The FISA Memo by the House Intelligence Committee Chairman was recently declassified and the Democrats are furious saying the memo is incomplete, full of lies and half-truths. Before it was released the FBI, Justice Department, Democratic members of congress and much of the main stream media argued that the memo should not be made public, because it endangered national security. But after reading it, those claims are baloney. It does make you wonder what the FBI and DOJ are hiding.
The memo alleges abuses by top officials of the FBI and the Justice Department in their desire to spy (listen in and record / tap phone calls, read emails, texts, and other types of observation) on a US Citizen, which requires a special warrant. Their target was Carter Page who for nine months was a foreign policy advisor for the Trump Campaign. The memo detailing some of the alleged FISA abuses was prepared by congressional staff and is the result of the many hearings by the House of Representatives’ Intelligence Committee.
With what has been disclosed, if backed up by other facts, is an outrage, and an assault on our country’s freedoms. It looks like some people at the top of the FBI withheld vital information from a FISA court Judge in relation to a requested FISA warrant.
They failed to inform the judge on the initial FISA request and three subsequent renewal requests that the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary campaign requested and fully paid for the Trump dossier. This is important because Anthony McCabe testified before the committee that the FBI wouldn’t have been able to secure the FISA Warrant without the dossier.
If they had informed the Judge that the dossier was actually an opposition research document paid for by the opposing candidate and her party the Judge would have laughed them out of the court. The FBI also provided a Yahoo news article to the Judge as a separate source that would further corroborate the dossier. They withheld from the Judge that the source of the Yahoo news story was also Christopher Steele, the same person who wrote the dossier. This is called circular reporting and the FBI executives withholding this from the Judge actually shows intention of misleading the Judge to make him think they had two sources when they knew they only had one, Mr. Steele. The FBI had disconnected from Steele as an informant at this point because they knew that he was leaking the dossier to Yahoo and other media outlets.
When renewing the warrant they didn’t tell the Judge that they had essentially fired the informant that provided the information that was the key factor in their request for Warrant.
If true the people who are accused should stand trial for their offences against the American people. If convicted they should do prison time, no special treatment.
However, the best thing to do is to have everything released, redacted where necessary to protect sources, getting all this out in the open. This is preferable to relying on whispers and leaks from “anonymous sources” or speculation by political hacks or bias newscasters.
Any information that the special prosecutor investigating Trump should be turned over to the congressional committee. In addition, The Department of Justice Inspector General has been working on a report about any FBI political bias in favor of Hillary Clinton when she was under investigation for tens of thousands of emails, some classified, on her private server. This information should also be turned over to Congress and the American People.
The only branch of our government that has legal oversight of the FBI executives and the DOJ is Congress. The only real answer is transparency so it is up to them to release all the documents, memos, and transcripts. The claim that it hurts our national security is phony. What has been alleged so far has done more harm to our country, than releasing some names. This is subversion from the inside and is extremely dangerous as it erodes and rots our republic by our most trusted people and agencies.
Past FBI Director Comey wrote: “……{memo} destroyed trust with intel community, damaged relationship with FISA court, and inexcusably exposed classified investigation of an American citizen…:” No James Comey, your leadership did these things when you signed off three of the four FISA warrant requests.
So the F.B.I., the Department of Justice, four judges on the FISA court, and the Presidents personal choice to head the DOJ and the F.B.I. are all conspiring against Mr. Trump? Seems a bit out there, don’t you think? Throw in the media and you effectively removed the “checks” in our Government checks and balance system.
Seems that Mike Young’s memo speaks for itself in “With what has been disclosed, if backed up by other facts…” This and the other great memo share the failing of not being backed up by facts, just ranting “look here not at money laundrying or the Russian attack on our democracy.”The Steele dossier was not the primary support for the FISA renewal, just read the warrant, and has not been proven false in any significant finding. More importantly, it is clear that any major US, British or Dutch intelligence officer would trust steele’s work far, far beyond that of Devin Nunes, he of the midnight WH runs, or our glorious leader and speaker of great truth, “no official of the trump campaign ever met with a russian.” Well, maybe just several dozen. Are Steele and thousands of FBI agents deeply concerned about where our country is being led, you betcha. Can they still do their job without bias, you betcha.
The whole “memogate” has been debunked by none other than Trey Gowdy. I find it hilarious that the so called party of law and order is now the anti- FBI party. Mike, the memo is now old news. I propose that you and your friends start a fund raiser to discover a cure for bone spurs. They kept our military loving President from serving in Vietnam. A cure will allow our President to play golf without a cart and to march in his planned Triumph parade.
Mr Young’s memo seems so slanted, so without factual basis and, seemingly, so politically biased, that one wonders if he might somehow be affiliated with and/or funded by an undisclosed foreign or domestic political body.
And was the Steele dossier only a Democratic plan??? As I recall, Mr Steele was originally hired by the Republicans to perform an investigation; then they gave it up after Mr Steele wasn’t “finding” the “right facts’ to serve their purposes. (my emphasis on finding and right facts).
Now, I don’t know all the facts. Even Mr Young casually (once) throws in the cautionary “… if backed up by other facts …”. In theory nobody in the general public knows all the facts/information known to the congressional committees, the courts, the special investigators and others. But it seems that Mr Young might ignore some facts, if they were known, and if it served his agenda.
I admit, I don’t know what Mr Young actually knows – or if he is simply echoing information he has collected from news reports, or the incomplete information contained in the Republican drafted FISA Memo. Whatever the case, I think conclusions about any of this should be withheld until all (ALL) the factual information and sworn testimony is available to the public. Including the information the Democrats, the department of Justice and the FBI feel was improperly excluded or misrepresented in the FISA Memo.
Sorry Mr Young, your totally biased rant against all Democrats, and all security, judicial and investigative institutions that do not mirror your agenda simply does not convince me that you have all the “true” facts to support your conclusions.