FISA abuse: corruption at the DOJ and FBI

 

When the DOJ’s abuse of the FISA court procedures first came to light in 2018, this blogger thought that violation of FISA rules – lying to a judge is a felony – would finally result in indictments and successful prosecutions.  It’s now 2023.  The fearless investigative reporter, Sundance, has gone through the Durham Report, footnotes and all, and exposes yet more layers of corruption.  It’s a long read, but it’s also a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the extent of the rot.  Some have commented that the FBI is in need of reform.  No, it needs to be shut down.  Here’s the opening at Conservative Treehouse:

BIG QUESTION and A BIG COVERUP –
Durham Report Brings Sunlight on Detail Never Released
by IG Michael Horowitz About FBI Targeting Trump

I’m going to go into the deep weeds on this story, because many people are missing a key facet.  The names behind the Trump targeting operation are included, along with citations for independent checks by House congressional investigators.

Inside the recently released report by John Durham [CITATION], the special counsel outlines how former FBI Director James Comey was intimately involved in the creation of the Carter Page FISA application.  Durham notes that Comey kept asking the DOJ National Security Division and FBI counterintelligence investigators, “Where’s the FISA, we need the FISA.”  However, John Durham never interviewed James Comey or Andrew McCabe.  The former FBI Director and Deputy refused to cooperate or give testimony to John Durham.  So, how did John Durham have details about the demands of Comey?

The answer is found in the footnotes.  Durham reviewed transcripts of interviews given by Andrew McCabe to the Office of the Inspector General, Michael Horowitz, who previously investigated FBI conduct in the origin of the Carter Page FISA.  Durham pulled quotes from that transcript. [Footnote #1207, page 199 – Durham Report]

[facsimile of transcript with footnote]

♦QUESTION: If Andrew McCabe gave testimony to the OIG about the motives and impetus of FBI Director James Comey in pushing for the Carter Page FISA application, why did the OIG report never outline those transcribed interviews?  Why was the interview transcript never included in the 2019 OIG report?

[NOTE to Congress.  Now that you know a transcribed interview of Andrew McCabe exists in the OIG office, request the transcription and release it to the public.]

Let me answer those questions without the customary pretending from the DC professional political class.  The short version is that OIG Michael Horowitz was trying to protect the DOJ and FBI. The longer version is a coverup that includes Rod Rosenstein, Bill Barr and yes, John Durham.  I will share that story below.

“Where’s the FISA?  We need the FISA?” ~ James Comey

The DOJ-NSD and FBI Co-Intel needed to find a safe and legal way to spy on the Trump campaign. The 2016 FISA Title 1 surveillance of former FBI employee Carter Page became the fraudulent justification for that intent.  . . .

Much more here.  It’s jaw-dropping.  

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AF Branco: the Russia hoax and the corrupt media

A F Branco cartoon via Townhall:

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Buckle Up

 image credit: dartmouth-hitchcock

Eric Georgatos at American Thinker thinks the battle is just beginning. His essay opens:

In four consecutive days, what a lineup of events to illustrate the upheaval America is going through.  We had the I.G. report delivered on December 9; we watched Attorney General Barr step up on December 10 with two explosive interviews with the basic message that the I.G. report is the bare minimum in terms of describing the official wrongdoing that's already fully understood by Barr and is going to be exposed by John Durham; and we watched on December 11 I.G. Michael Horowitz's extraordinarily damaging-to-the-FBI-and-DOJ testimony at the Senate Judiciary Committee. 

And on the fourth day, the kicker "tell" for the turmoil that lies ahead: the Wall Street Journal — one of the last bastions of at least a whiff of objective journalism among the mainstream media — comes out with a print edition on December 12 where the front page has not one story on Horowitz's Senate testimony the previous day.

The WSJ has plenty of sophisticated writers who can patch together some erudite-sounding explanation for their front-page story selections.  But the elephant in the room stands: the events of this week demonstrate that every single element of the American ruling class — eight-plus years' worth of Deep State Obama leftists; the Uniparty Senators — like Richard Burr; Mark Warner; and yes, Lindsey Graham; the MSM; rigged-trade, anti-Trump globalists — every one of them is at risk of collapse in power and prestige, not to mention financial setbacks.  The fact that the WSJ appears to have adopted a move-along, nothing-to-see-here posture at a time when the demand for accountability should headline the news — well, it signals that the ruling class still believe they can lead on the ignorant masses with their lies, censorship, and suppression of information, and keep on keepin' on. 

So it is going to fall on the people of this country to hold the wrongdoers accountable, to refuse to "move along," to insist that this level of malfeasance must be punished.  The comeuppance must be sustained public outrage, institutional house-cleaning, and ultimately an electoral smack-down like America has never seen before.

Read the rest here.

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