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.  

# # #

What The Mueller Report will NOT report

It’s scheduled for tomorrow morning. Via Hannity:

Attorney General William Barr will hold a 9:30am press conference Thursday morning regarding Robert Mueller’s final report; setting the stage for a high-stakes showdown just moments before the DOJ is poised to release the special counsel’s conclusions to Congress.

Attorney Sidney Powell has been one of the most effective and informed critics of the abuse of power at DOJ, FBI, CIA, the DNC, etc. Yesterday, she went on record predicting what will be in the Mueller Report, what will be obscured or omitted, how it will be slanted, etc. I expect that she will be 99% correct:

The Mueller Report will try very hard to shroud the real issues–which are:  WHY, WHERE, WHEN, HOW, and BY WHOM did the spying on Mr. Trump and his associates begin?  From all information available so far, per Comey’s own admissions, there was never a legal or factual basis to begin any investigation of anyone associated with Mr. Trump, and they never verified a word of the “Steele dossier.”   The evidence so far exposes a significant group in the CIA, FBI, DOJ, DOD, and State Department, who manufactured the entire counter-intelligence operation from thin air.   It’s smoke tied with baling wire. That is a bombshell from which Mr. Mueller and Mr. Weissmann must distract.

The long-awaited Report will doubtlessly contain a lot of assertions about Russian troll farms–like the unprecedented charges in the Concord indictment that came mostly from an article in a Russian magazine–combined with claims and much jibberish that it was Russians who hacked the DNC.  It will ignore all the work of relentless reporter Luke Rosiak who has fully documented the nefarious work of the Pakistani Awan brothers -– abject criminals to whom Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and at least three dozen Congressional Democrats gave the keys to the kingdom of the DNC and our national intelligence on the Hill.  It will ignore the work of the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community and the Inspector General of Congress–both of whom documented exposure of our national secrets by the Awan brothers and Mrs. Clinton, respectively.  It will also ignore the irrefutable fact that if the FBI and DNC really wanted to determine who hacked the DNC, the DNC would have turned over the servers to the FBI–or the FBI would have seized them as it does when it purports to conduct a real investigation as opposed to a sham or a cover-up.

The Truth will be found in documents the Mueller Report avoids -- the documents all the real criminals created when they thought they would never be caught and they would “stop” Trump.  We must have the original documents declassified and disclosed to the public to the maximum extent possible.  This includes, for starters, the 99-page decision of the FISA court in which Chief Judge Rosemary Collyer excoriated the FBI and the NSA for their abuses of the entire surveillance system and tools.

That’s just a start. She specifies the documentation that she recommends – and hopes – will be released with minimal redactions. Read all of her pre-analysis and predictions here.

# # #