[Editorial] Bigger than Watergate? A Closer Look at the Memo

[Bold emphasis is mine and I will provide commentary at the important parts. Before I do, all political partisanship aside, this memo is just a formal letter stating definitively that 1. Trump had nothing to do with Russia and 2. a pact was made and a strategy played by Clinton/FBI/DOJ in an attempt to keep Trump from being President.]

The Memo:

The Honorable Devin Nunes
Chairman, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
January 18, 2018

To: HPSCI Majority Members
From: HPSCI Majority Staff
Subject: Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Abuses at the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation

Purpose

This memorandum provides Members an update on significant facts relating to the Committee's ongoing investigation into the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and their use of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) during the 2016 presidential election cycle. Our findings, which are detailed below, 1) raise concerns with the legitimacy and legality of certain DOJ and FBI interactions with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), and 2) represent a troubling breakdown of legal processes established to protect the American people from abuses related to the FISA process.

Investigation Update

On October 21, 2016, DOJ and FBI sought and received a FISA probable cause order authorizing electronic surveillance on Carter Page from the FISC. Page is a US citizen who served as a volunteer advisor to the Trump presidential campaign. Consistent with requirements under FISA, the application had to be first certified by the Director or Deputy Director of the FBI. It then required the approval of the Attorney General, Deputy Attorney General (DAG), or the Senate-confirmed Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division.

The FBI and DOJ obtained one initial FISA warrant targeting Carter Page and three FISA renewals from the FISC. As required by statute, a FISA order on an American citizen must be renewed by the FISC every 90 days and each renewal requires a separate finding of probable cause. Then-Director James Comey signed three FISA applications in question on behalf of the FBI, and Deputy Director Andrew McCabe signed one. Sally Yates, then-Acting DAG Dana Boente, and DAG Rod Rosenstein each signed one or more FISA applications on behalf of DOJ.

Due to the sensitive nature of foreign intelligence activity, FISA submissions (including renewals) before the FISC are classified. As such, the public's confidence in the integrity of the FISA process depends on the court's ability to hold the government to the highest standard, particularly as it relates to surveillance of American citizens. However, the rigor in protecting the rights of Americans, which is reinforced by 90-day renewals of surveillance orders, is necessarily dependent on the government's production to the court of all material and relevant facts. This should include information potentially favorable to the target of the FISA application that is known by the government. In the case of Carter Page, the government had at least four independent opportunities before the FISC to accurately provide an accounting of the relevant facts. However, our findings indicate that, as described below, material and relevant information was omitted.

1) The "dossier" compiled by Christopher Steele (Steele dossier) on behalf of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Hillary Clinton campaign formed an essential part of the Carter Page FISA application. Steele was a longtime FBI source who was paid over $160,000 by the DNC and Clinton campaign, via the law firm Perkins Coie and research firm Fusion GPS, to obtain derogatory information on Donald Trump's ties to Russia.

The dossier that is referred to in this memo is the "Pissgate/Golden Showers scandal" that claimed Trump went to Moscow hired hookers and pissed all over the beds that Obama had slept in during previous visits.

Here is how this whole "Trump/Russia collusion narrative" happened:

Step 1 Hire shady asshole to write fake dossier about pissing on beds in Moscow.

Step 2 Use fake piss dossier to apply to the Secret Spy Courts for permission to violate the dossier-targets rights (btw Democrats and Republicans recently passed legislation to CONTINUE these secret spy courts).

Step 3 Use the results of surveillance (permission for which was obtained by fraud) to justify a massive waste of government time and resources and try to politically assassinate a Presidential Candidate and later a sitting US President.

a) Neither the initial application in October 2016, nor any of the renewals, disclose or reference the role of the DNC, Clinton campaign, or. any party/campaign in funding Steele's efforts, even though the political origins of the Steele dossier were then known to senior and FBI officials.

b) The initial FISA application notes Steele was working for a named US. person, but does not name Fusion GPS and principal Glenn Simpson, who was paid by a US. law firm (Perkins Coie) representing the DNC (even though it was known by DOI at the, time that political actors were involved with the Steele dossier). The application does not mention Steele was ultimately working on behalf of - and paid by - the DNC and Clinton campaign, or that the FBI had separately authorized payment to Steele for the same information.

2) 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. The Page FISA application incorrectly assesses that Steele did not directly provide information 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. Perkins Coie 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.

Here's the scandal at the heart of the memo:

1. Steele is an FBI Source

2. Steele meets with Yahoo News in September 2018 at Fusion GPS' order

3. Steele leaks info to Yahoo News

4. Michael Isikoff of Yahoo News posts an article about the July 2016 Moscow visit by Carter Page

5. The FISA application to spy on Page (and by proxy Donald Trump) is made and repeatedly cites the same Yahoo news article

6. FBI/DOJ gains permission to spy on Page (by proxy Donald Trump) in this application

THEY CITED THEIR OWN LEAK IN ORDER TO SPY ON THE CAMPAIGN!

a) Steele was suspended and then terminated as an FBI source for what the FBI defines as the most serious of violations-an unauthorized disclosure to the media of his relationship with the FBI in an October 30, 2016, Mother Jones article by David Corn. Steele should have been terminated for his previous undisclosed contacts with Yahoo and other outlets in September-before the Page application was submitted to the FISC in October-but Steele improperly concealed from and lied to the FBI about those contacts.

b) Steele's numerous encounters with the media violated the cardinal rule of source handling-maintaining confidentiality-and demonstrated that Steele had become a less than reliable source for the FBI.

Before and after Steele was terminated as a source, he maintained contact with DOJ via then-Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr, a senior DOJ official who worked closely with Deputy Attorneys General Yates and later Rosenstein. Shortly after the election, the FBI began interviewing Ohr, documenting his communications with Steele. For example, in September 2016, Steele admitted to Ohr his feelings against then-candidate Trump when Steele said he "was desperate that Donald Trump not get elected and was passionate about him not being president." This clear evidence of Steele's bias was recorded by Ohr at the time and subsequently in official FBI files, but not reflected in any of the Page FISA applications.

a) During this same time period, Ohr's wife was employed by Fusion GPS to assist in the cultivation of opposition research on Trump. Ohr later provided the FBI with all of his wife's opposition research, paid for by the DNC and Clinton campaign via Fusion GPS. The Ohrs' relationship with Steele and Fusion GPS was inexplicably concealed from the FISC.

Basically, the entire Obama Justice Department was involved and had full knowledge that spying on President Trump was happening and that the reasoning is fake. Rosenstein is still working for the Department of Justice and will most likely be fired after this. The question is how could Obama NOT know that this was happening?

According to the head of the counterintelligence division, Assistant Director Bill Priestap, corroboration of the Steele dossier was in its "infancy" at the time of the initial Page FISA application. After Steele was terminated, a source validation report conducted by an independent unit within FBI assessed Steele's reporting as only minimally corroborated. Yet, in early January 2017, Director Comey briefed President-elect Trump on a summary of the Steele dossier, even though it was according to his June 2017 testimony "salacious and unverified". While the FISA application relied on Steele's past record of credible reporting on other unrelated matters, it ignored or concealed his anti-Trump financial and ideological motivations. Furthermore, Deputy Director McCabe testified before the Committee in December 2017 that no surveillance warrant would have been sought from the FISC without the Steele dossier information.

In other words, if Mueller's probe continues we are in an immediate constitutional crisis, as it has been demonstrably shown to have originated from made-up "intel" documents used to lie and abuse the FISA courts even further than the every day constitutional violation the courts represent.

5) The Page FISA application also mentions information regarding fellow Trump campaign advisor George Papadopoulos, but there is no evidence of any cooperation or conspiracy between Page and Papadopoulos. The Papadopoulos information triggered the opening of an FBI counterintelligence investigation in late July 2016 by FBI agent Pete Strzok. Strzok was reassigned by the Special Counsel's Office to FBI Human Resources for improper text messages with his mistress, FBI Attorney Lisa Page (no known relation to Carter Page), where they both demonstrated a clear bias against Trump and in favor of Clinton, Whom Strzok had also investigated. The Strzok/Lisa Page texts also reflect extensive discussions about the investigation, orchestrating leaks to the media, and include a meeting with Deputy Director McCabe to discuss an "insurance" policy against President Trump's election.

So, two things are happening simultaneously right now in the Mainstream News (that nobody trusts)

1. Yesterday, the MSM said releasing this memo is a security risk and will trigger a 'constitutional crisis'

2. Once the memo was released it was hailed as a 'nothing burger'

So which is it? If it was a nothing burger all along, why didn't the left want this released?

Here is what we know without a doubt:

1. Nobody Trusts the Media

2. Nobody Trusts the FBI/Justice Department anymore

All political partisanship aside this memo is just a formal letter stating definitively that 1. Trump had nothing to do with Russia and 2. a pact was made and a strategy played by Clinton/FBI/DOJ in an attempt to keep Trump from being President.

This memo is just the ground work, more evidence will come out and expect lots of people to get fired, with potential for this scandal to reach all the way to Obama.

This is much much bigger than Watergate!