That a court could be abused in such a manner is a problem.
There should be a civil and constitutional rights lawyer assigned to challenge assertions from the FBI and CIA.
There were questions that should have been asked and answered. That there were not, is an indictment of the judges and the court.
The fact the FISA judges have not taken any action is a scandal in itself.
“...indictment of the judges...”
I have always thought that the judges probably knew the dossier was phony.
“There were questions that should have been asked and answered. That there were not, is an indictment of the judges and the court.”
There is a reason the founders did not provide for secret courts in the Constitution. Secret courts can and will be exploited by tyrants.
The Patriot Act, passed in a hurry after 9/11, gave power to the federal government it was never supposed to have.
One thing I’ve realized over the past 2 years. The US government, at all levels, is more concerned with hiding information from its citizens than it is with preventing foreign governments from knowing its secrets. Facts supporting this concoction:
1). If the government was concerned about foreign governments knowing its secrets, Hillary Clinton would never have been allowed to run her correspondence through a private, unsecured, server.
2). The US intelligence agencies would not be using foreign paid consultants and spies to monitor American citizens or entrap them.
3). Congress would have subpoenaed and forced Christopher Steele to testify.
4). Constitutional rights and due process of citizens would not be flagrantly disregarded by US government agencies and federal judges.
5). Congress (both parties) would have been outraged at the spying on the Trump campaign by the Obama administration. The flagrant disregard for citizen rights should have appalled every representative in Congress and the heads of departments involved.
6). The continual deception, lying, and coverup by the senior government officials involved in perpetrating the Russian collusion scandal.
7). The flagrant and continual leaking of classified information to members of the media by elected and appointed government officials with no consequences.
8). Trump’s failure to unilaterally release documents, recordings, and other evidence demonstrating members of the executive branch were breaking the law and trampling on the rights of citizens.
I have a strong perception that Great Britain, Russia, China, and Israel know all of our government “secrets”, or at least any they wish to know. Likely other foreign powers do as well (North Korea and Iran for example). Secrecy is all about keeping the American people in the dark. If we know China and Russia have all of Hillary’s emails, as well as most of the mainstream news outlets, why not release it all unreacted to the public? The fact neither party is advocating such action, suggests volumes. They want us to be ignorant.