One question I want to know the answer to is whether Comey or Brennan contacted the WaPo and asked them to write a story in early 2016 talking about the fact that Trump had no foreign policy advisers. The reason I want to know is that I suspect that story was calculated to bait Trump into hiring Papadopoulos and Carter Page.
I suspect Barr will turn over all the rocks. Like he said, he now has more questions than ever as his investigation continues.
That’s a working theory - though I think that op-ed was signed by some Never-Trump GOPers that go back to Nixon and Daddy Bush eras.
Papadopoulos still doesn’t know how or why he was invited to work for that London consultancy, nor why when he gave notice he was leaving they offered to send him to Italy. Normally when you quit a job the boss stops giving you plumb assignments. Someone inside the Trump team may have been involved in picking the names that went on his advisory list.
But it is possible they went through the list after the fact looking for ways in. As Bongino points out, the FISA warrants allow “2 hops”. They can capture the communications of the person on the warrant, and all the communications of anyone they connect with - AND all the communications of anyone that 2nd party communicates with. So it didn’t really matter who they got the warrant on, they just needed someone on the campaign because that person would very likely communicate with someone who communicated directly with Trump - giving them the ability to eavesdrop on Trump personally without naming him directly.
What should be looked at is why they chose Carter Page. He had been a confidential FBI asset that helped them catch Russian spies in the past. Why did they tell the Court that he was being approached by Russian agents attempting to recruit him? His cover was already blown in Russia when the spies were arrested! I think perhaps the FBI chose Page because they had some evidence on hand from the old cases - they just “flipped the truth” to say that he was working with Russian spies instead of working against Russian spies. How would the court know that the FBI was lying?