This abuse should concern everyone. DOJ watchdog launches probe into alleged FISA abuse BY KATIE BO WILLIAMS - 03/28/18 The Department of Justice's (DOJ) inspector general formally announced Wednesday that he will launch a separate investigation into the DOJ’s handling of a surveillance warrant application for former Trump campaign aide Carter Page. The inquiry comes “in response to requests from the attorney general and members of Congress,” according to the statement from Inspector General Michael Horowitz. Conservatives for weeks have trumpeted allegations that the DOJ and the FBI abused the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), detailed in a controversial memo authored by staff for House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.). The allegations were also detailed in a separate criminal referral made by Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). Broadly, the GOP lawmakers believe that officials inappropriately used a controversial piece of opposition research into then-candidate Donald Trump to obtain a politically-motivated warrant on Page. According to the statement, Horowitz will examine whether the bureau and the department complied “with legal requirements and with applicable policies and procedures in applications filed … related to a certain U.S. person.” Horowitz will also review the FBI’s relationship and communications with the “alleged confidential source," as well as what officials knew “from or about” that source at the time the applications were filed. The "confidential source" is a former MI6 agent named Christopher Steele who assembled the dossier under contract with the intelligence research firm Fusion GPS. The statement does not cite Page or Steele by name. The Nunes memo alleges that the FBI and the DOJ misled the clandestine court that approves surveillance requests about the provenance of some of the information in its application for Page. They claim that the application both failed to confirm the information they used from the so-called “Steele dossier” and that they did not tell the court that the original research was paid for in part by then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee (DNC), through the law firm Perkins Coie. The dossier is comprised of a series of unconfirmed raw intelligence reports alleging a widespread pattern of connections between Trump campaign officials and Moscow, including claims that the Kremlin sought to cultivate the business mogul “for at least five years.” It also alleged that Putin was backing Trump in the 2016 election in order to “sow discord and disunity” within the U.S. Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee who have seen the underlying Page application say the information drawn from the dossier was independently confirmed and that officials disclosed that the information was paid for by a political opponent of then-candidate Donald Trump. The underlying FISA application for Page remains classified and it continues to be a matter of dispute to what extent it relied on Steele’s reports. Grassley and Graham, meanwhile, have asked the DOJ to look into whether the author of the dossier, Steele, misled the FBI about his contacts with the media. The Nunes memo also raises concerns about Steele’s comments to the press. “Steele was suspended and then terminated as an FBI source for what the FBI defines as the most serious of violation — an unauthorized disclosure to the media of his relationship with the FBI in an October 30, 2016 Mother Jones article by David Corn,” the memo reads. Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson, who contracted Steele to produce the dossier, disputes that account. According to Simpson, Steele was so concerned by the possibility that a presidential candidate might be “blackmailed” by Russia that he reached out to the FBI of his own accord to share what he knew as a “security issue.” In testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Simpson acknowledged that he had Steele brief a small group of reporters on his findings. The briefings took place before the election and after Steele had first reached out to the FBI. But according to Simpson, Steele cut off his contact with the bureau after The New York Times ran a story just two weeks before the election stating that the FBI had investigated alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Russia but found no clear link. The former spy was concerned “the FBI was being manipulated for political ends by the Trump people and that we didn’t really understand what was going on.” Attorney General Jeff Sessions has previously indicated that the allegations of FISA abuse would fall under the inspector general’s purview. "We believe the Department of Justice must adhere to the high standards in the FISA court and, yes, it will be investigated. And I think that’s just the appropriate thing," Sessions said in late February. “The inspector general will take that as one of the matters they’ll deal with.” Sessions’s deferral to Horowitz infuriated Trump, who called the decision “disgraceful.” “Why is A.G. Jeff Sessions asking the Inspector General to investigate potentially massive FISA abuse,” Trump tweeted. “Will take forever, has no prosecutorial power and already late with reports on Comey etc. Isn’t the I.G. an Obama guy? Why not use Justice Department lawyers? DISGRACEFUL!” Horowitz is also in the midst of an ongoing investigation into DOJ decisionmaking during the 2016 election, with a report expected as soon as this month or next. http://thehill.com/policy/national-...tchdog-launches-probe-into-alleged-fisa-abuse
Judge Napolitano Thinks Inspector General Will Find ‘Treasure Trove’ Of Abuses By The FBI Against Trump http://dailycaller.com/2018/03/29/judge-napolitano-treasure-trove-of-abuses-at-fbi/
Ordinarily I don't like the idea of appointing the IG as a substitute for a special counsel and I have issues with appointing a special counsel too so it is sort of balancing act. The IG's for the agencies have a long history of covering up for the buddies they work with and are supposed to be monitoring. But I am somewhat okay with it because Horowitz has demonstrated that he likes to go out on the hunt, make a few kills, bring it home, and watch it be devoured. Like Mueller. I dont like the fact that he does not have the ability to investigate people who have left the agency such as Comey and McCabe and a bunch of state department and intel agency people but Sessions is pretending to support the IG's work so he can assign fbi agents/doj prosecutors to that effort who do have that power if he is serious. The IG has done some good work that should be built upon rather than just tossed over the wall to special counsel, or at least that would be a plus factor among some negatives. Also, as discussed a bit before, I do think now that some of the more serious stuff in the upcoming IG's report will either be omitted or his report will be further delayed but for good reasons. He has announced that a fisa/dossier investigation has started and he does not want to be called before congress to testify about his report while the investigation is in progress, and does not want people like Susan Rice and Brennan etc to know what the testimony of other witnesses has been. I have always been a big believer that there is no getting rid of mueller. The best you can do is to put a counter offense in place such that right when mueller plans to do a dump right before the election, that someone else is prepared to do a dump on the dems and reveal the witchhunt to give voters more than one thing to think about. Getting there.
Alright, I see that the Elf has a little plan to cobble someone who has actual prosecutorial powers together with the IG- which addresses a few of the concerns I raised earlier today (above). link below https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/29/sessions-prosecutor-fbi-2016-492352 Good. This is for all for the good. As discussed ad nauseum, Sessions always has the option of doing some work if he wants to save his job. He appointed an Obama appointee from outside the swamp. Good again. It is dicey to have an obama appointee- who is also a trump appointee- but it adds credibility. As is the case with the IG/Horowitz who is an obama appointee. Doesnt give the lefties many bitching rights if they find wrongdoing in Tard Village. This could be okay. It might not be better than okay but it is at least okay and will be productive. Unfortunately/fortunately he does not have free-floating open ended witch hunting powers to go off and try to take down family members for unrelated issues as Mueller has. But he has enough power to take care of issues arising under the IG's investigation. Muellers agreement was written by Rosenstein who gave him enough power to try to bring Trump down for any reason. The he wrote the new agreement narrow enough so that everyone in the FBI is not a target for anything and everything. Thus saving himself from some things. Although this new independent overlooker but not play the game just as the IG has not. Did I mention that McCabe's has now raised 170 thousand in his go-fund-me legal defense fund? Heh. Might want to get some real Soros level funding for you gonna need white boy?
People are just so dumb. McCabe's worth $11 million. WTF are people donating to him for? Geez, get another cause. https://www.gofundme.com/andrewmccabelegaldefensefund
"He served the United States with courage and distinction in the days following the President's summary dismissal of former Director James Comey" Might be some things he is overlooking to say that he served with distinction.
It's becoming increasingly clear that we are not getting to the bottom of any of this as long as Sessions is AG. He is either captive to the career, eg leftwing dem, staff, or they have something on him or he is just weak. Maybe all three. It is outrageous that republican congressional committees are being stonewalled by Justice on a variety of scandals. Why is Sessions covering up Obama-era abuses?
He was a Senator for 20 years. It is clear he owes a lot of people favors. He is part of the swamp. One thing governments never do is reign in their own power. For a lot of people in Washington it is best if they dont start to remove layers of the onion because you never know what you may find.
I believe Sessions is waiting to unleash the dogs one or two months before the primaries. Just a hunch.
This is the problem with a political novice as president. You absolutely must have someone as AG who has your back at all times, no matter the cost. Like Holder did for Obama. I blame Sessions more than Trump, because Sessions took the job knowing this. Trump no doubt thought Sessions was the one guy in DC he could rely on. He was wrong and now is the time to cut his losses.