It functions as a virtual rubber stamp (99% authorisation, is it not?). That alone shows that FISA judges are pre-selected, pre-disposed statists, and that the citizens have no effective advocacy to protect their Fourth Amendment rights.
I scoff at the idea that these judges were naively ignorant of what was going on.
I do too.
Judges meet up with swindlers every day, and most of them have a fifth sense about it.
They allowed these guys to completely hoodwink them.
The materials we know were in here were outlandish. Any judge reading the materials would have to question some of it. And if they questioned some of it, it would undercut faith in any of it.
And them there’s the fact that the FISA docs were disproven in public. Everyone knew these were games documents.
Why didn’t the FISA judge yank these people back into court and refer them for charges?