Posted on 02/02/2018 3:07:05 PM PST by ckinv368
Despite important and far-reaching policy wins by the Trump Administration, America has much to be ashamed of recently. Today is notable for the release of the so-called Nunes Memo, showing, in its own words findings which . . . 1) raise concerns with the legitimacy and legality of certain DOJ and FBI interactions with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), and 2) represent a troubling breakdown of legal processes established to protect the American people from abuses related to FBI surveillance of American citizens. While there is much nuance which can be discussed, the Nunes Memo essentially discloses that the Clinton campaign funded false and defamatory opposition research that it later shared with the FBI. The research was compiled by a wildly anti-Trump British agent named Christopher Steele. All parties knew the researchknown as the Steele dossierwas unsubstantiated and ridiculous. Mr. Steeles FBI file recorded that he had huge biases against Mr. Trump, and those biases discredited his research. Yet the FBI presented the dossier as credible evidence to a FISC, and used it to obtain permission to begin surveillance on a member of President Trumps transition team. The FBI never disclosed to the FISC who paid for the research, the fact Mr. Steele was biased, or that the dossier had been widely discredited as false. And, the FBI used the dossier a further 3 times to support extending surveillance permission. FBI Director James Comey, or his deputy director Andrew McCabe, personally signed off on all requests. Mr. McCabe testified before Congress that the FISC would never have granted surveillance permission without the FBIs reliance on the dossier. Mr. Comey later described the dossier in a Senate hearing as salacious and unverified. During this time, the FBI was taking additional steps to put other members of Mr. Trumps campaign and transition team under surveillance, and tilt the FBI investigation of Mrs. Clintons e-mail abuses in her favor. The Nunes Memo describes how FBI agent Peter Strzokwho had a tremendous anti-Trump biasbegan a surveillance operation against Trump advisor George Papadopoulos during the summer before the 2016 election. Mr. Strzok was also the FBI agent in charge of investigating Mrs. Clintons e-mail abuses. From text messages between he and his FBI-employed mistress, it becomes clear that he and other FBI leadership were heavily biased in favor of Mrs. Clintonstating she would not be indicted, desiring to take it easy in questioning her, and even detailing how Mr. Comeys memo about Mrs. Clintons conduct was softened by Mr. Strzok immediately prior to the election to make it less damaging. Those same text messages indicate that he and other senior members of the FBIincluding Mr. McCabeseemed to be colluding against President-elect Trump following the election. Mr. Strzoks bias also extended to the Robert Mueller Russian Collusion investigation for a time, tainting the credibility and independence of that effort. The FBIs abuse of the laws surrounding surveillance of American citizens is shocking, and possibly illegal. And, it seems it was used for purely political purposes. Mr. Strzoks text messages indicate that some within FBI leadership viewed the Steele dossier, and the FBI surveillance it facilitated, as a kind of insurance policy against Mr. Trumps election, and later, against a successful Trump Presidency. Through leaks to the media, and exerting improper control of the FBIs investigative and surveillance apparatus, the Nunes Memo describes how senior FBI leadership attempted to orchestrate a sort of palace-coup where theyand not the American peoplewould decide the outcome of the presidential election and the success of President Trumps presidency. Shockingly, Mr. Comey responded to the release of the Nunes Memo today via Twitter, asking Thats it? As if allegations that he, as director of the FBI, purposely misled the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to unlawfully interfere in an election and a presidency isnt enough? Who knows if there is anything worse hiding in the darkness that is the upper-echelons of the FBI. If we are to have a Special Counsel investigate matters surrounding the election, maybe he should start with the FBI. Determining the truthand how the law was so easily twisted to tilt the scales for one candidate and against anotheris key to stopping this likely-criminal behavior in future elections.
Hard to read———paragraphs would make a BIG difference.
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I’m ashamed of FOXNews too... Looks like Bret’s been added to the list of jerks feeding off democrat talking points.
What the hell’s the matter with FOX that they can’t hire ONE conservative anchor.
(not ‘opinion’ but ONE anchor)
Disgraceful
I agree—complete accident, as I thought the paragraph spaces would translate through pasting from Word. Don’t know how to edit post unfortunately.
Here is the one thing everyone is missing. There is one person out there who is just as bad as Comey or McCabe and the others at the FBI and the DOJ. Maybe one of the worst people is not named. The judge. Everyone thinks the court spends its time in a safe house under the cone of silence. But thats not the case. The FISA court judges are normal people walking around in Washington.
This FISA court request came in October 2016. At that time we already knew the dossier was a joke. But we did not know where it came from. But in the past year it was re-upped 3 times. So that’s December and March and this last July of 2017. Certainly by this last July we knew who paid for the dossier. So the judge still allowed the FBI to listen in to Page’s calls even through this past September, knowing the dossier was false. And the judge knew it was false too. I wonder who put the judge in that position?
He left the paragraphs in the original article . . .
The rank and file FBI, and division directors/managers should go public and denounce their leadership. And this should be done soon.
This would be a first step in regaining the trust of the American people.
Despite important and far-reaching policy wins by the Trump Administration, America has much to be ashamed of recently. Today is notable for the release of the so-called Nunes Memo, showing, in its own words findings which . . . 1) raise concerns with the legitimacy and legality of certain DOJ and FBI interactions with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), and 2) represent a troubling breakdown of legal processes established to protect the American people from abuses related to FBI surveillance of American citizens.
While there is much nuance which can be discussed, the Nunes Memo essentially discloses that the Clinton campaign funded false and defamatory opposition research that it later shared with the FBI. The research was compiled by a wildly anti-Trump British agent named Christopher Steele. All parties knew the researchknown as the Steele dossierwas unsubstantiated and ridiculous. Mr. Steeles FBI file recorded that he had huge biases against Mr. Trump, and those biases discredited his research. Yet the FBI presented the dossier as credible evidence to a FISC, and used it to obtain permission to begin surveillance on a member of President Trumps transition team. The FBI never disclosed to the FISC who paid for the research, the fact Mr. Steele was biased, or that the dossier had been widely discredited as false. And, the FBI used the dossier a further 3 times to support extending surveillance permission. FBI Director James Comey, or his deputy director Andrew McCabe, personally signed off on all requests. Mr. McCabe testified before Congress that the FISC would never have granted surveillance permission without the FBIs reliance on the dossier. Mr. Comey later described the dossier in a Senate hearing as salacious and unverified.
During this time, the FBI was taking additional steps to put other members of Mr. Trumps campaign and transition team under surveillance, and tilt the FBI investigation of Mrs. Clintons e-mail abuses in her favor. The Nunes Memo describes how FBI agent Peter Strzokwho had a tremendous anti-Trump biasbegan a surveillance operation against Trump advisor George Papadopoulos during the summer before the 2016 election. Mr. Strzok was also the FBI agent in charge of investigating Mrs. Clintons e-mail abuses. From text messages between he and his FBI-employed mistress, it becomes clear that he and other FBI leadership were heavily biased in favor of Mrs. Clintonstating she would not be indicted, desiring to take it easy in questioning her, and even detailing how Mr. Comeys memo about Mrs. Clintons conduct was softened by Mr. Strzok immediately prior to the election to make it less damaging. Those same text messages indicate that he and other senior members of the FBIincluding Mr. McCabeseemed to be colluding against President-elect Trump following the election. Mr. Strzoks bias also extended to the Robert Mueller Russian Collusion investigation for a time, tainting the credibility and independence of that effort.
The FBIs abuse of the laws surrounding surveillance of American citizens is shocking, and possibly illegal. And, it seems it was used for purely political purposes. Mr. Strzoks text messages indicate that some within FBI leadership viewed the Steele dossier, and the FBI surveillance it facilitated, as a kind of insurance policy against Mr. Trumps election, and later, against a successful Trump Presidency. Through leaks to the media, and exerting improper control of the FBIs investigative and surveillance apparatus, the Nunes Memo describes how senior FBI leadership attempted to orchestrate a sort of palace-coup where theyand not the American peoplewould decide the outcome of the presidential election and the success of President Trumps presidency.
Shockingly, Mr. Comey responded to the release of the Nunes Memo today via Twitter, asking Thats it? As if allegations that he, as Director of the FBI, purposely misled the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to unlawfully interfere in an election and a presidency isnt enough? Who knows if there is anything worse hiding in the darkness that is the upper-echelons of the FBI. If we are to have a Special Counsel investigate matters surrounding the election, maybe he should start with the FBI. Determining the truthand how the law was so easily twisted to tilt the scales for one candidate and against anotheris key to stopping this likely-criminal behavior in future elections.
Thank you for posting the entire article. (I clicked it anyway.)
Sorry again about that-—ctrl + v pasting jumbled everything together (took out paragraphs), and I failed to proof the post before hitting “post.” Apologies . . .
It really is shameful all around. The fact that this continued until fairly recently is absolutely ridiculous. It’s likely that calls to the White House were intercepted, as I believe Carter Page is still an “advisor” to the President on certain matters.
Perfect-—thanks much for doing that!
No problem at all. I’ll try not to screw up formatting next time! :0)
Under 0bama, the FBI was becoming the American Stasi.
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John Roberts put him there. Keep going, you are on the right track....
Is Roberts tainted, you may ask? Well, I wonder how he made the OCare decision? Well...maybe the deep state has something on him too...
Stay tuned sportsfans, this will get interesting, and possibly bloody.
Amen to that.
America IS Ashamed. If you are a patriot in these agencies Do Your Duty to the Constitution and Your Oath of Office. Do not go the way of the Sanhedrin - people who believed themselves to be holy and righteous - only to go to work and commit Murder!
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