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Thread: https://twitter.com/jabeale/status/1204659952251555841

Jason Beale
@jabeale

“Haven’t heard much commentary on it - go figure - but I think the most remarkable example of FBI malfeasance in this whole debacle is this: Prior to submitting the FISA application, they asked other agencies in the IC to run @carterwpage’s name through their systems to see if anything popped. The CIA responded via email disclosing that Page was an operational contact who reported on Russian business, government and intelligence officials with whom he interacted from 2008-2013. The FBI official who received this report removed that information from the email, wrote “not a source” in it, then forwarded it to the office preparing the FISA application. Bad enough, but it actually gets worse. The FISA application included a section related to Page’s contacts with these Russian officials, which they presented as evidence in support of probable cause that he was a traitorous agent of a foreign power, but did not inform the FISA court that he was reporting information gleaned from these contacts to the CIA. It’s analogous to the FBI seeking FISA approval to surveil their own confidential source, Stefan Halper, using the fact that he was meeting with the suspected Russian spies he was tasked by the FBI to meet with, but not revealing his association with the FBI to the court. Of all the things I thought the FBI had done to fabricate probable cause to violate Page’s civil liberties in order to gain access to Trump campaign communications, I never - ever - imagined they would stoop so low as to use an American citizen’s operational relationship with the CIA as an opportunity to falsely characterize his association with sketchy Russian officials as evidence of treasonous behavior. It was, quite literally, the opposite of treason. Regardless of how this all ultimately plays out, this will remain, for me, the most treacherous and unforgivable transgression of Page’s rights and liberties.”