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Did Steele Really Snooker the FBI?
Wall Street Journal ^ | 2/4/18 | Kimberly Strassel

Posted on 02/05/2018 3:32:40 PM PST by markomalley

The House Intelligence Committee memo about 2016 surveillance abuses, released Friday, lays out grave evidence that the FBI wasn’t fully forthcoming with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court as it sought an order to wiretap former Trump adviser Carter Page. It’s possible the FBI’s lack of candor was even worse than the memo describes.

Democrats are disputing the memo on lots of grounds, but they’ve said little about the FBI’s failure to inform the court that the bureau had itself decided one of its main sources, dossier author Christopher Steele, was unreliable. Mr. Steele in October 2016 gave Mother Jones an unauthorized interview about the dossier. As a former British intelligence officer, Mr. Steele would have known that sources are not supposed to blab to the press. The interview appeared but a few days before the election, was at the direction of his paymaster, the opposition-research firm Fusion GPS, and was clearly designed to help the ultimate client: the Hillary Clinton campaign.

Stuck with a source now brazenly using the FBI for political purposes, the bureau suspended and then terminated Mr. Steele. Only nine days before the Mother Jones interview, the bureau had filed its application for the Page wiretap order, which rested on the Steele dossier. Yet the FBI did not immediately go back to tell the court it no longer trusted Mr. Steele...

(snip)

The Grassley referral needs be fully declassified, just as the House memo was. The FBI needs to answer straightforward questions about Mr. Steele’s claims, and he needs to provide his version.

The FBI got fooled by a source, or it knew its source was lying, or it didn’t bother to check, or it was too incompetent to see the obvious. Take your pick. None of the possibilities look good, especially if you’re a FISA judge.

(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Editorial; Government
KEYWORDS: 201610; chrissteele; christophersteele; clinton; fbi; fusiongps; hillaryclinton; leaking; leaks; motherjones; steele; steelefbi; strassel
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To: markomalley

No and it is a point that needs to be made.

What are they, crooked or incompetent?


21 posted on 02/05/2018 5:09:51 PM PST by tiki
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To: VA40; Kelyan

I think he’s calling the bluff.

With a criminal referral, the FBI has to put up or shut up.


22 posted on 02/05/2018 7:51:38 PM PST by MortMan (We are living in interesting times.)
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To: markomalley

Nope - especially since we now know that the dems claim that McCabe didn’t just say they wouldn’t have gotten the warrants w/o the fake documents - he also called them “largely accurate” which is treason-speak for “Fake but true”.....and they think that makes their case....The FBI orchestrated it and used idiot Steele - not the other way around.


23 posted on 02/06/2018 3:23:25 AM PST by trebb (I stopped picking on the mentally ill hypocrites who pose as conservatives...;-})
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To: markomalley

The FBI snookered the public.

And forswore their oath.


24 posted on 02/06/2018 3:31:17 AM PST by mewzilla (Has the FBI been spying on members of Congress?)
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To: markomalley

The FBI wanted to be led to the outcome they wanted - get Trump. Steele wanted to lead them there, as best he could, with nonsense.


25 posted on 02/06/2018 1:46:46 PM PST by SaraJohnson ( Whites must sue for racism. It's pay day.)
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