Posted on 02/02/2020 6:10:19 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
The Justice Department’s wiretap abuse report is providing new arguments for two Trump associates and a Russian entrepreneur trying to clear their names but suffering court setbacks, so far.
The Dec. 9 report by Justice Department Inspector General Michael D. Horowitz exposed a string of abuses by FBI agents and lawyers in obtaining four Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) wiretaps on former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
On Jan. 30, Mr. Page filed a lawsuit in Chicago against the Democratic National Committee and its law firm, Perkins Coie. The DNC and the Hillary Clinton campaign financed the Kremlin-source dossier the FBI used to persuade a judge to approve spying on Mr. Page. Mr. Page’s new lawsuit says the Horowitz report bolsters his case by exonerating him.
Meanwhile, lawyers for Alexsej Gubarev, a Russian computer-server mogul, have filed a new motion in their libel case against BuzzFeed. It published the dossier on Jan. 10, 2017, including a final December 2016 dossier memo that accused Mr. Gubarev of hacking Democratic Party computers.
Mr. Gubarev has always denied the claim. He is appealing a federal court’s decision to dismiss the defamation case. Mr. Gubarev now cites the Horowitz report in a bid to open the file for new evidence.
And there is the much-watched case of retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn. Once the nation’s highest-ranking military intelligence officer and national security adviser to President Trump, Flynn stands convicted of lying to the FBI.
In new filings, defense attorney Sidney Powell is citing for the first time Mr. Horowitz’s findings as added proof that Flynn was deceived by the FBI. She wants his guilty plea withdrawn and the case dismissed.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
The only problem here is that FISA warrants had no bearing on Flynn's case at all.
“”””””’The only problem here is that FISA warrants had no bearing on Flynn’s case at all. “””””””””””””””””””””””
If the FBI was illegally spying, which it was, then it seems the whole thing could collapse.
Fruit of the poisonous tree.
Didn’t we establish Horowitz is deep state?
Same agents acting.
Flynn would be in the two hop rule for the Carter Page warrants.
Bkmk FLYNN
Flynn was recorded by the FBI/CIA because he was speaking on the phone with the Russian diplomat Kislyak. There was no need to get a FISA warrant to conduct surveillance on Kislyak’s phone calls.
One would think the Justice Department would be so embarrassed they would withdraw the charges.......
I think this is the larger problem for Flynn:
“On the issue of Mr. Strzok not believing at first that Flynn lied, Judge Sullivan said the retired general was apprised of this before he pleaded guilty.”
There’s plenty of evidence the FBI was up to no good, but that’s a big hurdle to overcome.
His former attorneys never told him.
That is true. But they were deceptive. They were investigating him but told him he was not under investigation and needed no lawyer. They already had the transcript, so in one sense it was a process crime trap. They quizzed him on the conversation - but they already knew what was said. Comey admitted that he sent the agents in hoping the transition team would not be prepared to provide him legal representation. And if he had legal representation during questioning the lawyers could have asked if they had a transcript of the call - the contents of the conversation/transcript speak for themselves. They were just trying to entrap him.
I realize this may not be his current legal argument but to me this much is obvious. Why ask about the contents of a conversation to which you already had recorded, if not trying to catch him in a lie to charge him for lying to the FBI? Entrapment.
For example, the FBI chose Flynn on Aug. 16, 2016, to be one of four Trump campaign advisers to be investigated in any Trump-Russia election conspiracy.
The next day, it sent an agent described as supervisory special agent 1 (SSA1) to visit Trump campaign headquarters under the guise of delivering a defensive briefing on Russia. The real reason: Flynn planned to attend and the FBI wanted to collect information on him, according to the IG.
Mr. Horowitz testified to a Senate panel that there was never any defense briefing to alert Trump people on what the Kremlin was doing to interfere in the election.
The FBI did not seek Justice Department approval before meeting with the campaign on Aug. 17, the IG said.
“SSA 1’s participation in that presidential briefing was a calculated subterfuge to record and report for ‘investigative purposes’ anything Mr. Flynn and Mr. Trump said in that meeting,” Ms. Powell argued.
SSA 1 is agent Joe Pientka, a supervisor in Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI Trump probe headed by agent Peter Strzok, who later was fired for misconduct. It was the Strzok-Pientka tandem who visited Flynn at the White House on Jan. 24, 2017.
However, the FBI (Domestic) and CIA (State Department nexus overseas) are not the correct agencies to do this surveillance; it is the NSA.
True, but any lying discovered by the FBI or DOJ during any of it, tosses the whole case.
Federal agents and other LEOs, that testify in federal court, have to go through a ‘Giglio’ questionnaire. If you “fail” the Giglio questionnaire, you’re not allowed to testify in federal court. Your testimony will not be considered truthful, no matter what. There are lots of federal agents that have been “Giglio’d” and are filling admin jobs until retirement since they’re not allowed to participate in any investigations.
If any of the people involved with Gen Flynn’s case can be shown to be lying, at any time, then any testimony any of them have EVER given can be called into question. To include any other cases that any of them were involved in. I”m wondering if any defense attorney’s are waiting to see how this all plays out and who is/was actually involved so they can ready appeals.
I've read all of Sidney Powell's eloquent Motions. She mentions Giglio but I will have to look it up now that you point to it as a fundamental problem for the DOJ/Weismann/Liu/Van Grack/Ahmad travesty.
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