of the first three lying applications.

Gk1 said...

It's funny the liberals comfort themselves and think this will play out like the IRS/Lois Lerner BOLO list scam. They think that people will buy it was simple incompetence by "low level employees not understanding a directive correctly"

Hah, that would work if your folks were still in charge. I think this is going to pan out differently. Lawyers had to sign off on this during this "rigorous and robust approval system" so let's take a look at all of those signatures shall we? Unredact them all.

Freeman Hunt said...

Why would we trust them? Don't ask for new process--you had a process! They clearly cannot be trusted with this power. Reign it in!

Freeman Hunt said...

If you withhold evidence and you are on the state's side, you should be in jail, not brainstorming new bullshit processes.

Browndog said...

Chuck Ross
‏Verified account @ChuckRossDC

Flashback: @RepMarkMeadows asked FISC Judge Rosemary Collyer in Oct. 2018 to review accuracy of FBI's FISA applications. (Collyer revealed in letter today that court was unaware of many FBI omissions until last week)

tim in vermont said...

"Personally, I'm more upset with the leaks from the FBI NY office that actually affected the outcome of the 2016 election, “

"Personally I am only upset about the stuff that hurt Hillary. I am fine with unleashing a multi year witch hunt against Trump on faked up evidence!”


So he is upset that people learned the truth about Hillary and not bothered at all that the FBI lied about Trump. Did they teach you about “motivated reasoning” in that fancy law school you went to?

tim in vermont said...

Did the two year witch hunt by the FBI and Mueller affect any important US elections, readering?

"By any means necessary” - shorter readering

Drago said...

readering: "Personally, I'm more upset with the leaks from the FBI NY office that actually affected the outcome of the 2016 election,..."

Those leaks occurred because the NY office knew the FBI leadership was once again covering up illegal activities of the Clintons.

Comey's press conference announcing the additional emails discovered and the review of those enails as part of a reopened case only occurred because the NY office was going to go public.

Wanna hear something funny? To this day those Hillary emails have NEVER been examined or analyzed!!

Wanna know why?

Because in those illegal and unsecure emails is email correspondence directly between Hillary and.....wait for it....obama!!

LOL

Oh yes, obama himself.

Thats why Comey lied about some rapid analysis of 10's of thousands of emails and then took over the Attorney Generals role and exonerated Clinton based on a made up and non-existent "intent" standard....that exists no where in the law.

Its not enough the entire federal govt was turned into a democrat oppo research and smear machine for the dems, readering wants even more!!

Thats good to know, isnt it?

Not that we dont already know what leftists do with such powers.

Amadeus 48 said...

I think Coller refers to the October 2018 review request in the order.

Original Mike said...

I hope they've taken Clinesmith's passport away.

tim in vermont said...

Did you see that message with the redacted sender that said, once it was clear Trump had won: “I am so fucked, my name is all over a lot of memos.” Clinesmith.

Original Mike said...

readering: "Personally, I'm more upset with the leaks from the FBI NY office that actually affected the outcome of the 2016 election,..."

You don't think media reports that the Trump campaign was being investigated for collusion with Russia affected the 2016 election?

tim in vermont said...

"You don't think media reports that the Trump campaign was...”

He only cares about stuff that hurt Hillary. He doesn’t care that the NSA, CIA, FBI, etc, have gotten involved in politics as long as they are on the right side. It’s a very principled stand.

madAsHell said...

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court ordered the government Tuesday to explain what the FBI will do to ensure the bureau does not mislead judges again.

Really??? What are you going to do so we don't appear to be a pack of fuck-ups!!??

madAsHell said...

they thought they could get away with it.

Epstein didn't kill himself. He thought he could get away with it. He had for at least 30 years.

bagoh20 said...

"The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court ordered the government Tuesday to explain what the FBI will do to ensure the bureau does not mislead judges again."

I've read that the D.C. area used to be insect-infested swampland, and they needed to fix that to create a suitable capital for a just nation, so they drained it.

Anything worth having - requires routine maintenance.

bagoh20 said...

Freeman Hunt said...
"If you withhold evidence and you are on the state's side, you should be in jail, not brainstorming new bullshit processes."


Exactly, and until you do, people will continue to feel free to use power this way. This is the perfect time with the ideal amount of coverage to make a difference. It's like Trump with his trade battles. We are in a uniquely opportune time to fix many long-running mistakes. It just takes courage, persistence, and a recognition that if not now, maybe never.

Drago said...

This is for readering (and any other moronic lefty/LLR-lefty in the vicinity):


Via JackStraw at Ace of Spades:
"Do you know who the lead FBI lawyer for the Hillary Mid Year Exam team was?
Same guy who was the lead FBI lawyer on Crossfire Hurricane and the same guy who was on Mueller's Special Counsel.
Also the same lawyer who modified the email that said Carter Page was a CIA asset to Carter Page was not an asset.
Kevin Clinesmith."

Yep, nothing to see here, eh lefties/LLR-lefties?

Kathryn51 said...

The Swamp's take is that Clinesmith is "low-level" (yeah, right).

Well, he may be up there, but he ain't as high as the very toppiest level of all (McCabe/Comey). Durham is going to try to make him flip - can't wait.

Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...

Don't know if someone mentioned this upstream but I heard Nunes on the news tonight saying facts regarding the problems with the dossier were provided to FISA judges on multiple occasions but the court ignored this information. Devastating if true. More reason to see this statement as a massive CYA operation.

Original Mike said...

Can you imagine that Clinesmith did this on his own? That he didn't discuss it with his colleagues?

I can't.

320Busdriver said...

Well Maddow trotted out L Page this evening so they must be getting nervous about what is coming down the pike.

It would all be worth it for me just to see that smarmy beotch Strzok in cuffs.

FIDO said...

The Judge is covering her derriere.

We all know there are 'pet judges' that LE prefers to use due to their slightly laxer than other judges standards of evidence.

Collyer can (credibly) be accused of this, depending on how many of these writs she just signed (One man's signature is another's rubber stamp)

So she will scream the loudest to take their heads off.

Qwinn said...

I think Kevin Clinesmith's best work was in A Fish Called Wanda.

Wait. What?

Oh. Never mind.

n.n said...

Extraordinary corruption, but is it progressive corruption (PC)?

Yancey Ward said...

I can see Christopher Wray right now:

"In response to the FISC order, we are instituting seminars and training on how you shouldn't lie about, alter, or bury exculpatory evidence."

It will time to raze the FBI to the ground and salt the earth. Everyone who signed those applications committed perjury. They might not have known what the members of the investigative team were doing, but they signed their fucking names attesting to the quality of the work, and they did so without, apparently, even looking at the material underlying the application. That is perjury- they signed claiming to know when they didn't even try to know.

Jon Ericson said...

Hey, Kevin.
*smoochies*

JamesB.BKK said...

It's not nice to fool fake unconstitutional secret imperial courts! 17 errors and omissions? One for each of the 17 agencies in the intelligence "community?"

Todd Roberson said...

I think Yancey Ward's remarks would be more effective if he used the word "fuck" a few more times in them.

Unknown said...

I got caught lying by my Dad once

He ordered me to explain

I never lied again after that!

Proper

Bob Loblaw said...

Don't know if someone mentioned this upstream but I heard Nunes on the news tonight saying facts regarding the problems with the dossier were provided to FISA judges on multiple occasions but the court ignored this information. Devastating if true. More reason to see this statement as a massive CYA operation.

Judges aren't usually this mild when they catch you manipulating them with false information. She has a lot of options here, and the legal equivalent of tut-tutting doesn't really demonstrate seriousness.

Kevin said...

Judges aren't usually this mild when they catch you manipulating them with false information. She has a lot of options here, and the legal equivalent of tut-tutting doesn't really demonstrate seriousness.

Mistakes were made. "The government" needs to explain.

To call out individuals is to validate Trump's accusations.

Surely the Court knows it can't go that far.

Hagar said...

The release of the IG Report may be why all the commentary about the FBI, but let us not loose sight of it that they all - the entire "intelligence community" - were working together in "wiretapping" the White House under perjured FISA permits.

I expect Durham can go after the CIA and NSA, etc. as well as the FBI?
This could get to be quite something, couldn't it?

Bruce Hayden said...

“Thats why Comey lied about some rapid analysis of 10's of thousands of emails and then took over the Attorney Generals role and exonerated Clinton based on a made up and non-existent "intent" standard....that exists no where in the law.”

The evidence so far, esp from the personnel decision on his trying to get reinstated, is that it was all Peter Strzok here. His excuse was that he didn't have enough manpower to do both, look at the Weiner/Abedelin/Clinton emails (MYE) and investigate the Trump campaign for Russian Collusion (CH). So, with Trump the existential threat, he decided to put his resources into the Trump investigation. Besides, he had promised Page that they would prevent Trump from being elected. The opinion faulted this decision - with 35k employees, the FBI could have found more employees for the Bureau’s two highest profile cases in years. Both coincidentally assigned to Peter Strzok.

The personnel decision very clearly called Strzok out for trying to run the clock out in on the newly found Crooked Hilllary emails. Hoping to postpone release of what was in them until after the 2016 election. It worked for a month or so, but that analyst in the NYC office in charge of the laptop was panicking, believing that the FBI would look bad if anything incriminating (such as the email exchanges with Obama) surfaced after the election. Not getting anywhere with his FBI management, he went to a couple of SDNY AUSAs, and headquarters finally woke up to what Strzok was doing - trying to run out the clock on the emails.

The other part of this is that Strzok told the now panicking Comey that his team (4-5 people out of 35k in the Bureau) didn’t have enough time to get through the tens of thousands of newly discovered emails and deduplicate them with the previous tranche. Of course they couldn’t - Strzok had accepted the emails from her lawyers in paper form, which doesn’t include much of the meta data - and in particular, the mandatory unique ID for the emails (which consists of originating email domain and unique identifier within that domain). They had the electronic versions of the newly found emails, but not of the old ones. If Strzok hadn’t allowed Clinton to provide the FBI with her emails that had most of the metadata removed, it would have been an hour or two to deduplicate the two email tranches. As was, it would take their team weeks - pushing their disclosure conveniently beyond the 2016 election. As noted, Comey was panicking, threatening to bring in more resources (which the opinion faulted Strzok for not doing a month earlier). So, under pressure from the top, Strzok and his 3-4 minions supposedly spent a pizza fueled weekend going through all the newly found Clinton emails, conveniently (again) not finding anything incriminating. This is what Comey told the American public. And likely what Strzok told Comey. But that wasn’t what Strzok and his team actually did, which was to sample the new trance of emails. They apparently actually looked at fewer than 5% of the laptop emails. And, has been noted earlier, the rest of the tens of thousands of newly found emails were never reviewed.

Oh, and what was Strzok and his small team doing during the month that he sat on the new Clinton emails? That was late September through late October of 2016. The answer, very obviously from the recently released OIG report, was preparing the first FISA application on Carter Page.

Another old lawyer said...

Unless individuals are suffer real personal consequences for their violations, e.g., loss of job, payment of fines, public naming, then it's all for show. At best.

Original Mike said...

"with 35k employees, the FBI could have found more employees for the Bureau’s two highest profile cases in years. Both coincidentally assigned to Peter Strzok."

Couldn't risk letting more people in on the plot.

Original Mike said...

"Unless individuals are suffer real personal consequences for their violations, e.g., loss of job, payment of fines, public naming, then it's all for show. At best."

If some people don't go to jail, it's all for show.

daskol said...

This has the pacing of one of John Le Carre's lesser novels. Needs to get more Elmore Leonard.

mockturtle said...

As I haven't closely followed this issue, I didn't know until this morning [on Maria Bartiromo's morning show] that the FBI had 'doctored' some emails used in the FISA application.

Bruce Hayden said...

“As I haven't closely followed this issue, I didn't know until this morning [on Maria Bartiromo's morning show] that the FBI had 'doctored' some emails used in the FISA application.”

Most of the problems with the underlying documentation for the four FISA warrants on Carter Page involved acts off omission. The FBI knew a lot of stuff that didn’t make it into the Woods Procedure files for the warrant applications. But in the instance that you are talking about, the FBI attorney (likely Kevin Clinesmith) preparing the Woods file for the 4th application apparently edited an email from another intelligence agency (very likely the CIA) to indicate that they had said that he wasn’t an undercover source of theirs, when the email actually claimed that he did work for them. Of course, the FBI knew that, but had repeatedly failed to inform the FISC of that fact. The FBI gave the impression that Carter Page was working for the Russians, when instead all of the examples they gave of Page communicating with the Russians were known by, and approved by (probably) the CIA. In short, the FBI sold the FISC that he was working for the Russians, when the reality was that he was working for the CIA against the Russians. They might be able to have claimed ignorance for the first FISA applications, because it was rushed and pre-approved by DD McCabe and DAG Yates, as they appear to have been trying to beat NSA Dir Rogers to the FISC, with his proof that the FBI had allowed massive misuse of their FISA 702 interface to NSA databases by FBI contractors. It wasn’t clear whether or not the FBI had been formally appraised of Page’s status with this other intelligence agency (presumably the CIA) when their rushed first application was filed. But they knew within days, and over the next 10-11 months, the FISC was never informed of that very material fact.

Kirk Parker said...

"I hope they've taken Clinesmith's passport away."

Nah, give him his passport along with a one way ticket to Benghazi.