T
he MEMO after complaining the judge was not notified that Steele was hired by a firm that was paid by the DNC and Hillary Clinton, then notes that Steele met with Yahoo News and other media outlets in September at the direction of the DNC and Hillary. That Steele admitted he met with them at the direction of the people who hired him. It then says an article by Michael Isikoff in Yahoo News was “derived from information leaked by Steele” to it. Strange use of the word “leaked.” It wasn’t leaked since it was his work product. He gave it to them.
The MEMO suggests the article in Yahoo News was used by the FBI to corroborate Steele’s dossier. If that is true it may be a problem. However, one big question is how much did it corroborate it, and whether the DOJ or FBI knew (especially those high-ranking officials) that was the case. Assuming some of the information Steele gave to Yahoo News is used to corroborate what he stated, then its effect must be assessed with the rest of the material.
Fortunately the article in Yahoo News is available for reading here. You should read it and make up your own mind. There is a lot more in the article than information from Steele. What was used and to what extent is an open question since the MEMO unfortunately does not connect the dots.
What is important is the MEMO does not say without that information the affidavit lacked probable cause to intercept Page with a FISA warrant.
The bottom line in all this up to this point is that all of the procedures relating to the FISA order to intercept Carter Page had nothing to do with Trump’s election. Not only that, at the time the FISA order was issued, Carter Page had no connection with the Trump campaign. Assuming then that the FISA warrant should not have been issued, what is the result of that.
The usual result is that the fruits of it cannot be used. Does that affect the Mueller investigation? He was appointed in May 2017. The FISA order was still in effect. No one has suggested or even knows if Mueller relied on the information obtained pursuant to that FISA order. That, of course, will be something that is litigated down the road after Mueller completes his investigation. The MEMO has no information regarding this.
Although whatever corroboration was used from the Yahoo News source we know from the background of Carter Page shown earlier that he was a worthy target outside of that. We also know that withholding the identity of the DNC or Hillary Clinton as the source of funds for the group that hired Steele is something done normally because the focus is on the whether there is probable cause to believe the information and the people passing it on. We’ve seen that Steele according to the MEMO provided truthful information to the FBI in the past. Having established his bona fides the corroboration is really not necessary because his information alone can be relied upon.
This is important to understand. Steele needed no corroboration. I sometime had an undercover police officer go into a residence and observe contraband was kept there. To search that residence all I needed to get a warrant was to state: “undercover officer Rick Stone saw approximately two kilograms of cocaine in the residence of Junior last night.” But I would add more things to corroborate Stone such as Junior’s past record, surveillance of his house, what other informants told us and any other information I though relevant and corroborative. None of it was necessary but I liked to show the extent of the work the police had done in an affidavit.
In considering corroboration it must be weighed in relation to the other material in the application and the matter being corroborated. The MEMO does none of that. It is a shoddy piece of work by people intent upon coming up with a conclusion without doing the hard work necessary to properly reach it.
Is the Steele Dossier Full of ‘Russian Dirt’ – or British?
“With text messages between US Justice Department (DOJ) conspirators Peter Strzok and his adulterous main squeeze Lisa Page now revealing that then-President Barack Obama “wants to know everything we’re doing,” it now appears that the 2016 plot to subvert the rule of law and corrupt the US organs of state security for political purposes reached the very pinnacle of power. To call the United States today a “banana republic” increasingly may be seen as a gratuitous insult to the friendly spider-infested nations to our south.
MORE
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2018/02/09/is-steele-dossier-full-russian-dirt-or-british.html
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/02/10/puzzle-pieces-former-asst-sec-of-state-robert-charles-discusses-the-fisa-review-court-may-explain-judge-ruben-contreras-recusal/
Former Assistant Secretary of State, Robert Charles, discusses the procedures and processes for gaining a FISA ‘Title-1’ surveillance warrant. Within the discussion Mr. Charles outlines the FISA review court and a likely path the Carter Page application could have taken after an initial denial.
Additionally, Mr. Charles discusses the downstream ramifications when the U.S. Department of Justice secures a warrant by providing false and/or misleading information to the FISA court: “fruit of the poisonous tree”.
The entire argument is baseless because the Memo is about the actions of those who signed the FISA application. Carter Page could be as innocent as a babe gasping his first breath of air at birth or as guilty as Julius and Ethel Rosenberg handing atomic bomb secrets to Stalin. It matters not. Their actions were corrupt in both cases. The Memo was not intended to clear up the nonsense of the Russian collusion delusion.
On hairsplitting the word leak. If the information was produced under contract by the Hilliary campaign then it was leaked as the property was not Steele’s. By analogy if I were paid to construct a fence for you the fence is not mine. If she instructed the leak, then things get dicey.
Whether the FISA application contained sufficient other information to justify a wiretap is not relevant since that is not the subject of the Memo. In preparing a FISA application you are not allowed to throw in a kitchen sink. As Sgt. Joe Friday would say, “The facts, Ma’am, just the facts.”
As to the suggestion that the FISA application was divorced from the 2018 election, it is time to grow up. Obama’s political background is rooted in the Chicago Way, a byword for vicious, lawless election tactics. Clinton has a verified history of lying as a first response to every problem. Viewed through the prism of an election campaign, not as court proceeding, the dots are easy to follow. No blizzard of sophistic words can cover them up.
a little more on the Woods procedure:
https://www.reddit.com/r/CBTS_Stream/comments/7vf42g/woods_procedure_forbids_presentation_of/
Woods Procedure was instituted in April 2001 to “ensure accuracy with regard to … the facts supporting probable cause” after recurring instances, presumably inadvertent, in which the FBI had presented inaccurate information to the FISA court.
Starting March 1, 2003, the FBI required field offices to confirm they’ve verified the accuracy of facts presented to the court through the case agent, the field office’s Chief Division Counsel and the Special Agent in Charge.
All of this information was provided to Congress in 2003. The FBI director at the time also ordered that any issue as to whether a FISA application was factually sufficient was to be brought to his attention. Personally.
Who was the director of the FBI when all of this careful work was done?
Robert Mueller.
http://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/372233-nunes-memo-raises-question-did-fbi-violate-woods-procedures
The quality of Matt’s questions determine the quality
of answers.
some unanswered questions
Do FBI personnel choose our elected officials
at the local,state and federal level?
What evidence exists?
What are the tools used by FBI personnel to
control our elections?
Where does one look for the evidence?
When viewing the FBI when do you use a microscope?
When do you use a telescope?
trick question
Has there been a increase in outbreaks of pseudo bulbar
since the election of Donald Trump?
in other news….
https://theintercept.com/2018/02/09/donald-trump-russia-election-nsa/
U.S. SECRETLY NEGOTIATED WITH RUSSIANS TO BUY STOLEN NSA DOCUMENTS — AND THE RUSSIANS OFFERED TRUMP-RELATED MATERIAL, TOO
James Risen
February 9 2018, 4:32 p.m.
THE UNITED STATES intelligence community has been conducting a top-secret operation to recover stolen classified U.S. government documents from Russian operatives, according to sources familiar with the matter. The operation has also inadvertently yielded a cache of documents purporting to relate to Donald Trump and Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
Over the past year, American intelligence officials have opened a secret communications channel with the Russian operatives, who have been seeking to sell both Trump-related materials and documents stolen from the National Security Agency and obtained by Russian intelligence, according to people involved with the matter and other documentary evidence. The channel started developing in early 2017, when American and Russian intermediaries began meeting in Germany. Eventually, a Russian intermediary, apparently representing some elements of the Russian intelligence community, agreed to a deal to sell stolen NSA documents back to the U.S. while also seeking to include Trump-related materials in the package.
The CIA declined to comment on the operation. The NSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The secret U.S. intelligence channel with the Russians is separate from efforts by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele to obtain information about Trump and his ties with Russia. Steele worked with Fusion GPS, an American private investigation
also see
it is harder to get a drivers license
than to have a baby
https://www.ldsfreedomforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=46369
Here are the AG Guidelines for FBI National Security Investigations and Foreign Intelligence Collections. Some of it is redacted.
There are threat assessments, preliminary investigations and full investigations.
Page 35 of the pdf document (Page 31 of the guidelines, if one uses pagination), covers dissemination of info to the White House.
Something interesting:
Compromising information concerning domestic officials or political organizations, or information concerning activities of United States persons intended to affect the political process in the United States, may be
disseminated to the White House only with the approval of the Attorney
General, based on a determination that such dissemination is needed
for foreign intelligence purposes, for the purpose of protecting against international terrorism or other threats to the national security, or for
the conduct of foreign affairs. However, such approval is not
required for dissemination to the White House of information concerning efforts of foreign intelligence services to penetrate the White House, or concerning contacts by White House personnel with foreign intelligence service personnel. (U)
Two things:
1) there is a text message that has appeared that “Obama wanted to be kept fully informed”
2) why did Comey go to the White House and present Trump with the fake Steele dossier?
https://www.justice.gov/archive/olp/ag-guidelines-10312003.pdf
https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/1118/CLEANED116%20AG%20Guidelines.pdf
The FBI hierarchy must agree with you . What’s with the layoffs ?
Just another FBI layoff, eh?
http://www.vindy.com/news/2012/mar/29/ex-fbi-agent-charged-beating-her-father/?nw
FBI agent charged with beating her father
March 29, 2012 at 3:11p.m.
YOUNGSTOWN — A 46-year-old woman, who police listed as a former FBI agent, has been charged with domestic violence for allegedly assaulting her partially blind father this week.
Police arrested Sheila Lawson on Wednesday on Katherine Street on the city’s East Side. Officers were sent to the home when Lawson’s father called saying his daughter is under stress about getting her job back and had yelled screamed and hit him.
The man told police Lawson hit him in the back of his head and on the shoulder. Lawson told police she did hit her father because he was getting on her nerves.
The father, while police were investigating the matter, told his daughter, “You need help. That’s why they kicked you out of the FBI.”
The statement, reportedly sent Lawson into a frenzy, causing her to curse the man and punch him in the head in front of officers.
Lawson still threatened to do her father bodily harm as she was being led away by police.
well, Matt, I have to agree with nc – your argument is baseless.
In your example, going after contraband drugs, you are the gatekeeper for the veracity of the material being submitted in order to get a warrant.
In the Carter Page memo, FBI and DOJ were supposedly gatekeepers of the veracity of the info being submitted. And it’s very clear that they failed.
FISA is all about foreign spies and terrorism. The FISA warrant for Carter Page was obtained on the pretext that he, and others in the Trump campaign, were “foreign agents.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/fbi-obtained-fisa-warrant-to-monitor-former-trump-adviser-carter-page/2017/04/11/620192ea-1e0e-11e7-ad74-3a742a6e93a7_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_page710pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.89e60532d5d3
In obtaining a FISA warrant (denied only 12 times), the FBI conducts a “threat assessment.”
Then the DOJ uses the Woods procedure —– to – verify – the – contents – of – the – application. AG Guidelines.
https://www.justsecurity.org/39886/high-bar-fisa-warrant-monitor-carter-page/
Quote:
this game of bureaucratic chutes and ladders continues until DOJ is satisfied that the facts in the FISA application can both be corroborated and meet the legal standards for the court.
The FBI and the DOJ higher ups fell down on this.
McCabe testified, in summary, that the FISA warrant would not have been issued without the Steele “golden showers” dossier, which was a false document.
Carter Page was not a foreign agent – and, again, why was it necessary to use the false dossier to get a warrant against him?
I have to agree with Elmer. And what is the alleged crime of collusion?
Your argument is baseless. If an officer sees the contraband he may provide the grounds for a warrant. If the officer is told by a stranger that the contraband is there that is insufficient. There has to be personal knowledge of the crime and reliability of the person with the personal knowledge. Steele did not see Golden Showers which did not exist. Steele didn’t see Att. Cohen in Prague because he wasn’t there. Steele wasn’t present at the discussion of energy sales.. All his dossier had is what others told him much of which was provably false. He never demonstrates the reliability of the sources. Secondly Steele is unreliable himself. The FBI fired him for lying. The Senate Intel committee said he lied to them and made a criminal referral to the DOJ. ( see WSJ article on Steele 2-9-18). 2. In 2017 the FISA Court complained about getting false information from the FBI which led to the IG investigation last May that will be completed next month. In 2002 the FISA Court said over 50 times they got bogus information from the FBI. This looks like a multi decade enterprise violating the Constitution by the lawless unaccountable secret police. Dramatic change is needed.
Motive?
“Over the many months since he first cried “collusion” before a camera, one thing Adam Schiff and his fellow Democrats have never done – or conveniently avoided – is explain just what happened or provide any substantive proof or evidence of specifically what was done (or promised) during the campaign and election – and why. In a word, what was President Trump’s motive for colluding with the Russians? What did the Russians stand to gain from collusion with Donald Trump?”
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/02/show_me_the_motive.html