The FISA Memo Is Out.
Basically it says that the FBI and DOJ went to the FISA court, and said they had an independent document produced by a long-time FBI source with no interest in the matter, saying Carter Page was possibly acting against the US on behalf of Russia in an espionage case. They also pointed to a Yahoo News article as corroborating the charges independently.
Despite the FISA rules requiring that judges be given access to any exculpatory or relevant information (to protect innocent citizens from unilateral abuses of governmental surveillance powers), that was all the information that was provided to the court, implying there were no other factors that might call the material into question.
In reality, the FBI agents, DOJ officials, and the document’s author were biased against Trump’s election ideologically, and in some cases financially. The dossier was bought with money from Hillary’s campaign, paid to a private company to smear Trump. The author was actually documented in an FBI report as saying he “was desperate that Donald Trump not get elected, and was passionate that he not be President.” The FBI Deputy Director’s wife was given a few hundred thousand dollars from a Clinton associate for a campaign run. A DOJ official’s wife was employed by the Clinton campaign through a proxy company, to smear Trump. Presumably the DOJ official was aware of this, as well as the fact that those payments might continue in other capacities were Hillary elected, and would end with her candidacy should she lose. The FBI and DOJ also used a Yahoo News article as independent verification, despite the fact it was written based on an interview by the reporter with the same author of the original dossier, who was both known to hate Trump and who was paid by Hillary to do all of this.
In addition it reveals Strzok’s texts with Page reveal extensive orchestration of leaks to the media, presumably to help Hillary and politicize the investigation, as well as a meeting with McCabe to discuss an “insurance policy” to deal with Trump, in the event Trump did manage to get elected.
What was pointed out is this is not the full body of information the House Intelligence Committee has from its investigation. According to reports, it will also reveal that Strzok and Page discussed getting IPhones so they could text privately about this case, without the texts being available to anyone for review. So these are the innocent texts they didn’t bother to conceal. There will be a whole raft of not so innocent texts which have yet to be revealed.
Supposedly it has been said that there is an IG report coming which shows that McCabe ordered agents to modify signed 302 forms, meaning the agents swore in the form an interviewee said one thing, McCabe then made them go back and change to form to say they said something else, and they left it signed. We also know there is at least one informant, presumably an FBI agent or DOJ official, who has cooperated with the committee, and who was present at “off site” meetings by a secret society containing Bureau agents which was dedicated to undercutting or overthrowing Trump. We know the intelligence products produced by this investigation were unmasked within the political side of the Obama administration, and some have said it travelled to the Clinton campaign. There are rumors the FBI somehow liaised with British intelligence to perform some sort of surveillance on the Trump Campaign, though that would presumably have happened outside of the FISA warrant’s purview. And we know Rand Paul was unmasked at least once in his confidential communications, implying Congressmen and Senators may have been spied upon.
I would also assume the committee will have access to the methods of surveillance employed by the agents executing the warrant, and the information gathered. I suspect that may not be released, as one thing which I am sure keeps domestic intelligence up at night is the idea of the full body of their capabilities being publicly revealed to the populace.
Where I suspect this is going is to some sort of aggressive oversight agency or oversight procedures on domestic surveillance. There are two ways that may go. One is the agencies involved quietly acquiesce, and a quiet rollback of domestic surveillance powers will ensue behind the scenes as some sort of oversight agency comes online. I suspect that will be unlikely. The other possibility is the agencies refuse to cede their powers, and they try to fight any hint of oversight. If they do that, Trump will either have to acquiesce, or he will have to burn everything to the ground.
I have no idea which way that would go. It is possible every investigation of what happened will be effectively shut down entirely. I have heard in passing from someone familiar with that scene that even the CIA is afraid of the FBI, presumably because of the all the blackmail material they have amassed, and their ability to lay waste to any opposition by exposing the opposition’s illegal domestic activities. When everyone is dirty, nobody will come clean.
Regardless there will be much more to come out of the committee, presumably. In the future the buildup should be minimized, and the release should be sudden.
The problem in this area today is that I think intelligence agencies seem to view Americans as weak, and unable to tolerate the state of threat that is necessary to freedom. Personally, I would prefer to live in an environment where there were risks but I was left alone, over an environment where external risks were minimized but one bureaucrat can decide unilaterally to manipulate the machinery and bury me using the full force of government.
The Founders gave us a system of checks and balances for a reason. What seems to have happened is a Fourth branch of government showed up on the scene in the interim while remaining in the shadows. It has taken unified control over the three other branches, ostensibly for the protection of the citizens, even though it realizes it can never let the citizenry know it has done so because they would never acquiesce to this level of omnipotence.
Unfortunately the system of checks and balances was created because no institution of government has ever proven able to constrain the least moral within it forever. Without any institution to constrain it, this fourth branch will inevitably become an unseen monarchy, if it has not already.
All hail the New King.
