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Related topics on other nearby pages: Timely news and commentary: Carter Page Finds Trump Trial Eerily Familiar. [Scroll down] What Page finds most eerily familiar is the bookkeeping-entry trial of President Donald Trump, which he observed in person. Page considers the scene in Judge Juan Merchan's courtroom just the latest episode in the relentless persecution of the former president and his supporters. This began virtually the day that the real-estate magnate declared his presidential candidacy. "The [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] abuse/international spy scandal that prominent [Democratic National Committee] operatives and senior officials of the Obama-Biden administration designed to take out President Trump in his first political campaign remains largely unresolved," Page tells me exclusively. "For more than seven years, we have continued to fight against the corrupt U.S. Department of Justice and the Democrat Party's operatives who have largely dominated these continued dishonest attacks against President Trump, myself, and so many others." Will James Comey and Robert Mueller Be Prosecuted for Lies John Durham Uncovered? While special counsel John Durham's prosecution of Steele dossier source Igor Danchenko appears to be headed toward acquittal, Durham has used the trial to make public a number of revelations that cast the entire Trump-Russia collusion narrative in a fresh light. Most prominently, Durham revealed that on Oct. 3, 2016, the FBI had offered dossier author Christopher Steele up to $1 million to provide any information, physical evidence, or documentary evidence that could back up the claims in his dossier. But despite the huge reward on offer, Steele did not provide any such information. Crucially, despite Steele's failure to back up his dossier, a mere 18 days later the FBI proceeded to obtain a FISA warrant against Trump 2016 presidential campaign adviser Carter Page. In its application to the FISA court, the FBI used the Steele dossier — specifically, its claim that Page was acting as an agent of Russia — as evidence. Judge dismisses Carter Page suit against Comey, FBI over alleged FISA abuse. A federal judge has dismissed Carter Page's lawsuit against the FBI and former Director James Comey alleging they improperly surveilled him under a FISA warrant. The bureau surveilled Page under a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant in a process during which they concealed exculpatory evidence against him, DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz found in his 2019 report, per the Washington Examiner. Judge Dabney Friedrich, in a Thursday [9/1/2022] ruling, dismissed the suit. "Page alleges that the individual defendants violated §§ 1809(a) and 1810 both by unlawfully engaging in electronic surveillance and using or disclosing the fruits of that surveillance. ... Each defendant claims that Page fails to sufficiently allege that he or she violated the statute," Friedrich wrote. "The Court finds that the claims are not time-barred but that Page does not state a claim against any of the individual defendants." Most Don't Know it Was Andrew Weissmann Who Publicly Released the Carter Page FISA Application. You will remember the massive media debate in early 2018 about the FISA application deployed against former short-time Trump campaign aide Carter Page. The DOJ, at the time under the control of the Mueller special counsel for all things Trump-Russia related, wouldn't let congress see the FISA application. Devin Nunes complained to House Speaker Paul Ryan. Eventually a deal was struck and two members from the House Intelligence committee (democrats and republicans) and two members from the House Judiciary Committee, were allowed to go to Main Justice and read the FISA application, but not copy it. Four congressmen were allowed to go read and take notes. Trey Gowdy and John Ratcliffe represented the two republicans, and their notes formed the basis for what later was called "The Nunes Memo." The Democrats were not happy with the claims in the Nunes memo, and subsequently HPSCI ranking member Adam Schiff wrote the democrat version. To Spy on a Trump Aide, the FBI Pursued a Dossier Rumor the Press Shot Down as [Bunk]. The FBI decision to spy on a former Trump campaign adviser hinged on an unsubstantiated rumor from a Clinton campaign-paid dossier that the Washington Post's Moscow sources had quickly shot down as "[...]" and "impossible," according to emails disclosed last week to a D.C. court hearing the criminal case of a Clinton lawyer accused of lying to the FBI. Though the FBI presumably had access to better sources than the newspaper, agents did little to verify the rumor that Trump foreign policy adviser Carter Page had secretly met with sanctioned Kremlin officials in Moscow. Instead, the bureau pounced on the dossier report the day it received it, immediately plugging the rumor into an application under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to wiretap Page as a suspected Russian agent. Timeline of FBI's FISA Abuse in Trump Campaign Investigation. In its pursuit of establishing surveillance on the Trump campaign, the FBI turned its attention to Trump campaign adviser Carter Page in the spring of 2016, culminating in the issuance of a FISA warrant — which allows for some of the most intrusive spying methods on an American citizen. As part of this process, the FBI relied extensively on the flawed Steele dossier, leading an FBI legal counsel to note that this was "essentially a single source FISA." 5 Takeaways From The Latest Filings In The Carter Page Spygate Lawsuit. Over last weekend, attorneys for Carter Page filed responses to motions to dismiss filed by the FBI and eight agents involved in the Crossfire Hurricane investigation that led to the government illegally obtaining four surveillance warrants to spy on Page. In November 2020, Page, who had briefly served as a volunteer advisor to the Trump campaign, sued the defendants in a D.C. federal court alleging violations of the Fourth Amendment, the Patriot Act, and the Privacy Act. In response, the government and the individual defendants argued Page's claims were time-barred or that Page had no legal grounds on which to sue. Onward Into Darkness. Everything your government tells you these days is a lie — the old epigram goes — including "and" and "the". The chief victim of that inexhaustible deceit is America's rule-of-law. Case in point, the shenanigans in the DC District federal court last week in the action known as Page v. Comey et al. (basically the whole FBI and DOJ). This is Carter Page's lawsuit over the phony FISA court warrants sworn against him in the attempt to use the "three-hop rule" to surveil everybody in the 2016 Trump campaign, and defame Mr. Page in the process. A judge named Rudolph ("Rudy") Contreras, who happens to be the current Presiding Judge of the FISA court, also happens to be the DC District's Chair of the Calendar and Case Management Committee, meaning he gets to pick which DC District judge will sit for Page v. Comey. Rudy picked Judge James Boasberg. Judge Boasberg sat on the very FISA court that approved the RussiaGate warrants. He also presided over the trial of FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith, convicted of altering documents to conceal Carter Page's prior service to the CIA. Say, what? Boasberg is supposed to adjudicate matters around the very proceedings he was involved in? A Curiously Random Coincidence Keeps Repeating. Carter Page was the convenient target of a FISA application the Obama-era DOJ and FBI needed to cover for their illegal surveillance. In essence, late summer 2016 the DOJ/FBI needed to get a search warrant to cover for the illegal political surveillance they had been undertaking for the past 10+ months on the Trump campaign. The DOJ/FBI had an intelligence source named Carter Page, essentially an informant who worked for the CIA and whom the FBI previously used to indict Russians in the Buryakov case. Page was tangentially affiliated with the Trump campaign, so he became the conduit — a target — to get a search warrant that would provide the cover for all prior surveillance. Carter Page became the useful target, and the Steele dossier, again provided by — essentially — another confidential informant (Chris Steele), provided the evidence to support the warrant. Thus, the dossier was important to support the search warrant application (the FISA app). The FISA application is the Title-1 search warrant application, and the dossier was essentially the underlying 'woods file', to justify the warrant. Confirmed: The Obama DOJ Went Rogue to Spy on an Ex-Trump Campaign Official. It took too long to confirm what we already knew about this fiasco. It's a classic tale of government overreach, one we're seeing more often with Joe Biden issuing vaccine mandate edicts and rebuilding the IRS to spy on our financial activities. No, this is something of a throwback. It deals with the Russian collusion hoax and the unlawful targeting of Carter Page, a former 2016 Trump campaign official. Page had worked with the CIA, State Department, and the FBI in years past. There was plenty of exculpatory evidence to prove he wasn't a Russian asset. Obama's Department of Justice intentionally omitted these key pieces of information when applying for a FISA spy warrant during the campaign. Page has long since been exonerated of the ludicrous charge that he was a spy and part of this Trump-Russia collusion delusion that engulfed the political class and the DOJ for years. Very powerful anti-Trump forces worked and manufactured evidence to support this baseless claim. They always collapsed under scrutiny, but the damage was done. The FISA court ruled in June that the DOJ unlawfully spied on Page. The FISA Court is Compromised — Presiding Judge James Boasberg Hires Former DOJ-NSD Head, Mary McCord, as Amici Curiae to Advise The Court. I hate to write this, but there is just no good way to look at this. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, specifically Presiding Judge James Boasberg, has hired former DOJ National Security Division head, Mary McCord, as amici curiae advisor to the court. The placement was first noted by an announcement from Georgetown Law ICAP. Presiding Judge James Boasberg, is the decision-maker in the appointment of Amici Curiae to the FISA court. There is no way, NO WAY, Judge Boasberg does not know Mary McCord was at the epicenter of the fraudulent FISA application used against Carter Page. New FBI Memos on Stefan Halper. Today [2/25/2021] John Solomon posted FBI reports and interview summaries concerning confidential human source Stefan Halper and his interactions with Carter Page. [...] I won't go through every small detail but will summarize the parts I find interesting. (Even if they had been publicly discussed before.) Halper was tasked to go after Carter Page and George Papadopoulos (aka Crossfire Typhoon). August 15, 2016: the FBI discusses Carter Page and George Papadopoulos with Halper and request his assistance. This wasn't just about obtaining information. Once-secret FBI informant reports reveal wider-ranging operation to spy on Trump campaign. Once-secret reports show the FBI effort to spy on the Trump campaign was far wider than previously disclosed, as agents directed an undercover informant to make secret recordings, pressed for intelligence on numerous GOP figures, and sought to find "anyone in the Trump campaign" with ties to Russia who could acquire dirt "damaging to Hillary Clinton." The now-declassified operational handling reports for FBI confidential human source Stefan Halper — codenamed "Mitch" — provide an unprecedented window both into the tactics used by the bureau to probe the Trump campaign and the wide dragnet that was cast to target numerous high-level officials inside the GOP campaign just weeks before Americans chose their next president in the November 2016 election. FBI's desperate pretext to keep spying on Carter Page: He might write a book! Nine months into a relentless effort to spy on Carter Page with the most awesome surveillance tools the U.S. possesses, the FBI had no proof the former Trump adviser had colluded with Russia to hijack the 2016 election. In fact, the bureau hid from the FISA court the fact that it knew Page was actually a U.S. asset who had helped the CIA and that in a secret recording with an informant he had denied all the core allegations against him with significant proof. But it wanted to keep spying on its target for another three months. So what did the FBI cough up to the FISA judge to keep up its surveillance and its now-debunked claim that Page might be a Russian agent of influence? Judge Boasberg: The Clinesmith Lies Don't Matter. The sentencing hearing of Kevin Clinesmith, the former FBI lawyer who pleaded guilty to altering a CIA e-mail to further the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant renewal on Carter Page, took place on the morning of Friday, January 21 before Judge Boasberg in Washington, D.C. This hearing was the culmination of an investigation by those within the Department of Justice who actually sought to do justice in exposing the FBI's misconduct in opening Crossfire Hurricane, and the FBI's abuse of their power to spy on Carter Page and those associated with the Trump campaign. While the process continues with Special Counsel John Durham's investigation, this was one loose end that was ready to be tied. Those demanding Clinesmith to be incarcerated weren't being unreasonable, though they were ultimately disappointed when Judge Boasberg sentenced Clinesmith to 12 months probation and no prison time. In fact, they have every right to be angry. The Game is Rigged. The past week has perhaps been one of the most revealing weeks in modern history. The extent to which the system was exposed for what it is, on multiple fronts, probably won't be matched again for at least a little while. [...] As RedState reported, former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith, who was working with Robert Mueller, was given probation and a $100 administrative fee for his role in falsifying an email to renew the already illegally obtained FISA warrant on Carter Page. [...] Out of all the nefarious, obviously corrupt figures surrounding this saga, Clinesmith was the only one charged. Figures like Andrew McCabe and James Comey were named in credible criminal referrals, not by politicians, but by the Inspector General, and the DOJ did nothing. [...] To recap, you can forget a date talking to the FBI and have a special counsel crack your skull, but if you work for the FBI, forge a document, and lie about it in order to try to spy on a political opponent, you get probation and glowing media coverage. FBI lawyer who lied to FISA Court to wiretap Carter Page gets a slap on the wrist and sympathy from federal judge handing down sentence. The message is out to the next rogue federal bureaucrats who contemplate committing crimes in the name of wiretapping (or otherwise abusing the rights of) opponents of the Deep State: Don't worry! You won't be doing any jail time and may even get sympathy from the judge — in the unlikely event you ever get caught. Unleash the fearsome spying apparatus taxpayers provide against political opponents of Democrats. That's the clear signal sent by FISA Court Judge James Boasberg (an Obama appointee to the federal bench, and a John Roberts appointee to the FISA Court, and reportedly a member of Skull & Bones while an undergraduate at Yale) with his sentence of Kevin Clinesmith, the former FBI lawyer who lied to the court in order to obtain a FISA warrant on Carter Page. Banana Republic Update: ObamaGate Operative Clinesmith Given Probation. Honestly, this is exactly the sort of judicial farce I expected would happen once I saw that Obama appointee Judge James Boasberg had been assigned the case. Former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith, the one and only ObamaGate figure to have been indicted for any crime by hoax-prosecutor John Durham and the entirety of the U.S. Department of [No]Justice, was given the softest tap on the wrist possible Friday by the despicable Judge Boasberg. [...] The corrupt news media will claim that Boasberg's absurdly minimalist sentence of 12 months probation, 400 days community service and a $100 fee was due to Clinesmith's decision to plead guilty in the case. Yeah, tell that to General Mike Flynn. Ex-FBI Lawyer Receives Probation For Altering Email About Carter Page. Former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith was sentenced to probation on Friday for altering an email about former Trump aide Carter Page's relationship with the CIA. District Court Judge James Boasberg ordered Clinesmith to receive 12 months of probation and perform 400 hours of community service, a sentence far more lenient than the three to six months in prison sought by John Durham, the U.S. Attorney for Connecticut. Clinesmith, who was an assistant general counsel in the FBI's cyber law branch, pleaded guilty on Aug. 19, 2020 to altering a June 2017 email he received from a CIA employee regarding Page. The CIA employee wrote that Page had been "a source" for the spy agency through 2013. Clinesmith forwarded the email to FBI colleagues but altered the document to say that Page was "not a source." Ex-FBI lawyer Clinesmith sentenced to a year of probation for falsifying document in Russia probe. A former FBI lawyer who pleaded guilty last year to falsifying a document to justify the surveillance of a former Trump 2016 campaign adviser was sentenced Friday to one year of probation. Kevin Clinesmith, who admitted altering an email so the government could continue to wiretap campaign adviser Carter Page, received far less than the prison sentence the government had recommended. Clinesmith was also sentenced to 400 hours of community service. The maximum penalty for his crime is five years in prison. More about Kevin Clinesmith. FBI Used 'Ghosts' To Track Trump Advisor Carter Page In 2016. The FBI used specialists from its Special Surveillance Group unit — sometimes referred to as "ghosts" — to track Carter Page while he was still on the Trump campaign, according to newly declassified FBI documents. The plan to surveil Page with the special investigators, known as SSGs, is laid out in an Aug. 24, 2016, memo from the FBI team investigating the Trump campaign. President Donald Trump declassified the memo and other documents during his last week in office. The memo, referred to as an operational plan, was published by Just the News. The bureau's use of SSGs in the investigation of Page, which has not previously been reported, shows the extent to which investigators went to keep tab on the former Trump campaign adviser. The Russia informant transcript the FBI didn't want Americans to see. Four days before the FBI secured a surveillance warrant against him in fall 2016, Trump campaign adviser Carter Page repeatedly knocked down the key allegations at the heart of the Russia collusion investigation while talking to a government informant who was wearing a wire. Page's unwitting statements of innocence to informer Stefan Halper were never shared with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court before it approved four warrants authorizing a full year of surveillance of Page's communications. Page's exculpatory statements were kept from the American people for four years until President Trump declassified them on his final day in office last week. They were obtained by Just the News. "The core lie is that I met with these sanctioned Russian officials, several of which I never even met in my entire life, but they said that I met them in July," an FBI transcript quotes Page as telling Halper during an Oct. 17, 2016 interaction at Halper's farm in Northern Virginia. FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith, who lied on Carter Page FISA warrant, may get a slap on the wrist. The comparison of the treatment General Flynn received from Special Counsel Mueller and FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith is receiving from Special Counsel Durham is nauseating. General Flynn was bullied, bankrupted, and threatened with persecution of his son so badly that he signed a false confession to a nonexistent crime. And until his presidential clemency, Judge Sullivan continued the abuse. Clinesmith, in contrast, pleaded guilty to altering an email so as to obtain an extension of the FISA warrant illegitimately obtained to electronically monitor not just Carter Page's emails, phone calls and text messages, but those of everyone he communicated with (i.e., the Trump campaign). One does not alter an email submitted as evidence to court by mistake, it is a willful act of deception. But now comes news that Durham is asking only for a sentence of a few months, at most, for an officer of the court who knowingly lied to the court. Durham Seeks Jail Time For Ex-FBI Lawyer Who Altered CIA Email About Carter Page. U.S. Attorney John Durham is seeking a prison sentence of up to six months for Kevin Clinesmith, the former FBI lawyer who pleaded guilty to altering an email from the CIA regarding former Trump campaign aide Carter Page's past relationship with the spy agency. Durham asked a federal judge in a court filing on Thursday [12/3/2020] to sentence Clinesmith to a jail term "between the middle and upper end" of what federal sentencing guidelines recommend for the crime of making false statements in writing. Clinesmith pleaded guilty to the charge on Aug. 19. He admitted to adding the phrase "not a 'source'" to a June 2017 email from a CIA employee who had provided information about Page's relationship with the agency. Carter Page: FBI agent used fake name during interviews. Former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page alleges that an FBI counterintelligence agent used an alias during multiple interviews with him in 2017, a tactic that one former FBI official describes as highly unusual. Page leveled the allegation on Friday in a $75 million lawsuit against the FBI, Justice Department and multiple current and former FBI officials over what he says was "unlawful spying" against him as part of the FBI's investigation of the Trump campaign. According to Page, veteran FBI counterintelligence agent Stephen Somma introduced himself as Steve Holt during five interviews conducted as part of Crossfire Hurricane, the code name for the FBI probe. The Editor says... Justice Is Coming: Carter Page Takes Comey, McCabe, Strzok to Court in $75M Obamagate Lawsuit. On Friday, Carter Page — the former CIA informant whom the FBI nonetheless targeted for warrants under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) — filed an explosive $75 million lawsuit against the key actors in the FISA surveillance scandal known as Spygate or Obamagate. While U.S. Attorney John Durham's report into this matter is still forthcoming, Page appears to have decided to take matters into his own hands and pursue justice in the courts. The lawsuit names a host of defendants, including the federal government of the United States, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Department of Justice (DOJ), former FBI Director James Comey, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith, former FBI agent Peter Strzok, former FBI lawyer Lisa Page, FBI agent Joe Pientka III, and more. Carter Page Drops a Huge Lawsuit on James Comey, Lisa Page, Peter Strzok, Andrew McCabe and More. It feels like waiting for criminal consequences for what was done to the Trump campaign during and after the 2016 election is taking a lifetime and Americans have despaired that justice might ever be done in the matter. But sounds like Carter Page is tired of waiting and is going to push for some answers and a little justice of his own. The former Trump campaign advisor dropped a huge lawsuit and it names virtually all the Obama administration folks involved whom we have come to know — James Comey, Lisa Page, Peter Strzok, Andrew McCabe and others — over his treatment by them. The complaint "seeks relief herein for Defendants' multiple violations of his Constitutional and other legal rights in connection with unlawful surveillance and investigation of him by the United States Government" and asks for no less than $75 million, according to the Washington Examiner. Carter Page files $75M suit against FBI, DOJ, others over 'unlawful surveillance'. Carter Page on Friday [11/27/2020] sued the Justice Department, the FBI and former FBI Director James Comey for $75 million, insisting he was unlawfully surveilled as part of the 2017 special counsel investigation into so-called Russian collusion. The 59-page lawsuit, filed Friday in Washington, DC, the federal court additionally sues former FBI Assistant Director Andrew McCabe and FBI lovebirds Peter Strzok and Lisa Page. Also named as plaintiffs are former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith, who this year pleaded guilty to falsifying an e-mail that was used by the FBI to obtain a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant to monitor Page. Carter Page Sues DOJ, FBI, James Comey, And Others Behind Crossfire Hurricane FISA Abuse. In an eight-count complaint filed Friday in the D.C. District Court, Carter Page seeks damages of no less than $75 million from the U.S. government, the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigations, and individuals responsible for obtaining four illegal Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act orders against Page. Page's 59-page complaint lists as defendants a veritable "Who's Who" of the SpyGate scandal, including former FBI Director James Comey, Assistant Director Andrew McCabe, and the disgraced team of Peter Strzok and Lisa Page. Also singled out were Kevin Clinessmith, who earlier this year pleaded guilty to falsifying an email to hide Page's past service as a source to the CIA, and FBI Agents Joe Pientka, Stephen Somma, and Brian Auten, with additional defendants identified merely as John Doe 1 - 10 and Jane Doe 1 - 10. McCabe: 'I accept responsibility' for faulty Carter Page FISA warrant. Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe acknowledged Tuesday [11/10/2020] that he approved the error-laden warrant applications to surveil Trump campaign aide Carter Page. Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee's hearing on the early stages of the FBI's Russian collusion probe, Mr. McCabe said he was unaware of the errors and had he known, he would not have approved the application. But he also acknowledged it was his responsibility to ensure the application was accurate before it was submitted to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Dossier Source Was a Suspected Russian Spy, and the FBI Knew It When It Spied on Carter Page. The FBI long suspected that a major source for Christopher Steele's anti-Trump dossier was a Russian spy, according to newly declassified documents. In other words, the bureau knowingly relied on the word of a suspected Russian spy to spy on a Trump campaign aide wrongly smeared as a Russian spy: Carter Page. Republicans seized on the disclosure. Rep. Devin Nunes told RealClearInvestigations: "The revelations are further proof of what we already knew — that the Democrats, and only the Democrats, colluded with Russians to swing the 2016 election." The material declassified by Attorney General William Barr shows that as far back as 2009 the FBI was investigating as a potential Russian intelligence operative the Brookings Institution researcher who in 2016 would become the dossier's "primary sub-source." Carter Page's Camel Nose Under the Trump Tent. Spygate had one primary objective, to prevent Donald Trump's election. Failing that, then then had to cover their past transgressions of illegally spying on his campaign while at the same time undermining his administration, driving down his popularity to the point that he pulled a Nixon and resigned, or else be impeached and removed from office. What better way to disrupt a campaign than to spy on it? Trump Tower was probably not literally "wiretapped" as Trump claimed, but "spying did occur" against the campaign, according to Attorney General William Barr. Carter Page played a big role in covering up the spying. Carter Page was not the idiot the media portrayed him to be. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in the top 10 percent of his class, unlike John McCain who graduated solidly in the bottom 10 percent of his class. Expanded or Targeted Investigative Review of Special Counsel? Red State has a good article expanding consideration of the Sara Carter exclusive this week surrounding a recent DOJ and FBI admission to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence about the special counsel, Andrew Weissmann, "recreating" the original Woods File to support the June 29, 2017, Carter Page FISA application. In essence the questions are: why would the special counsel need to re-create a file? And if so what would be the purpose behind "losing" their original? Former FBI Attorney Kevin Clinesmith Made Andrew Weissmann's Nightmares Come True By Pleading Guilty. Clinesmith is charged with having altered the contents of an email from a CIA Liason on the subject of whether Carter Page had a historical relationship with the CIA. In April 2017, the existence of a FISA warrant against Page had been leaked to the press by a Senate official working for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. With the press reporting that he was suspected of being a Russian Agent, Page began giving interviews to address the question and disclosed that for several years he had been reporting to the CIA on his contacts with suspected Russian intelligence officials. In fact, in 2013 Page had cooperated with the FBI in the identification, investigation, and prosecution of three such Russian intelligence officers. While preparing the third application to extend the Page FISA warrant, an FBI supervisor tasked Clinesmith to contact the CIA and find out if there was any truth to the statements Page was making in the press. Clinesmith Gets The Wolfe Plea Deal. As noted in the DOJ press release: "Former FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith, 38, pleaded guilty today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to a false statement offense stemming from his altering of an email in connection with the submission of a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act ("FISA") application." Despite the falsification of court documents within a FISA document; and despite the likelihood of an intentional conspiracy to commit fraud upon the court in order to obtain a Title-1 surveillance warrant against the Trump campaign — via Carter Page; the DOJ entered into a plea agreement on a single count of lying to federal officers. The agreement holds a maximum penalty of zero to six months in federal prison and a $250k fine. This is the same plea agreement the DOJ (DC U.S. Attorney) previously gave to the Senate Intelligence Committee Security Director James Wolfe, who leaked the SAME, earlier, top-secret classified FISA application to the media on March 17, 2017. Kevin Clinesmith, former FBI lawyer, pleads guilty to falsifying Carter Page documents. Former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith pleaded guilty Wednesday [8/19/2020] to falsifying documents used to continue the surveillance of President Trump's 2016 campaign aide Carter Page. "Guilty," Clinesmith said when asked by a federal judge for a plea. Clinesmith admitted to altering an email in early 2017 to say Mr. Page was not a source for the CIA when in fact he was. He told a federal judge Wednesday that he believed at the time the information he provided was accurate. Maria Bartiromo talks to Carter Page about being surveilled for over a year and never charged with any crimes. [Three video clips] Waiting for Durham May Be Over. [Scroll down] Yes, it was preposterous for a lawyer representing Clinesmith to say that "it was never [Clinesmith's] intent to mislead the court or his colleagues, as he believed the information he relayed was accurate." No, he didn't. The email in question came from the CIA and reported that Carter Page was a source for the agency. Clinesmith altered the email to say that he was not a CIA source. As legal commentator Jonathan Turley notes, "The CIA made clear to Clinesmith that Page was working for United States intelligence, a fact that critically undermined the basis for the original application for secret surveillance." Remember, Page was not the object of the Obama administration's interest. Donald Trump was. Page was merely the conduit, the doorway, into the Trump campaign. The fact that people in the FBI were perfectly happy to abuse a surveillance apparatus designed primarily to investigate foreign actors, wielding it instead against a U.S. citizen they knew to be innocent, is actually quite shocking. Will the Dam Break After Clinesmith's Plea? News reports have downplayed the significance of former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith's guilty plea, acknowledging he altered an official document in the government's Trump-Russia collusion probe. There has been some coverage, mainly because it is so rare to see FBI agents charged with a felony and because it is the first tangible result of U.S. Attorney John Durham's sprawling investigation of the investigators. But mainstream news outlets have minimized its importance. It's only one count, they say, and it deals with a relatively minor crime by a mid-level figure. That's spin, and it's wrong. This plea is like finding water seeping from the base of a dam. The problem is not one muddy puddle. The problem is that it foreshadows the dam's failure, releasing a torrent. That's what the Clinesmith plea portends. 7 Big Stories Corporate Media Is Ignoring Because The Truth Might Help Trump. [#1] Spygate: While the Spygate scandal spans many years, some of the most newsworthy developments broke over the last several months, although you would not know it if you read corporate media. Just Friday, the Department of Justice released information charging Kevin Clinesmith with making a false statement in an email he altered concerning Carter Page. [...] Coverage of the charge against Clinesmith is already receding, but the story deserves relentless investigative reporting. Clinesmith was deeply involved in the Crossfire Hurricane surveillance of Trump, including in the FBI's decision to task Joe Pientka with spying on the Trump campaign during an intelligence briefing. Further, Clinesmith altered the email while a member of Special Counsel Mueller's team and the special counsel's office then obtained the fourth and final FISA surveillance order on Page. Despite the guilty plea, Democrats still denounce this 'investigation of investigators'. [Scroll down] This is a plea agreement so it is not known what information Clinesmith may have shared. Moreover, this is just the first public move by Durham, just as Flynn was the early salvo for Mueller. But the date of this criminal false statement is key. In September 2016, administration officials leaked the existence of the classified investigation in the midst of the campaign and suggested Trump adviser Carter Page was a Russian agent. This secret surveillance started the next month, based on that allegation against Page, when he was in fact an American asset. The FISA court was never told that information in the surveillance application was derived in part from the dossier, or that it was paid for by the opposition campaign. Nor was it told that at the time, FBI agents challenged both the bias and credibility for the dossier author and past British spy Christopher Steele, who was known to have given interviews for the media and claimed that he was trying to defeat Trump and assist the Clinton campaign. About Kevin Clinesmith. So far we have said nothing about Kevin Clinesmith's guilty plea, which illustrates the fact that these days, the news is impossible to keep up with. Clinesmith, as you probably remember, was an FBI lawyer, an assistant general counsel assigned to the Bureau's National Security and Cyber Law branch in Washington. In that capacity, he supported FBI investigations, including Crossfire Hurricane. Clinesmith was instrumental in submitting some, at least, of the fraudulent FISA applications to spy on Carter Page. Of all of the Obama administration loyalists who contributed to the Russia collusion hoax, Clinesmith is the one most obviously guilty of a felony: he altered an email he received from the CIA to say that Carter Page was NOT a CIA source, when in fact the email said Page WAS a CIA source, and submitted that fake document to the federal court in order to obtain a FISA warrant. New York Times Manipulates FBI Lawyer's Guilty Plea To Hide Real Spygate News. A New York Times reporter who won a Pulitzer Prize for his role perpetrating the Russia collusion hoax was tasked with framing the news that a former top FBI lawyer was to plead guilty to deliberately fabricating evidence against a Donald Trump campaign affiliate targeted in the Russia probe. The resulting article is a case study in how to write propaganda. Adam Goldman broke, and cushioned, the news that former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith was to plead guilty to fabricating evidence in a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant application to spy on Trump campaign affiliate Carter Page. His job was to present the news as something other than an indictment of the FBI's handling of the Russia collusion hoax, to signal to other media that they should move on from the story as quickly as possible, and to hide his own newspaper's multi-year participation in the Russia collusion hoax. One intelligence source described it as an "insult" to his intelligence and "beyond Pravda," a reference to the official newspaper of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union. Here's how Goldman did it. [...] Carter Page: Corrupt FBI Attorney Kevin Clinesmith 'Put My Very Life At Risk'. The actions of Kevin Clinesmith, the corrupt former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) lawyer who was charged in federal court on Friday with falsifying evidence, threatened the life of Carter Page, the former Naval officer and Trump campaign affiliate told The Federalist. The Department of Justice (DOJ) charged Clinesmith with deliberately fabricating evidence used to justify a federal warrant to spy on Page in 2017. "Clinesmith, his organization, and their associates put my very life at risk, leading to abusive calls and death threats because of my personal opinions and support for President Trump," Page told The Federalist. "There is a long way to go on the road to restoring justice in America, but certainly a good first step has now been taken." Some Matters Domestic and Foreign. Attorney General William Barr earlier this week signaled that there would be a development in the ongoing Durham investigation into official misconduct relating to the Russiagate confection. Friday, that came true with news that attorney Kevin Clinesmith, formerly with the FBI, was going to plead guilty to one count of feloniously altering an email from the CIA in order to support an application for a FISA warrant that permitted the government to spy in Carter Page. [...] The alteration was substantial, hiding the fact that Page had been a confidential informant for the CIA. Had this been known to the Department of Justice lawyers who drafted the warrant application, it is certain it would not have been forwarded to the FISC. Had the FISC been properly informed, no warrant would have been issued, and the spying on Page which opened the sluice gates to permit spying on all his contacts, in particular the Trump campaign, would never have been permitted by law. Major Development In Durham Probe Ignored During CNN, MSNBC Primetime Coverage. CNN and MSNBC largely ignored the news Friday that a former FBI lawyer will plead guilty to altering an email related to Carter Page, the former Trump campaign aide. Neither network mentioned the case against the former FBI lawyer, Kevin Clinesmith, in their primetime broadcasts, according to a review conducted by the Daily Caller News Foundation. The networks had brief segments during the daytime broadcasts that reported the news that Clinesmith would plead guilty to making false statements by altering an email that downplayed Page's past work for the CIA. Page had been an operational contact for the CIA through at least 2013 and provided information about his interactions with a Russian intelligence officer. Clinesmith, 38, added a line to a CIA liaison's email in June 2017 that said that Page was "not a 'source'" for the spy agency, according to the charging documents. Clinesmith Charging Documents: FBI Withheld Page's CIA Work From FISA Court, Then Lied About It. The FBI was told Carter Page was a U.S. intelligence agency source months before the agency began keeping that information from the secret court that authorized spying on him and nearly a full year before the agency altered documents to claim otherwise. Federal charging documents against Kevin Clinesmith, the top FBI attorney who was expected to plead guilty today to altering documents, show that the FBI withheld in three separate spying applications the fact that Page had served as an "operational contact" who helped an agency believed to be the CIA investigate suspected Russian intelligence figures for five years. For the fourth application, the agency didn't just hide that fact, but deliberately falsified evidence to claim he was not a source. Kevin Clinesmith, Corrupt FBI Attorney Who Falsified Carter Page FISA Warrant, Expected To Plead Guilty. A top FBI lawyer who fabricated evidence in a federal spy warrant against Trump campaign affiliate Carter Page is expected to plead guilty to federal charges brought by U.S. Attorney John Durham. Kevin Clinesmith, who is expected to admit to deliberately fabricating evidence in a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant application, used to spy on a former campaign affiliate of President Donald Trump, was a top attorney in the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Office of General Counsel (OGC) and a key agency attorney under fired former FBI Director James Comey. Clinesmith is the first individual to be charged as part of U.S. Attorney John Durham's investigation into the efforts in 2016 and 2017 to spy on the Trump campaign and Trump administration. [...] Clinesmith's deliberate falsification of a federal spy warrant was first revealed last December following a lengthy investigation by the Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of the Inspector General (OIG), headed by Michael Horowitz. Horowitz and his team wrote in a 434-page report that Clinesmith — identified in the report as "OGC Attorney" — altered an email from a separate U.S. federal agency, believed to be the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), to falsely state that Page had never worked with the CIA to investigate suspected Russia agents operating within the U.S. In fact, as Clinesmith was told by the operative, Page had worked with the CIA previously, as well as with the FBI. What We Learned Sunday From Spygate Insider Steven Schrage. This weekend, Spygate insider Steven Schrage broke his silence. In "The Spies Who Hijacked America" and a follow-up appearance on Maria Bartiromo's "Sunday Morning Futures," Schrage detailed the origins of Stefan Halper's meeting with then-Trump advisor Carter Page. Halper would later serve as a confidential human source (CHS) for the Crossfire Hurricane probe, secretly recording multiple conversations with Page, as well as Trump advisor George Papadopoulos. But it is what Schrage revealed about Halper's initial non-interest in Page then Halper's prediction on January 10, 2017, that Michael Flynn would not last long in the Trump administration that suggest significant revelations will be forthcoming from U.S. Attorney John Durham's investigation into the origins of Spygate. The Man Who Introduced Deep State Spy Stefan Halper to Carter Page Holds First Interview. Steven Schrage joined Maria Bartiromo on Sunday Morning Futures this morning [8/9/2020]. Schrage worked with FBI spy Stefan Halper for years. Steven introduced Stefan Halper to Carter Page back in 2016 while Halper was spying on the Trump campaign. FBI Finds Two 'Material' Errors In Audit Of 29 FISA Applications. The Carter Page FISAs Had 17 'Significant' Omissions. The FBI said Thursday that the bureau found just two "material" errors in an audit of 29 applications to surveil American citizens, an error rate that pales in comparison to the 17 "significant" problems discovered in applications for surveillance orders against former Trump campaign aide Carter Page. In a statement, the FBI said that the two errors found in the 29 applications likely would not have changed the FISA Court's decision to grant the underlying surveillance orders. "None of the errors that had been identified by DOJ-OIG undermined or otherwise impacted the validity of the FISC's orders," the FBI said in a statement, according to Fox News. That finding is in stark contrast to the Justice Department's decision to invalidate two of four FISA orders granted against Page because they contained so many errors and omissions. Sandmann Lawyer Agrees to Represent Carter Page. On Friday [7/24/2020], Lin Wood, the attorney representing a Kentucky teenager in a number of defamation lawsuits against major media outlets, announced a settlement with the Washington Post. The terms of the agreement between the family of Nicholas Sandmann — the Covington Catholic High School student accused of disrespecting a "native elder" while wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat during the January 2019 March for Life — remain secret. Wood and Sandmann settled a similar lawsuit against CNN earlier this year. Cases still are pending against NBC News, ABC News, CBS News, the New York Times, Rolling Stone, and Gannett. On Sunday, Wood confirmed he will represent another innocent person maligned and defamed by the American news media: Carter Page, the Trump campaign associate who James Comey's FBI accused of acting as an agent of Russia. Stu Evans' Lonely, Failed Quest to Save the FBI From Itself. False accusations that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia have already cost some of the most senior officials at the FBI and the Department of Justice their reputations, their careers, or both. The widespread wrongdoing raises the question: Where were the honest lawmen and women? Was there no one willing to challenge superiors — or even just colleagues — gone rogue? There may have been at least one. As deputy assistant attorney general for the Office of Intelligence, Stuart Evans had the responsibility of vetting spy warrants before submitting them to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. In the fall of 2016, the FBI presented Evans with an application for a warrant to capture the communications of volunteer Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page. The main justification for getting a wire on Page were allegations by former British spy Christopher Steele. Instead of credulously embracing the Steele dossier as so many others did, Evans demanded more information about Steele. He put up bureaucratic roadblocks and manned them stubbornly while asking the essential questions no one else seemed to care about. Barr says familiar names among those DOJ is investigating in Durham probe, calls findings 'very troubling'. [Scroll down] The Justice Department's (DOJ's) watchdog has identified critical errors in every FBI wiretap application that it audited as part of the fallout from the bureau's heavily flawed investigation into former Trump adviser Carter Page, who was surveilled during the campaign in part because of a largely discredited dossier funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC). Additionally, an ex-FBI lawyer in that case even falsified a CIA email submitted to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court in order to make Page's communications with Russians appear nefarious, the DOJ inspector general found. The FBI lawyer, Kevin Clinesmith, was allegedly told by the CIA that Page had reported his Russian contacts and was essentially acting as an informant — only for Clinesmith to allegedly omit that exculpatory information in a surveillance warrant application that framed Page's communications with Russians as a sign that he was a secret foreign agent. Barr said he couldn't comment on whether criminal charges were coming, including concerning Clinesmith — but that people shouldn't become impatient. The DOJ has concluded that the Page warrant was legally improper and lacked probable cause. Was Russiagate Really About Iran? In recent months, more evidence has emerged that confirms the "Russiagate" scandal was a carefully coordinated hoax maintained by federal officials with the help of complicit news media. And that means the "Spygate" scandal was always the real story of the 2016 election. It's becoming increasingly obvious that because Trump 2016 presidential campaign adviser Carter Page was never a Russian agent, they had to resort to fraud to get the FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) court to approve the warrant. The FBI appears to have spent the entire spring and summer of 2016 failing to get Page or campaign adviser George Papadopoulos to say anything incriminating while undercover informants recorded their conversations, and so they were forced at last to resort to Christopher Steele's fake dossier. Hannity: Justice is coming for all who abused their power. A few corrupt bureaucrats with tremendous power ruined the lives of innocent Americans, spied on the Trump campaign, the Trump transition team and the Trump presidency. [Video clip] FBI Used Left-Wing Conspiracy Theory to Spy on Trump Campaign Adviser. Newly declassified documents show that in order to build its dubious case of Russian collusion to a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court, James Comey's FBI utilized the misleading Democratic Party talking point that Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign had the Republican Party platform gutted so as to "not provide defensive weapons to Ukraine." Last Thursday [4/16/2020], Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham released a trove of documents from the FBI's Crossfire Hurricane investigation into Trump's campaign, including a less redacted version of Comey's FISA warrant applications to spy on Page, who served as a tangential adviser to Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. 7 Devastating Revelations About Crossfire Hurricane In New Releases. [#1] The FBI Always Intended to Spy on the Trump Campaign: When news first broke that the Obama administration had obtained a FISA order to surveil Page, Democrats and the left-leaning press argued the FBI's surveillance of the former Trump foreign policy advisor didn't constitute spying on the Trump campaign because the court-ordered surveillance didn't begin until after Page had left the campaign. "Conservatives tried to correct the record, noting that a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) order gave the government access to Page's past emails and other electronic communications with members of the Trump campaign, but the mainstream media ignored this reality." However, Inspector General Michael Horowitz's report on FISA abuse later confirmed that, yes, "the FBI gathered substantial evidence of Page's past electronic communications," including multiple "emails between Page and members of the Donald J. Trump for President Campaign concerning campaign related matters." Was Trump the Only One in Washington Innocent of Russian Collusion? Catherine Herridge confirmed recently that the FBI ignored warnings that the primary evidence used in securing a FISA warrant against Carter Page, Christopher's Steele's "dossier," is unreliable "Russian disinformation." Herridge is as fine an investigative reporter as they come, but my gut reaction was, "Haven't we known that for years now?" Then reality smacked me in the face, and I remembered: we're still pretending as a country that Barack Obama's FBI and CIA didn't work with Fusion GPS, Hillary Clinton, and the Democrat party to frame Donald Trump as an agent of the Russian government. I suppose the longer the attempted coup against the president has endured, the easier it is to forget that the U.S. government has done everything in its power to cover up the criminality of its intelligence agencies and preferred political players, while obfuscating the public record with a steady stream of disinformation from the corporate news. Declassified DOJ Letter to FISA Court Highlights Severe Institutional Corruption. Amid a series of documents released by the Senate Judiciary Committee there is a rather alarming letter from the DOJ to the FISA Court in July 2018 that points toward an institutional cover-up. Before getting to the substance of the letter, it's important to put the release in context. After the FISA Court reviewed the DOJ inspector general report, the FISC ordered the DOJ-NSD to declassify and release documents related to the Carter Page FISA application. The IG Audit: Big Problems for Comey and Pals. How could former FBI director James Comey and his accomplices be so bold as to think they could get away with spying on Carter Page, a 2016 Trump campaign adviser, when they objectively knew Page was not a Russian agent? Answer: Because they had already corrupted the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court system. Applications for warrants to spy on Americans were being approved without truthful and accurate corroboration of their allegations. The standard for the government to obtain warrants under FISA is the highest in U.S. law because preventing terrorism and foreign danger involves the otherwise unconstitutional invasion of privacy of U.S. citizens. In theory, the facts alleged on the application have to be correct. In practice, prior to being caught, corrupt actors in charge of the relevant bureaucracies could spy on whomever they chose. IG Horowitz Found 'Apparent Errors or Inadequately Supported Facts' in Every Single FBI FISA Application He Reviewed. The Justice Department inspector general said it does "not have confidence" in the FBI's FISA application process following an audit that found the Bureau was not sufficiently transparent with the court in 29 applications from 2014 to 2019, all of which included "apparent errors or inadequately supported facts." Inspector General Michael Horowitz released a report in December which found that the FBI included "at least 17 significant errors or omissions in the Carter Page FISA applications and many errors in the Woods Procedures" during its Crossfire Hurricane investigation of the 2016 Trump campaign. After releasing the report, Horowitz said that he would conduct a further investigation to see if the errors identified in the Page application were widespread. DOJ's FISA report contradicts claims by Dems, media figures that surveillance rules were strictly observed. New findings by the Justice Department inspector general that the FBI has repeatedly violated surveillance rules stood in stark contrast to the years of assurances from top Democrats and media commentators that bureau scrupulously handled Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants — and prompted Republican lawmakers to caution that the FBI seemingly believes it has "carte blanche to routinely erode the liberties of Americans without proper justification." The DOJ watchdog identified critical errors in every FBI wiretap application that it audited as part of the fallout from the bureau's heavily flawed investigation into former Trump advisor Carter Page, who was surveilled in part because of a largely discredited dossier funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC). An FBI lawyer in that case even falsified a CIA email submitted to the FISA court in order to make Page's communications with Russians appear nefarious, the DOJ inspector general found; and the DOJ has concluded that the Page warrant was legally improper. DNC Responds To Carter Page Lawsuit, Claiming Steele Dossier Is 'Substantially True'. Lawyers for the Democratic National Committee claimed in court filings this week that the Steele dossier's statements regarding Trump campaign aide Carter Page were "substantially true," a defense that is at odds with the findings of the Justice Department's inspector general. "Here, the 'gist' of the complained-of statements — that Page coordinated with Russian government contacts as an adviser to the Trump campaign — aligns with Page's own description of his conduct," the DNC lawyers asserted in a court filing on Monday [3/16/2020]. The filing was the DNC's first in response to a defamation lawsuit that Page filed on Jan. 30 accusing the DNC and two lawyers for its outside law firm, Perkins Coie, of providing false information to journalists that came from Christopher Steele, a former British spy. FISA court blocks FBI agents linked to Carter Page probe from seeking wiretaps, other surveillance. FBI officials involved in the wiretapping of former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page have been blocked, at least temporarily, from appearing before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) in regard to other cases, in rebuke that exceeded the remedial recommendations made by the independent monitor recently appointed by the court. The decision by James E. Boasberg, chief judge of the secretive court created under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), comes as Congress faces a March 15 deadline on whether to renew three FBI national-security surveillance and investigative tools that were enacted after 9/11. Judge Sides With Trump's Justice Department, Will Not Declassify More Of Carter Page FISA. A federal judge sided with the Trump Justice Department on Tuesday by ruling against the release of classified portions of the FBI's applications for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants against former Trump campaign aide Carter Page. At issue in the lawsuit was whether President Donald Trump had ordered 21 pages from four of the applications to be declassified and released to the public. The Justice Department released heavily redacted versions of the applications on June 21, 2018. The FBI Corruption is Far Worse Than We Currently Imagine. Last month the DOJ admitted to the FISA court that two of the four FISA warrants used against Carter Page were fraudulently obtained. [...] However, what the DOJ did not admit publicly was how the current FBI Chief Legal Counsel, Dana Boente, participated in obtaining the April 2017 warrant. Additionally, a review of the internal FBI & DOJ scheme to obtain the fraudulent April warrant shows FBI Director James Comey couldn't get the renewal unless he convinced Main Justice to trick the President into issuing an executive order to grant surveillance on himself. In hindsight this story explains the ongoing issues within the FBI. The Great Lou Dobbs Reveals Stunning Information about U.S. Attorney Jessie Liu Connected to Wolfe Case Cover-up. In a tremendous exposé on Fox Business [2/11/2020] with Lou Dobbs, the intrepid bringer of sunlight outlined how the Senate Intelligence Committee Security Director James Wolfe leaked the FISA application used against Carter Page and how DC U.S. Attorney Jessie Liu dropped all charges related to the leak and instead only charged Wolfe with one count of lying to FBI investigators. Wolfe only received a 60 day sentence. The DC Cover-up That's As Big As Spygate. [Scroll down] The information within the three events (Warner Text release, Wolfe Indictment release, and Carter Page FISA release) shows the connection of the events. James Wolfe took custody of the Carter Page FISA, delivered it to the SCIF, it was reviewed by SSCI Vice-Chair Mark Warner, and then leaked by James Wolfe. Carter Page Reveals John Durham Has NOT Interviewed Him About FISA Abuses. Former Trump campaign advisor Carter Page revealed in a podcast interview with John Solomon that John Durham, the US Attorney from Connecticut tapped by AG Barr to investigate the origins of Spygate, has not contacted him for an interview. Recall, Obama's corrupt and criminal FBI/DOJ obtained 4 FISA warrants on Carter Page beginning in October 2016 through June of 2017 in order to spy on Trump. Last month the FISC [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court] admitted in a secret order that at least two of the spy warrants against Carter Page were not lawfully authorized. FBI Director Wray: Obtaining FISA warrant against Carter Page unacceptable. In his first congressional appearance since the release of last year's Horowitz report, the director of the FBI has assured he's committed to reforming the FISA system. On Wednesday [2/5/2020], Chris Wray testified before the House Judiciary Committee to highlight the alleged "failures" in the Inspector General report and asserted "they cannot be repeated." He said he's already planning to make changes to FISA policies. "I am adding more than 40, over 40, corrective actions to address all of those things in a way that's robust and serous," said Wray. "And we're determined to learn the lessons from this report and make sure the FBI emerges from this even better and stronger". Wray: FBI Agents Involved In FISA Debacle Have Been Referred To Bureau's Disciplinary Office. FBI Director Christopher Wray said Wednesday that the FBI agents involved in the surveillance of Carter Page who are still at the bureau have been referred to the FBI's Office of Professional Responsibility for possible disciplinary action. During a House Judiciary Committee hearing, Wray noted that most of the FBI officials who oversaw Crossfire Hurricane, which involved surveillance of Page, have left the bureau and are no longer subject to disciplinary review. He said the FBI personnel who worked on that probe and who still have jobs at the FBI are mostly line-level agents. Who Is Kevin Clinesmith? [Scroll down] Even before the release of the report, the New York Times had the scoop in November but buried it under a headline which suggested a sort of vindication for the FBI: "Russia Inquiry Review Is Said to Criticize F.B.I. but Rebuff Claims of Biased Acts; A watchdog report will portray the pursuit of a wiretap of an ex-Trump adviser as sloppy, but it also debunks some accusations by Trump allies of F.B.I. wrongdoing." "Sloppy" is a nice way of describing how a federal court was misled into turning surveillance powers against a U.S. citizen volunteering for the presidential campaign of the party out of power. When the inspector general's report arrived in December, it cast the falsified evidence as the most egregious on a long list of problems in the FBI's Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant applications targeting Trump supporter Carter Page[.] Carter Page Sues DNC over Steele Dossier Used to Spy on Him. Carter Page, a one-time Trump campaign foreign policy adviser, has sued the Democrat National Committee (DNC) over the discredited Steele dossier used to surveil him, Fox News reports. In the lawsuit filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Illinois' Eastern Division, Page's legal team warn the move is the "first of multiple actions in the wake of historic" wrongdoing by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Court (FISA). Ex-Trump aide Carter Page files suit against DNC over dossier: 'This is only the first salvo'. Former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page filed a lawsuit Thursday in federal court against the Democratic National Committee, law firm Perkins Coie and its partners tied to the funding of the unverified dossier that served as the basis for highly controversial surveillance warrants against him. The suit was filed in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Illinois' Eastern Division Thursday morning, and was described by his attorneys as the "first of multiple actions in the wake of historic" Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) abuse. "This is a first step to ensure that the full extent of the FISA abuse that has occurred during the last few years is exposed and remedied," attorney John Pierce said Thursday. "Defendants and those they worked with inside the federal government did not and will not succeed in making America a surveillance state." It's Time to Question Michael Atkinson on FISA Abuses. In a fair world — one with responsible media organizations that didn't act as propagandists for the Democratic Party — the news that a secret government court admitted it authorized unlawful warrants to spy on an innocent American based on his political activity would be front-page news. The January 7 order issued by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court revealing that at least two of the four warrants against Trump campaign associate Carter Page were "not valid" — meaning they were illegally obtained — would be on a nonstop loop at CNN and would dominate the news and opinion pages of the Washington Post. But alas, the average CNN viewer or Post reader will be hard-pressed to find coverage of such a shocking disclosure; after all, how could either outlet report that bombshell when two signers of the garbage applications — former FBI Director James Comey and former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe — now work as paid contributors to those same news organizations? Sens. Grassley and Johnson Say 'Certain Sections' of IG Report Are 'Misleading' in Letter to AG Barr. In a surprise development Tuesday, Senators Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Ron Johnson (R-WI) sent a letter to the attorney general, all but accusing the Justice Department's internal watchdog of being deceptive in his report on the FBI's Crossfire Hurricane investigation. Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz released his long-awaited IG report on December 9, identifying 17 separate inaccuracies throughout the four Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) applications that were submitted to the FISA court to justify spying on former Trump Campaign adviser Carter Page. Time for the FISA Court to be Shut Down? FISA Court Officially Acknowledges FBI Submitted False Information to Obtain Carter Page Warrant. The FISA court officially acknowledged Thursday that the FBI submitted false information when obtaining warrants to surveil Trump campaign aide Carter Page. Therefore, the FISA warrants that were issued are invalid. [...] During the time the FBI was illegally surveilling Carter Page with illegitimate and illegally obtained FISA warrants, Page was working for the CIA on behalf of the United States. He was not working for the Russians as the FBI and their friends in the media repeatedly stated. FISA Court Admits Spy Warrants Against Carter Page Were 'Not Valid'. The Wall Street Journal reports that the Justice Department "now believes it should have discontinued its secret surveillance of one-time Trump campaign adviser Carter Page far earlier than it did, according to a new court filing unsealed Thursday." Lack of probable cause is stated as the reason. Page was subject of surveillance starting in late 2016, but three subsequent renewals of the surveillance warrants were made. Two of those have been deemed illegitimate. The Federalist reports that "The order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), which was created and authorized by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), was initially signed and issued on January 7, 2020, but was not declassified and released until Thursday afternoon." DOJ Admits Two FISA Applications Lacked Cause — FISA Court Requests Information on Consequences. An interesting ruling, brief and order from the FISA Court (Judge Boasberg) released today [1/23/2020] reflects an admission by the DOJ the 2nd and 3rd FISA renewal against U.S. person Carter Page were invalid. Carter Page FISA warrant lacked probable cause, DOJ admits in declassified assessment. At least two of the FBI's surveillance applications to secretly monitor former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page lacked probable cause, according to a newly declassified summary of a Justice Department assessment released Thursday [1/23/2020] by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC). The DOJ's admission essentially means that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant authorizations to surveil Page, when stripped of the FBI's misinformation, did not meet the necessary legal threshold and should never have been issued. Democrats, including California Rep. Adam Schiff, had previously insisted the Page FISA warrants met "rigorous" standards for probable cause, and mocked Republicans for suggesting otherwise. This sounds like it's off topic, but the article is largely about Carter Page. Carter Page Says FBI's SpyGate is 'just the tip of the iceberg' Hints At Future Legal Action. Was President Donald Trump's short term campaign foreign policy volunteer Carter Page set up by an FBI informant or the informant's handler at the FBI? [...] Questions still loom regarding [Stefan] Halper's and his FBI handler. It appears that [Michael] Horowitz's report raises more answers than questions, said Page, who was not given the opportunity to review the report or discuss his circumstances with Horowitz. Page, who was an officer in the Navy and graduate from Annapolis Naval Academy, assisted intelligence and law enforcement, said all he ever wanted to was "to help his country." Unfortunately, Page became the target of some of very corrupted officials within the agencies he had assisted in the past. They did this to target President Donald Trump. FBI Director Tells Surveillance Court He 'Deeply Regrets' Failures In Carter Page FISA Process. FBI Director Christopher Wray told the federal surveillance court in a letter Friday that he "deeply regrets" the bureau's many errors in the process to obtain surveillance warrants on former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. "The FBI has the utmost respect for this Court, and deeply regrets the errors and omissions identified by the OIG," Wray wrote in a letter to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC). Inspector General Report Shows Special Counsel Replicated FBI Abuses. [Scroll down] Inspector General Michael Horowitz's report revealed a sad reality: The special counsel's office under Mueller's charge was just as inept at investigating the false charges of Russia collusion as the FBI was under James Comey's lead. As the IG report noted, "on May 17, 2017, the Crossfire Hurricane cases were transferred to the Office of the Special Counsel," and the FBI agents and analysts then began working with the special counsel. A little more than a month later, the FBI asked the Department of Justice to seek a fourth extension of the Page surveillance order. That fourth renewal obtained under Mueller's leadership included the 17 significant inaccuracies and omissions the IG identified. James Comey Should Be Arrested. His signature appears on page 64 of the October 2016 application for a warrant to spy on Carter Page. Look at it for yourself. In all of the fawning television interviews of Comey that have followed, nobody has confronted him on his lie or asked him why he submitted a blatant falsehood to the court. He lied again on page 76 of the January 2017 renewal application. He lied yet again on page 88 of another April 2017 FISA application to extend the warrant against Page. As I wrote, Comey's April 2017 signature came after the entire Russia collusion investigation officially became a willful hoax perpetrated on the American public and the FISA court. How do we know Comey lied? Because he passed on Page's offer to participate voluntarily in an FBI interview. [...] Comey's lies matter. He turned away Page's voluntary cooperation with the Russia collusion investigators in order to surveil Page and everyone with whom he communicated. Comey's FBI vs. the FISA Court. During his interview with Chris Wallace, James Comey was reminded of what he had said about FISA warrant applications: "I have total confidence that the FISA process was followed and that the entire case was handled in a thoughtful, responsible way by DoJ and the FBI. The notion that the FISA process was abused is nonsense." [...] Now, we have the latest by IG Michael Horowitz, which found there had been 17 errors and omissions committed by Comey's FBI in the Russian investigation. One of the most egregious involved Carter Page, an Annapolis graduate and naval officer who had been an important informant for the CIA. At one point in the FISA process an FBI attorney inserted the words "not a source" in an email he'd received from the CIA. That was one of the "little mistakes" Comey has referred to — except that Horowitz considered it as being unlawful and the lawyer who did this has been referred for criminal prosecution by the IG. Comey's FBI vs. the FISA Court. [Scroll down] It is important to understand that the FISA court is different from everyday courts in one very important way. In legal terms, it's proceedings are ex parte meaning there are no adversarial proceedings and the FISA court judge only hears one side. Carter Page had no representation and had no way to let the court know that he worked for the CIA. The most important question becomes, why didn't Brennan intervene and inform Comey that Page had been working for him? The misuse and abuse of the FISA court and blaming it on the rank and file of the FBI is unacceptable and this is what Andrew McCabe and James Comey did. The Editor says... Comey's cabal going down. On Tuesday [12/24/2019], the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, or FISC, issued a stinging and extraordinary rebuke of Comey's FBI, confirming our worst suspicions. Corrupt FBI agents working alongside Comey — who staunchly supported Hillary Clinton in the lead up to the 2016 presidential election — knowingly lied and misled the secret surveillance court, withholding material information and exculpatory evidence to deceptively obtain warrants to spy on former Trump campaign advisor Carter Page. The chilling revelation echoed the Office of Inspector General report that found 17 significant errors and omissions by the FBI that effectively duped the secret court into believing it had probable cause to eavesdrop on the Trump campaign. Why? To target — and, ultimately, frame — Donald Trump and his campaign associates, and help Hillary Clinton win the 2016 election. Pin-Pointing the Moment Carter Page Became a Crossfire Target. On March 2, 2016, the NYFO CI Agent and SDNY Assistant United States Attorneys interviewed Carter Page in preparation for the trial of an indicted Russian intelligence officer, Evgeny Buryakov. [...] The NYFO CI Agent returned to her office after the interview and discussed with her Supervisor opening a counterintelligence case on Page based on his statement to Russian officials. The Supervisor in turn called Counterintelligence Division's Counterespionage Section at FBI Headquarters to determine whether Page had any security clearances and to ask for guidance as to what type of investigation to open on Page. The Supervisor claimed to Horowitz that she believed she should have opened a counterintelligence case on Carter Page prior to March 2, based on his continued contacts with Russian intelligence officers. However, she complained that the squad was preparing for a big trial and they did not turn any focus on Page until he was interviewed again in March of 2016. This is a notable admission. Page was being summoned to the March meeting as a cooperating witness to the prosecution. Revisiting Rosenstein's Cover-up of Crossfire Hurricane. [Scroll down] So is Rod Rosenstein willing to be held accountable for false statements made under his signature on a FISA warrant application? Turns out, there's a signature at the bottom of one of the FISA applications for Carter Page (see p. 101 of the June 2017 application) that is troubling. None other than Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein certified that the application "satisfies the criteria and requirement of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978..." Page, we now know, had a history of providing complete and truthful answers to the CIA about the matters that caused the FBI to seek a surveillance warrant. As noted on page iv of the inspector general's report, "The AG Guidelines and the DIOG require that the 'least intrusive' means or method be 'considered' when selecting investigative techniques and, 'if reasonable based upon the circumstances of the investigation,' be used to obtain information instead of a more intrusive method." Two Possibilities in Trump Wiretapping, and Neither Is Good. First, an American citizen, Carter Page, was targeted by our government for electronic surveillance under FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act). Per the Act, his Fourth Amendment guarantee of privacy was judicially "suspended" to allow law enforcement to intercept and monitor his private communications. [...] The implications of intercepting the communications of a U.S. citizen who is associated with the political campaign of a candidate seeking the Presidency rings nearly every "bell" in the FBIs and Attorney General's Guidelines for sensitive investigations. [...] To further strain credulity, we are asked to believe that during the renewal process, which happened THREE times, no one involved in the process noticed that there was no inculpatory evidence being generated by the intercepts. Keep in mind, Page's communications were continuously monitored for approximately eleven months. The FBI's FISA Frauds. Rosemary Collyer is the presiding judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (the "FISC"). [...] On December 17, Judge Collyer issued a FISC opinion that was highly unusual because it was unclassified and made public. The Horowitz report said that the FBI intentionally misled the court by using incomplete and bogus information as the basis for it to issue FISA warrants against one-time Trump campaign advisor Carter Page. Collyer's opinion demonstrates a powerful command of the obvious. It says that the FBI's duty in preparing applications for search warrants cannot be based solely on actions protected by the First Amendment (such as political campaigning). It goes on to say that the FBI has a heightened duty of candor in making its applications for a warrant, and that its handling of information on the Page warrants was antithetical to that duty. If The FBI's Contempt For The Law Is Not Reined In, Its Abuses Will Get Worse. The FBI investigators who applied for the Carter Page warrants had in their possession information that directly contradicted the basic factual requirements to apply for a surveillance warrant. As noted by the FISA court, "On December 9, 2019, the government filed with the FISC public and classified versions of the OIG Report... It documents troubling instances in which FBI personnel provided information... which was unsupported or contradicted by information in their possession." Judicial Watch Claims FISA Judge Was Just A 'Rubber Stamp'; Her Sudden Retirement Leaves Unanswered Questions. Justice Collyer, head of the FISA Court gave the FBI hell over the Carter Page file, but are her own hands in this scandal really so very clean themselves? Was that judge truly doing the job she was sent there to do? Or was she merely 'phoning in' one of the most critical jobs in protecting the rights of citizens against abuses by their own government? We have some serious questions. FISA court review order leaves out key FBI players implicated in Horowitz report. Earlier this month, the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) ordered the FBI to re-verify all previous warrant applications involving the FBI attorney who falsified evidence against the former Trump campaign aide Carter Page. However, Fox News has learned the court did not order the FBI to double-check warrant applications involving other officials who made key omissions and errors in warrant applications as the bureau sought to surveil Page. The FISC's failure to request a comprehensive evaluation of previous submissions has stunned court-watchers who have questioned whether enough is being done to deter future misconduct by the FBI. In the past, the FISC has gone so far as to prohibit some FBI agents from appearing before the court after finding impropriety. FISA Judge Orders FBI To Identify All Cases Involving Lawyer Who Allegedly Altered Carter Page Email. The judge presiding over the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) ordered the FBI in a secret court filing earlier in December to identify all cases handled by a former FBI lawyer who allegedly altered an email during the investigation of former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. Judge Rosemary Collyer ordered the review Dec. 5, several days before the release of a Justice Department inspector general's (IG) report that found the FBI made "significant inaccuracies" in applications to surveil Page. The report said a now-former FBI lawyer who has been identified as Kevin Clinesmith altered an email from the bureau's liaison to the CIA in June 2017 to say Page was "not a source" for the agency. Adam Schiff: Psychopath, or guilty conscience? Fresh from his impeachment stunt, House Intelligence committee chairman Adam Schiff comes off as an amazing creep in the aftermath. Asked about the recent Horowitz report's findings on Carter Page, a young Trump advisor who was illegally spied upon, Schiff said he had no sympathy. [...] What happened to Page was an outrage, an unmistakeably grave abuse of government power as mendacious FISA warrants were enacted to spy on innocent and cooperative person. Even people who dislike President Trump can pretty naturally recognize that Page's constitutional rights on unreasonable searches and seizures was violated. FISA court judge demands info about FBI lawyer linked to Carter Page warrant. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court's presiding judge has sent another directive to the Justice Department, ordering officials to identify previous surveillance requests from an FBI lawyer linked to the 2016 warrant from former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. In an order unsealed Friday [12/20/2019], Judge Rosemary Collyer asked the Justice Department to identify steps to ensure the accuracy of those filings and whether the unnamed DOJ lawyer was ever disciplined. DOJ inspector general Michael Horowitz recently identified in a scathing public report numerous mistakes and omissions in the warrant used against Page that launched the FBI investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. FISA Court Issues Rare Public Order Condemning FBI for Russia Probe Abuses and Demanding Reforms. In a rare public order issued Tuesday, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court condemned the FBI for the errors and omissions in its application to surveil Trump-campaign adviser Carter Page and gave the bureau until January 10th to propose reforms to prevent future abuses. The order follows the release of Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Horowitz's report, which detailed 17 "significant errors and omissions" in the warrant application to surveil Page. "The frequency with which representations made by FBI personnel turned out to be unsupported or contradicted by information in their possession, and with which they withheld information detrimental to their case, calls into question whether information contained in other FBI applications is reliable," wrote the FISA court. Court Orders F.B.I. to Fix National Security Wiretaps After [Bad] Report. A secretive federal court accused the F.B.I. on Tuesday [12/17/2019] of misleading judges about the rationale for wiretapping a former Trump campaign adviser and ordered the bureau to propose changes in how investigators seek their permission for national security surveillance targeting Americans. In an extraordinary public order, the presiding judge on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, Rosemary M. Collyer, gave the F.B.I. a Jan. 10 deadline to come up with a proposal. It was the first public response from the court to the scathing findings released last week by the Justice Department's independent inspector general about the wiretapping of the former Trump adviser, Carter Page, as part of the Russia investigation. Durbin: U.S. Government 'Certainly' Owes Carter Page an Apology. Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) on Sunday said the United States government owes former Donald Trump campaign adviser Carter Page an apology regarding the federal surveillance application that enabled the investigation into Trump's presidential campaign in 2016. Schiff Refuses To Say He Was Wrong About FBI's Surveillance Of Trump Aide. Rep. Adam Schiff admitted Sunday that the FBI committed "serious abuses" of the foreign surveillance court process in order to spy on Carter Page, though the California Democrat stopped short of acknowledging he was wrong to defend the bureau and in his promotion of the infamous Steele dossier. "Given what you know now ... are you willing to admit that you were wrong in your defense of the FBI's FISA process?" "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace asked Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. The Carter Page/Ukraine Lie That Kept On Lying for Mueller and the FBI. The FBI and Special Counsel Robert Mueller repeatedly kept alive a damning narrative that investigators knew to be false: namely, that a junior Trump campaign aide as a favor to the Kremlin had "gutted" an anti-Russia and pro-Ukraine plank in the Republican Party platform at the GOP's 2016 convention. Federal authorities used this claim to help secure spy warrants on the aide in question, Carter Page, suggesting to the court that he was "an agent of Russia" — even though investigators knew that Page was working for U.S., not Russian, intelligence, and that they had learned from witnesses, emails and other evidence that Page had no role in drafting the Ukraine platform plank. The revelation is buried in the Justice Department watchdog's just-released report on FISA surveillance abuses. RealClearInvestigations fleshed out this unreported story with footnotes from the Mueller report and exclusive interviews with Trump campaign officials who worked on the convention platform. An apology to Carter Page. Former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page has never been given a fair hearing, let alone a trial, to clear his name. As the two political parties spin the results of a report by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz, one matter remains unaddressed. Someone needs to apologize to Page. I do not know Page and have had only one conversation with him that I can recall. Indeed, my only impression of him was shaped by the image, repeated in endless media segments, of a shady character who was at worst a Russian spy and at best a Russian stooge. Page became the face and focus for the justification of the Russia collusion investigation. His manifest guilt and sinister work in Moscow had to be accepted in order to combat those questioning the allegations of Trump campaign collusion with the Russians. In other words, his guilt had to be indisputable in order for the Russia collusion investigation to be, so to speak, unimpeachable. IG Report Reveals Previously Unknown FBI Investigation Of Alleged Dossier Source. The FBI opened up a counterintelligence investigation in October 2016 against a Belarusian-American businessman who Christopher Steele said was an unwitting source for his infamous anti-Trump dossier, according to a newly unredacted version of a Justice Department inspector general's report. The FBI failed to disclose the investigation against the alleged source — called Person 1 in the report — to Justice Department attorney and in applications submitted to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) surveillance warrants against former Trump campaign aide Carter Page. Carter Page Discusses the IG Report and His Probable Lawsuit Against DOJ and FBI. Former Trump foreign policy adviser Carter Page discusses the details of the IG report, allegations of FISA court abuse and his future plans to sue the DOJ and FBI: [Video clip] Here's the likely whistleblower — and the questions he should answer. In the middle of Russia fever, the liberal press took a hectoring tone to any outlet that showed a glimmer of doubt. How dare any journalist not believe that President Trump is an agent of Vladimir Putin! Who would question the upstanding virtues of the FBI? Of course, we now know that the conspiracy theories were wrong. There was no Russian collusion with the Trump campaign. And, moreover, the inspector general report proves that the FBI trampled over civil liberties and common sense in pursuit of the case. While idle conversation during a meeting with George Papadopoulos and an Australian official may have sparked the inquiry, Crossfire Hurricane, it was only because of outlandish gossip in a Democrat-funded opposition report, the Steele Dossier, that the FBI was able to land a surveillance warrant for Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. Even as the agency found that Steele's sources did not back up the dossier, that facts did not back up the dossier, they continued the red scare. FBI Agent Who Played 'Significant' Role In Surveillance Abuse Wore Several Hats In Trump Probe. "Case Agent 1" wore many hats during the Trump-Russia investigation. The veteran FBI counterintelligence investigator was a handler for Stefan Halper, a Cambridge academic who met covertly with three Trump campaign advisers 2016. Case Agent 1 opened the case file, known as an Electronic Communication, on Trump campaign adviser Carter Page in August 2016. He was also the main driver at the FBI for surveillance warrants on Page, and he was put in charge of verifying each strand of evidence included in the documents. He interviewed Page, a former Naval officer, five times in March 2017, and also met in January 2017 with Christopher Steele's main source for information in the infamous Trump dossier. Case Agent 1 is also one of the main villains in the Justice Department inspector general's (IG) report on the FBI's handling of the Trump-Russia probe, known as Crossfire Hurricane. Wray Doesn't Seem to Care that the FBI Deceived the Court. [FBI Director Christopher] Wray should be outraged and humiliated by the actions of his agency, regardless of whether or not he was in charge when the abuses occurred. If Wray really believes the FBI opened its Russian collusion investigation in good faith, then he shouldn't be running the FBI. According to the inspector general's report, the FBI obtained a FISA warrant against Carter Page on the suspicion that he was a Russian agent. The problem with that is that Page was faithfully and accurately reporting his contacts with the Russians to another agency — most likely the CIA. DOJ inspector general criticizes FBI's 'entire chain of command' in Carter Page FISA process. [Scroll down] The focus of Horowitz's inquiry was examining allegations of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act abuses against onetime Trump campaign associate Carter Page related to the FBI's reliance on a dossier compiled by British ex-spy Christopher Steele. Horowitz concluded that the FBI's investigation was filled with serious missteps and the concealment of exculpatory information from the FISA court. The report said at least 17 "significant errors and omissions" were discovered in the Page FISA applications spanning from October 2016 to summer 2017. The DOJ watchdog is known to have criminally referred only one FBI lawyer, Kevin Clinesmith, who has since left the bureau, for altering an email that was used by officials as they prepared an application renewal to present before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. 'Orwellian overreach': Carter Page blasts DOJ in lawsuit seeking early access to FISA report. Carter Page accused the Justice Department of "Orwellian overreach" in his lawsuit related to the forthcoming release of a watchdog report on alleged government surveillance abuses. The onetime Trump campaign adviser is fighting for a chance to review and request amendments to Inspector General Michael Horowitz's report, which focuses on the DOJ's and FBI's compliance with rules and policies in applications filed to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance court targeting Page, before it is set to be made available to the public. In a court filing on Friday, Page argued in favor of rejecting the Justice Department's motion for a time extension to respond, citing how U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan agreed to change the schedule for retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn's criminal sentencing due to the FISA report's impending release date next month. Blockbusters Buried In The IG Report On FBI Misuse Of Confidential Sources. Last week, the leaks began in anticipation of the expected early-December release of the inspector general report on the propriety of the Carter Page Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) surveillance order. CNN broke news on Thursday [11/21/2019] that "a former FBI lawyer is under criminal investigation after allegedly altering a document" related to the 2016 FISA applications. The press and public are understandably consumed with this news — which is huge if true — but while speculating on that forthcoming report, the media has ignored several significant revelations already detailed in the report Inspector General Michael Horowitz released last week. Former U.S. Attorney: 'It Doesn't Get Much More Serious Than' Changing a Document to Get a FISA. CNN contributor and former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara is shocked by the news that an FBI agent allegedly altered a document used to attain a FISA warrant to spy on former Trump adviser Carter Page back in 2016, and through him on the entire Trump campaign. Horowitz finds evidence FBI employee altered key document related to surveillance of Trump adviser: reports. Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz has found evidence that an FBI lawyer manipulated a key investigative document related to the FBI's secretive surveillance of a former Trump campaign adviser — enough to change the substantive meaning of the document, according to multiple reports. The show-stopping development comes as Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told Fox News that Horowitz's comprehensive report on allegations of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant abuse against former Trump campaign aide Carter Page will be released on Dec. 9. "That's locked," Graham said. The new evidence concerning the altered document, which pertained to the FBI's FISA court warrant application to surveil Page, is expected to be outlined in Horowitz's upcoming report. CNN first reported the news, which was largely confirmed by The Washington Post. CNN Bombshell: FBI Lawyer Altered FISA Court Warrant Application. An FBI lawyer since separated from the bureau faces a criminal investigation for altering a document relating to obtaining the Foreign Intelligence Service Act (FISA) Court warrant to surveil Donald Trump campaign aide Carter Page, CNN reports. The lawyer allegedly admitted making the change to investigators for Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who referred the matter to U.S. Attorney John Durham. The longtime federal prosecutor, tasked by Attorney General William Barr with looking into the origins of the Russia collusion probe, reportedly has launched a criminal investigation into the FBI lawyer. Irrelevant Carter Page Sues DOJ to Preview IG Report on FISA. Carter Page was a means to an end; the end goal was to get the Steele Dossier into the FBI as an official investigative work product. Perhaps a little review of the three-year research detail will help us better prepare for the IG report. The "Steele Dossier" was important to the FBI because the content within it is the material they needed to present as justification for an ongoing investigation... that ultimately was handed to Andrew Weissmann and Robert Mueller; and the investigation of the material therein was later authorized by Rod Rosenstein in his August 2017 expanded scope memo. The dossier is what's important. Carter Page never was. FISA Abuse Report Is 'Lengthy' And Has 'Few' Redactions, DOJ Watchdog Tells Congress. The Justice Department inspector general's report on possible FBI abuse of the foreign surveillance process is "lengthy," and is likely to be made public with "few" redactions, the inspector general told lawmakers Thursday [10/24/2019], according to a letter obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation. Michael Horowitz, the inspector general, informed Republicans and Democrats on four congressional committees with a status update on the report, which will detail an investigation into whether the FBI complied with laws and policies in applications for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants against Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. The FISA Abuse Report Is Coming Out Soon. FBI officials relied on the controversial Steele dossier to obtain four Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants to monitor [Carter] Page's phone calls and emails from October 2016 through September 2017. The FBI asserted in the applications that there was probable cause to believe that Page was acting as a foreign agent of Russia. The warrants allowed investigators to retroactively review Page's electronic correspondence with other Trump associates. Republicans have accused the FBI of improperly relying on the unverified dossier to argue that Page may have been a Russian agent. That complaint has gained traction in the wake of the special counsel's report, which said there was no evidence that any Trump associates acted as Russian agents, or that they worked with the Kremlin to influence the 2016 election. DOJ Claims It Never Received Order From President Trump to Declassify Carter Page FISA Docs. Justice Department lawyers argued in a federal court on Friday [9/27/2019] that the DOJ never received an order from President Trump to declassify the Carter Page FISA documents. The Trump White House said in a public statement in May that the president had given US Attorney General Bill Barr the authority to declassify the Carter Page FISA documents, however, DOJ lawyers "subsequently confirmed with the White House that there was and is no order to declassify." DOJ Clarifies Their Position on Declassification — "Delegated Authority". Today [9/27/2019] in a court filing, surrounding a FOIA case seeking access to the fully unredacted Carter Page FISA application, the DOJ clarified the position of the DOJ as it pertains to President Trump's May 2019 declassification authority. The DOJ highlights that President Trump did not order AG William Barr to declassify anything. Instead, according to the official position of the DOJ, President Trump "delegated authority" to the Attorney General to determine *if* anything should be declassified. What to Expect When You're Expecting FISA Abuse. To launch a counter-intelligence investigation on an American citizen, like Carter Page, the Department of Justice applies to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. All warrants require accuracy and integrity, but those to the FISA court should meet an even-higher standard. Why? Because, unlike criminal warrants, FISA warrants remain hidden. The goal is to "spy on spies," not haul them into court, so the application will remain secret, never challenged by a defense attorney at trial. That's why the DoJ and FBI must certify, in writing, that the FISA application is truthful and complete and that the evidence it presents has been thoroughly vetted by the bureau. That's what the Obama administration's top law-enforcement officials did when they wanted to spy on Carter Page. It is becoming increasingly clear they were lying. DOJ inspector general found all four Carter Page FISA warrants were illegally obtained, Joe diGenova says. The Justice Department inspector general has determined all four Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants against onetime Trump campaign aide Carter Page were illegally obtained, attorney Joe diGenova said this week. In an investigation that began last year, Inspector General Michael Horowitz examined the Justice Department's and FBI's compliance with legal requirements as well as policies and procedures in applications filed with the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court related to Page as part of a larger counterintelligence inquiry into President Trump's campaign. Jeffrey Epstein Fallout Shows How Little Trust Americans Have in Media and Government. One of the men responsible for the "Russiagate" scandal, former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, tweeted out a New York Times piece on Sunday [8/11/2019] that claimed Epstein's "suicide conspiracies show how our information system is poisoned." Rosenstein, taking a cue from his Russiagate collaborators, former FBI Director James Comey and former CIA Director John Brennan, regularly opines on Twitter in this vein. Rosenstein was also the man who accused Trump campaign aide, Carter Page, of being a foreign agent who was conspiring with the Russians to influence the 2016 election. In a government warrant. To a secret court. Using a dossier filled with rumors and innuendo as proof. Sourced by a political British operative. (Page never was charged with any crime.) Carter Page Explains He Was "Decades Long" Source for FBI and CIA. This interview is interesting from a few aspects. First, Carter Page states he was a long-standing source of information for the intelligence apparatus, specifically for the CIA for decades. Secondly, the framework by Page as outlined, and the underlying motive of the FBI to use him as an unwitting target for the FISA application, is essentially confirmation of our prior reconciled point on why the FBI exploited him. [Video clip] If The FBI Missed This Glaring Inaccuracy, Did They Even Attempt To Verify The Trump Dossier? Did the FBI verify the Trump dossier? It's a question that then-Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe refused to answer. The dossier is the piece of political opposition research compiled by former MI6 spook Christopher Steele that the Clinton campaign and the Democrats bankrolled. The intention was to find dirt on Trump. It was reportedly used as credible evidence to secure a FISA spy warrant on Carter Page, who briefly served as a foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign. This FISA warrant was renewed at least three times from 2016 up until 2017. Was it verified? Given these glaring errors in the document itself, probably not. Ex-FBI Lawyer: [The] Carter Page FISA application [was] approved in [an] unusual way by McCabe, Yates, and Baker. A former top lawyer for the FBI described to lawmakers the "unusual" way the surveillance request targeting former Trump campaign associate Carter Page was handled by top leadership at the Justice Department and FBI, according to a transcript released this week. In front of a joint session of the House Judiciary and Oversight committees on Aug. 31, 2018, former FBI Deputy General Counsel Trisha Anderson said she was normally responsible for signing off on Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act applications before they reached the desk of her superiors for approval. Anderson said the "linear path" those applications typically take was upended in October 2016, with FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates signing off on the application before she did. Because of that unusual high-level involvement, she didn't see the need to "second guess" the FISA application. State Dept. Warning Memo-Outlining Sketchy Steele Info-Was Delivered to Peter Strzok a Week Prior to FISA Submission. The exit door begins to close. According to the latest leak provided to John Solomon the State Department information deconstructing Chris Steele was presented to FBI Agent Peter Strzok a week before they used Steele's sketchy dossier to prop up the FBI FISA application on Carter Page. Will The Real Russia-Collusion Scandal Please Stand Up? On Monday [5/13/2019], news broke that Attorney General William Barr had appointed John Durham, the top federal prosecutor in Connecticut, to investigate the FBI's use of the Clinton-campaign-financed "dossier" on Trump as a pretext to spy on Carter Page and, by extension, the 2016 Trump campaign. At the same time, the Justice Department's inspector general is looking into whether political bias against Trump influenced the decision to push for wiretap applications. The U.S. attorney in Utah, John Huber, is also looking into the Page FISA warrant. FISA Court, Woods Procedures And Carter Page. How did the FBI not violate the Woods Procedures when it presented unverified opposition research paid for by the opposing party — the "Steele dossier" — to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court to obtain a warrant to spy on an American citizen for over a year? Moreover, were the FISA court Judges who signed off on the application and three separate renewals aware of the origins of the dossier and if not, why not? In Going After Carter Page, Did the FBI and DOJ Abuse the FISA Process? Department of Justice inspector general Michael Horowitz announced in March 2018 that his office was reviewing the DOJ's and FBI's "compliance with legal requirements, and with applicable DOJ and FBI policies and procedures, in applications filed with the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) relating to a certain U.S. person." In other words, he was asking whether the agencies abused their power in getting warrants to surveil (by then, former) Trump-campaign foreign-policy adviser Carter Page. More than a year later, we still don't know much about the course of the IG's investigation. But that may finally be changing. Carter Page says Mueller is worse than Mussolini, Saddam, and Gadhafi. Carter Page, the former Trump campaign adviser who was suspected by the FBI of being a Russian spy, has written a foreword to an e-book version of the Mueller report, calling it "propaganda" and comparing his time in front of the Mueller grand jury to being at Guantanamo Bay. Written in hyperbolic terms, Page compares the 448-page report put together by special counsel Robert Mueller, and lightly redacted by Attorney General William Barr, to the propaganda pushed by some of modern history's worst dictators. And he blasts what he sees as a politically motivated "witch hunt" targeting himself and President Trump. The Anti-Bill Barr Smear Campaign. There is no doubt that Trump officials were surveilled or spied on. The FBI famously acquired a FISA warrant against Carter Page, who briefly served as a Trump foreign-policy adviser. It is true that the FBI began surveilling Page in October 2016 after he left the campaign, but the warrant allowed it to look back at his communications during his time with the campaign. The FBI also gathered information on Page and campaign adviser George Papadopoulos via an informant, who contacted Trump aide Sam Clovis, as well. The question, as Barr said the other day, is whether this surveillance was properly predicated. Barr is being attacked as a partisan hack for saying he's going to find out. AG William Barr States He is Reviewing DOJ/FBI Conduct During The Summer of 2016. Attorney General William Barr was questioned today [4/9/2019] by republican lawmaker Robert Aderholt about potentially fraudulent DOJ and FBI submissions to the FISA court — to gain a Title-One surveillance warrant against U.S. Person Carter Page. Carter Page Had a More Important Use Beyond a FISA Warrant. It has never made sense that U.S. Person Carter Page was an FBI witness from 2013 through to March/May 2016 and yet in October 2016, to achieve a FISA warrant, the FBI called him an agent of a foreign government. [...] It just never made any sense; perhaps, until today. Put yourself in the mindset within the highly political small group at the DOJ and FBI who have a plan to help Hillary Clinton win the presidency. From October 2015 through early March 2016 Fusion GPS was assembling opposition research on all the GOP candidates. However, mid-March it became obvious Donald Trump was going to win, so all other efforts were side-lined and Trump becomes the Fusion-GPS focus. Trump Advisor FBI First Targeted For 'Collusion' Gives New Details About Feds' 'Preposterous' Claims. Carter Page, the man who federal investigators first targeted for surveillance on the unfounded premise that he was a potential agent for Russia, part of the feds' now debunked "collusion" claim against the Trump campaign, wasn't charged — or even so much as mentioned — in Mueller's various indictments, none of which were related to the original focus of the investigation. Having been finally vindicated with Mueller's report submitted to the attorney general and no further indictments issued, Page is now getting his chance to tell his story without the cloud of the years-long investigation hanging over his head. The Case of Carter Page. Based on Attorney General Barr's summary of the report submitted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, we know that the gravamen of Mueller's investigation was alleged "collusion" by the Trump presidential campaign with Russian organs interfering with the election. We nevertheless have yet to see an unredacted copy of the August 2017 scope memo that set the parameters of Mueller's investigation. It remains a deep, dark secret. The case of Carter Page represents a sorry chapter in the investigation. He was subjected to surveillance intended to be reserved for agents of foreign governments about to commit serious crimes. The FBI and Department of Justice took out a FISA warrant Page in October 2016. The warrant was renewed three times. The surveillance on Page and his contacts and their contacts extended over the period of a year. According to the FBI and the Department of Justice, probable cause existed to believe that Page was a Russian agent knowingly engaging in clandestine intelligence activities. DOJ Inadvertently Highlights SSCI Corruption in Responsive Filing Toward Wolfe Sentencing Memo. If you have followed the case against SSCI Security Director James Wolfe you will note the original indictment against him outlined, obliquely, how Wolfe took custody of the Carter Page FISA application and then leaked it to his concubine at Buzzfeed Ms. Ali Watkins. The leak of the FISA application was a rather explosive issue not readily identified when Wolfe's indictment was first presented (June '18). It was only possible to connect the dots after the FISA application was released (July '18) and a comparison on specific dates, times, contacts and chain-of-custody, was possible. FBI Admits It Used Multiple Spies To Infiltrate Trump Campaign. The FBI, under the guidance of then-director James Comey, used more than one spy in its investigation into former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, the government disclosed in a court filing on Friday [10/19/2018]. "The FBI has protected information that would identify the identities of other confidential sources who provided information or intelligence to the FBI" as well as "information provided by those sources," wrote David M. Hardy, the head of the FBI's Record/Information Dissemination Section. The filing by Hardy and the Department of Justice came in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit to gain access to four of the FBI's applications for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants against Page. While the applications were released June 20, they were heavily redacted, and "USA Today reporter Brad Heath has sued for full copies of the documents," The Daily Caller reports. FBI admits using multiple informants, some paid, to illegally target Trump campaign. The U.S. government revealed Friday that it used multiple informants to obtain information against former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. In court filings, government officials also revealed confidential human sources were paid for their work. The FBI relied heavily on an uncorroborated dossier to obtain warrants to spy on Page. FBI Acknowledges Using Multiple Informants In Investigation Of Trump Campaign Aide. The U.S. government revealed in court filings Friday that the FBI used multiple confidential informants, including some who were paid for their information, as part of its investigation into former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. "The FBI has protected information that would identify the identities of other confidential sources who provided information or intelligence to the FBI" as well as "information provided by those sources," wrote David M. Hardy, the head of the FBI's Record/Information Dissemination Section (RIDS), in court papers submitted Friday [10/19/2018]. Hardy and Department of Justice (DOJ) attorneys submitted the filings in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit for the FBI's four applications for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants against Page. Carter Page Seeks Justice While the Real Trump-Russia Perps Sweat. A few of the masterminds behind the bogus Trump-Russia collusion tale finally are getting some payback — and one of their targets is going to court to get his reputation back. Two years ago this week, the Obama Administration's FBI sought and received an order to spy on Carter Page, a private citizen who briefly volunteered for Donald Trump's presidential campaign. On October 21, 2016, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court approved an application to wiretap the former Naval officer amid suspicions he was a working for Russia and engaged in "clandestine intelligence activities... on behalf of a foreign power." Carter Page Sues DNC And Its Law Firm Over The Steele Dossier. Former Trump campaign associate Carter Page filed a defamation lawsuit Monday [10/15/2018] against the Democratic National Committee and its law firm, which commissioned the infamous Steele dossier. Page filed the suit in federal court in Oklahoma against the DNC, the law firm, Perkins Coie, and two of its partners, Marc Elias and Michael Sussmann. Perkins Coie, which also represented the Hillary Clinton campaign, is the firm that hired Fusion GPS, the opposition researcher that investigated Donald Trump's links to Russia. Nunes: Democrats, Journalists Will Be 'Frightened' By Declassified Trump-Russia Documents. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes said this week that Democrats and the media are likely to be "frightened" by the information contained in Trump-Russia documents that Republicans are asking President Trump to declassify. Speaking at an event hosted by the Center for Security Policy on Thursday, Nunes said that Trump is close to declassifying portions of a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant granted against former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. On July 21, the Justice Department released heavily redacted versions of four FISA warrants granted against Page from Oct. 2016 through June 2017. Carter Page Discusses Possibility of His FISA Warrant Being Declassified. Carter Page is obviously at the center of the fraudulent FISA application submitted by FBI Director James Comey and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates. The FBI and DOJ constructed the FISA application to gain a Title-1 surveillance warrant on Carter Page; and by extension, the Trump Campaign and all who were in contact with Page. Within the application the FBI/DOJ specifically stated that Carter Page was an agent of a foreign government and used the Steele Dossier to back-up the majority of their claims. However, Carter Page was never indicted or arrested despite the FBI's claims of certainty within the sketchy documents; which highlights the fraud upon the court. Judicial Watch Busts FISA Court Corruption. In February, Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee released a memo criticizing the FISA targeting of Carter Page. The memo details how the "minimally corroborated" Clinton-DNC dossier was an essential part of the FBI and DOJ's applications for surveillance warrants to spy on Page. Judicial Watch recently filed a request with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court seeking the transcripts of all hearings related to the surveillance of Carter Page. Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in an email, "It is disturbing that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance courts rubber-stamped the Carter Page spy warrants and held not one hearing on these extraordinary requests to spy on the Trump team." Fitton went on to observe, "Perhaps the court can now hold hearings on how justice was corrupted by material omissions that Hillary Clinton's campaign, the DNC, a conflicted Bruce Ohr, a compromised Christopher Steele, and anti-Trumper Peter Strzok were all behind the 'intelligence' used to persuade the courts to approve the FISA warrants that targeted the Trump team." FBI Kept From U.S. Spy Court Russian View of Carter Page as 'an Idiot'. The FBI omitted from its application to spy on Carter Page the fact that Russian spies had dismissed the former Trump campaign adviser as unreliable — or as one put it, an "idiot" — and therefore unworthy of recruiting, according to congressional sources who have seen the unredacted document. The potentially exculpatory detail was also withheld from three renewals of the wiretap warrant before a special government surveillance court. The warrants issued by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court allowed the FBI to spy on Page and others he was in contact with for almost a year, the sources also confirmed. Judicial Watch: Justice Department Discloses No FISA Court Hearings Held on Carter Page Warrants. Judicial Watch today [8/31/2018] announced that in response to a Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, the Justice Department (DOJ) admitted in a court filing last night that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court held no hearings on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) spy warrant applications targeting Carter Page, a former Trump campaign part-time advisor who was the subject of four controversial FISA warrants. In the filing the Justice Department finally revealed that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court held no hearings on the Page FISA spy warrants, first issued in 2016 and subsequently renewed three times. Graham calls for special counsel to investigate FBI's handling of Clinton emails, FISA warrant. Claiming that FBI investigations into Hillary Clinton's emails and the Carter Page FISA warrant were "corrupt to the core," U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham on Wednesday [8/15/2018] called for the appointment of a special prosecutor to handle both probes. Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said FBI investigators were "in the tank" for Clinton and the FISA warrant process was abused — possibly in a criminal fashion. "What do you think Democrats would be saying if a Republican — if the RNC [Republican National Committee] — hired a former British agent to go to Russia to get dirt on [Hillary] Clinton?" Graham asked Fox News' Laura Ingraham, host of "The Ingraham Angle." FBI Vault Release — FBI Requested Data Forensics on Huma Abedin/Clinton Laptop AFTER the 2016 Election, Not Before. How [...] can Carter Page be a "foreign agent" who "knowingly engaged in" activities "for a foreign power", but at the same time be a "target for recruitment" by the same foreign power? FISA documents reveal FBI collusion. Our media's valiant efforts to distract us notwithstanding, information continues to seep out that underscores how badly a housecleaning is needed in Washington, D.C. Last week saw the release of the applications used to obtain warrants from the FISA court to spy on Carter Page, an adviser to the Trump presidential campaign. Obtained by Judicial Watch, the 400-plus pages of (heavily redacted) documents support the conclusions earlier drawn by the House Intelligence Committee (and denounced by Democrats as hysteria): the FISA warrants were obtained through obfuscation and deceit. Nunes: Americans will be 'shocked' by other Carter Page FISA info. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes claimed Sunday that the American public will be "shocked" when it sees the remaining blacked out portions of the FBI's applications for spy warrants against former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. "We are quite confident that once the American people see these 20 pages, at least for those that will get real reporting on this issue, they will be shocked by what's in that FISA application," Nunes said in an interview with Fox News' Maria Bartiromo. Nunes' comments raise expectations about what information remains hidden behind 20-plus pages of the FBI's fourth and final application for a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant against Page. Nunes: American People 'Will Be Shocked' by What's in Redacted Portion of FISA Application. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes said Sunday [7/29/2018] that the American people will be "shocked" when they see what's in the still-redacted portions of the FBI's applications for surveillance warrants against former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. "We are quite confident that once the American people see these 20 pages, at least for those that will get real reporting on this issue, they will be shocked by what's in that FISA application," Nunes said in an interview with Fox Business' Maria Bartiromo. Nunes and other House Republicans have been urging President Trump to declassify what remains hidden in 20 pages of the FISA application. Vindication for Carter Page. On July 26, 2016, a reporter with the Wall Street Journal sent him a text, asking the then-Trump campaign advisor about his ties to Russia, including alleged meetings with Kremlin officials: he responded that the suggestion was "ridiculous." But other media calls followed. Page, a Ph.D. and Naval Academy graduate, rebuffed the inquiries and continued to go about his business as a global energy financier. What Page did not know at the time is that — aside from unwittingly becoming the latest human slab tossed into the Clinton machine's meat grinder — his own government was already watching him, perhaps even setting him up. As Team Clinton, the DNC, and the Obama White House ratcheted up the Trump-Russia collusion fairy tale before the presidential election, Page emerged as the villain. In October 2016, at the behest of Jim Comey's FBI, a secret court gave the government permission to spy on Page. The surveillance lasted one year, during which time his personal and professional life imploded; he was the target of persistent media harassment and even death threats. Is Carter Page Really a Russian Agent? Back in the early sixties, Sam Cooke sang about dull Saturday nights. "Another Saturday night and I ain't got nobody." This past Saturday night, Special Counsel Robert Mueller was singing the same song, having found nobody guilty of Trump-Russia collusion despite over a year and millions of dollars spent investigating. Instead, on this past Saturday night, what we did get was a heavily redacted FISA Court application that allowed spying on Carter Page. The application asserts at the beginning that Carter Page is "[a]n agent of a foreign power," specifically the Russian Federation, and that Page "[k]nowingly engaged in clandestine intelligence activities for or on behalf of [Russia]." Was Page really a real-life version of cartoon character Boris Badenov? 
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