The House Intelligence Committee memo on abuse of power by the Federal Bureau of Investigation appeared just after 12:00 pm Eastern time, and American political life never will be the same. The House Republicans make a persuasive if not prima facie case that senior FBI officials used a fake dossier paid for by the Democrats to get a court order for electronic surveillance of the Trump campaign. If the charge sticks, America will have a real life instance of the sort of scenario found in pulp thrillers—a rogue intelligence agency operating in the darkness and abusing its power to manipulate elections.
This is political plutonium.
Here are the basic facts:
Under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), the US counterintelligence service cannot surveil American citizens without a court order. The FBI obtained such a warrant in October 2016 to eavesdrop on Trump campaign volunteer Carter Page.
The evidence that FBI presented to the FISA court came from the now infamous “Steele Dossier,” an amalgam of Russian-supplied rumors collected by a former British intelligence agent that among other things claimed that Trump had engaged in perverse acts with Russian prostitutes.
The Steele dossier was compiled at the behest of the Washington consulting firm Fusion GPS, and paid for by the law firm Perkins Coie on behalf of the Democratic National Committee. In other words, it was a political hit job paid for by Trump’s opponents. The FBI concealed this information when applying for the FISA warrant.
The memo adds, “The Carter Page FISA application also cited extensively a September 23, 2016 Yahoo News article by Michael Isikoff, which focuses on Page’s July 2016 trip to Moscow. This article does not corroborate the Steele dossier because it is derived from information leaked by Steele himself to Yahoo News. Steele has admitted in British court filings that he met with Yahoo News—and several other outlets—in September 2016 at the direction of Fusion GPS [the firm paid by the Democrats to get dirt on Trump]. Perkins Coie [hired by the Democratic National Committee] was aware of Steele’s initial media contacts because they hosted at least one meeting in Washington, DC in 2016 with Steele and Fusion GPS where this matter was discussed.”
In other words, the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign paid for a pile of inflammatory rumors about Trump, which it then sold to the press. The FBI—in full knowledge of this—then took the press reports to a court as “evidence” to obtain permission to surveil the Trump campaign.
Apart from the payment he received for the hit job, Steele told a top Justice Department official in September 2016 that he “was desperate that Donald Trump not get elected and was passionate about him not being president.”
Without the Steele dossier, no American court would have allowed the FBI to wiretap a presidential campaign. The memo states, “[then] Deputy Diretor McCabe testified before the [House Intelligence] committee in December 2017 that no surveillance warrant would have been sought without the Steele dossier information.”
There is more in the terse four pages of typescript, but that’s the gist of the matter.
Earlier in the day, President Trump tweeted, “The top leadership and investigators of the FBI and the Justice Department have politicized the sacred investigation process in favor of Democrats and against Republicans – something which would have been unthinkable just a short time ago.”
The top Leadership and Investigators of the FBI and the Justice Department have politicized the sacred investigative process in favor of Democrats and against Republicans – something which would have been unthinkable just a short time ago. Rank & File are great people!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 2, 2018
The United States is spending over $57 billion a year on intelligence. In response to the September 2011 terror attacks and other threats, it has created vast, overlapping and reduplicative bureaucracies that by their nature are remote from central oversight and difficult for the House and Senate intelligence committees to monitor. They have fostered the careers of thousands of senior civil servants whose advancement depends to one extent or another on being on the right side of politics.
Angelo Codevilla, a top staffer at the Senate Intelligence Committee during the Reagan years, observes that the intelligence services have vast powers to cover up their own errors. Senior FBI and CIA officials (as well as a number of prominent Democrats) accused Trump of endangering national security by releasing the memo. This recalls the old Soviet-era joke about the Radio Yerewan listener who calls in to ask whether it’s a crime to call Brezhnev an idiot. The answer: “Yes, because it’s a state secret.”
No foreign intelligence service could learn anything from the House Republicans’ memo except that the FBI retailed the mercenary inventions of a retired British spook and concealed the provenance of its information. Some may consider it dangerous to expose senior officials of America’s counterintelligence service as political hacks and fools. They needn’t worry. America’s adversaries have been well aware of this for a long time.
A very fair assesment. Next to know is what exactly these "federal investigators" spied upon. After all, the subject, Carter Page, was but a volunteer underling in Trumps’ election team. Did they fish the whole ocean? Did they spy on the President, his family, their pets? And pass it on? Looks that way right now. Unfortunately for the world, Trump just got an effective immunization from even legitamate issues and grievances.
"The Republicans’ persuasive argument that the FBI abused its power has exposed top intelligence officials as political hacks"
The FBI is not the only government segment to abuse its power. Back in 1913 the FBI, the Federal Reserve, the IRS and the Anti Defamation League(ADL) were created. Now 104 years later ALL of them have abused power to the extreme.The ADL which protects the Jewish minority now protects them as the elite power who control America
The Federal Reserve is not part of the US government. It’s a private for-profit institution acting as America’s central bank (one that controls America’s money supply). It’s also independent — the US government has no power to even inquire about its operations.
The Federal Reserve is unconstitutional. Yet only a handful of those in Congress (e.g. Dr. Ron Paul, former House Rep. from Texas) have openly spoken against it.
Yes Che, and Goldman is also smart enough not to mention Obama, which was obviously and deeply involved in this scam
A name and a story worth mentioning.
Admiral Mike Rogers.
Rogers became head of the NSA in 2014.
In 2015, one of NSA’s SIGINT auditors reported to him that there had been possible FISA Sec. 702 violations by the FBI. Rogers ordered an audit in March 2016 (this is before the presidential election). The audit found that the FBI had shared classified data with private contractors — some were working for the DNC, some for Fusion GPS, i.e. the FBI and the contractors had committed crimes.
Rogers decided to inform the FIS Court personally that it had been lied to by the FBI. It turned out that the Justice Dept and the FBI had learned about Rogers’ audit and decision, and sensing serious troubles ahead, had decided to inform the FIS Court first. (Not that it would make any material difference.) The person who signed the pleadings on behalf of DOJ was Asst. Attorney Gen. (Natl Security Div.) John Carlin, who upon submission of all documents, resigned.
In April 2016, The FIS Court issued a 99 page opinion on the crimes committed by the FBI and the contractors. Not a single word would come out of the mainstream media about it.
November 17, 2016, Rogers went to Trump, then president-elect, about suspected illegal wiretapping against his campaign staff. The very next day, Trump moved the entire staff out of Trump Tower to his golf club at Bedminster, New Jersey, where the transition team would stay until the Trump Tower had been debugged.
After learning about Rogers’ actions, Director of National Intelligence John Clapper and Director of CIA John Brennan asked Obama to fire Rogers. Obama refused, probably knowing that it’s too late and would only make things worse for him.
Oh the grand games they are playing are still going on behind the scenes Trump is following Obama’s games in the Mid-East the Ukraine Africa,but you have to admit that its a hell of an attracking grabber and will remain one for months to come…
Shawn Napper
True. I should have made that clear. It is neither "Federal" nor does it have a "reserve" but the conglomerate of private banks and institutions act like America’s national bank and the Federal Reserve informs the Treasury how much currency to print. In short this Jewish creation should not even exist.
Whatever Trump’s sins, he has done America and the world a great service.
Trump is showing America as it is, exposing its real face. He is the kid who calls that the Emperor has no clothes – in debt, trade partners milking it, a Deep State, intelligence services like Pakistan’s ISI, the military in ruins, Democrats as Hollywood selling tales, falling infrastructure, on a banana peel.
He may have answers, but the sad story is that he has no answers.
Not necessarily. Plausible deniability is a real thing in Washington.
Admiral Mike Rogers, the head of US Cyber Command and the NSA travelled to Trump Towers on Nov. 17, without telling the snake James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence. Rogers presumably told Trump that his entire operation was being spied-upon by the US Deep State, because the very next morning, Trump announced he was moving his transition HQ out of Trump Towers, to his golf club in New Jersey.
Excellent summary. Why has John Carlin’s name never come up again in this story? Why has Carlin never appeared before Congress? It would seem he is at the center of this scandal, yet he remains invisible.
This is the biggest nothing burger of all. It’s a shameful attempt by Trump and his rabid minions in the House to discredit Mueller- a person who is above reproach. The only partisan hack l see is the author of this drivel.
Well Sean, John Mc. Cain has said that releasing this memo is only helping Putin… LOL ! And you hint that Goldman is a Russian hacker ?
Peter Petrovsky – John Carlin’s resignation itself speaks volumes about the now evident conspiracy and his fear of consequences in continued involvement, even though the precise timeline and details are still sketchy. However, it’s fair to infer from the available information that the following people (among others) were involved in a plot to exonerate Hillary Clinton (w.r.t. her felonious violations in handling classified info) and frame Trump (to undermine his campaign and presidency):
James Comey, fmr FBI dir.
Andrew McCabe, fmr FBI depty dir.
Loretta Lynch, fmr atty gen.
Sally Yates, fmr deputy atty gen.
Christopher Steele, fmr British MI6 spy
Susan Rice, fmr Natl Security Advisor
Rod Rosenstein, current deputy atty gen.
Some senior members of the DNC, Fusion GPS, and CrowdStrike.