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FISA? It’s A One Way Street, Take The Next Left
From The Horowitz Report:
Nevertheless, we found that members of the Crossfire Hurricane team failed to meet the basic obligation to ensure that the Carter Page FISA applications were “scrupulously accurate.” We identified significant inaccuracies and omissions in each of the four applications-7 in the first FISA application and a total of 17 by the final renewal application.
This statement is far more devastating than the FBI, and the mainstream media would have you believe. Any conviction in a prosecution that involved inaccuracies, and omissions should be overturned. Furthermore those involved in presenting information, or approved presenting information that was inaccurate, and included omissions to obtain a FISA warrant should be immediately terminated from the FBI.
Any city cop, or county deputy who did this same thing, lying by omission in front of a State judge should be terminated as well. Whether at the Federal, or local law enforcement level, these action’s destroy public trust in law enforcement, and destroys lives.
Published in PolicingFor example, the Crossfire Hurricane team obtained information from Steele’s Primary Sub-source in January 2017 that raised significant questions about the reliability of the Steele reporting that was used in the Carter Page FISA applications. But members of the Crossfire Hurricane team failed to share the information with the Department, and it was therefore omitted from the three renewal applications. All of the applications also omitted information the FBI had obtained from another U.S. government agency detailing its prior relationship with Page, including that Page had been approved as an operational contact for the other agency from 2008 to 2013, and that Page had provided information to the other agency concerning his prior contacts with certain Russian intelligence officers, one of which overlapped with facts asserted in the FISA application.
As a result of the 17 significant inaccuracies and omissions we identified, relevant information was not shared with, and consequently not considered by, important Department decision makers and the court, and the FISA applications made it appear as though the evidence supporting probable cause was stronger than was actually the case. We also found basic, fundamental, and serious errors during the completion of the FBI’s factual accuracy reviews, known as the Woods Procedures, which are designed to ensure that FISA applications contain a full and accurate presentation of the facts.
We do not speculate whether the correction of any particular misstatement or omission, or some combination thereof, would have resulted in a different outcome. Nevertheless, the Department’s decision makers and the court should have been given complete and accurate information so that they could meaningfully evaluate probable cause before authorizing the surveillance of a U.S. person associated with a presidential campaign. That did not occur, and as a result, the surveillance of Carter Page continued even as the FBI gathered information that weakened the assessment of probable cause and made the FISA applications less accurate.
I wonder if the IG is prohibited from recommending termination. I believe he said that it was up to management to decide how to respond to these “errors.” Does anyone know if he has the authority to recommending terminating, rather than sloughing off the decisions on their managers?
If the FBI knocked on my door I would immediately duct tape my mouth shut. They are the problem not the solution.
Doug,
Being a Democrat is never having to say you’re sorry. So they think.
Regards,
Jim
Those who were subjects of the report and their supporters do seem to be celebrating simply because names weren’t named, even though the IG’s report knocks the FBI practices around pretty good, especially about the FISA abuse and their questionable, to be kind, reliance on the Steele dossier. It’s kind of like the losing team in a basketball game celebrating because the ref didn’t foul out any of their players (while forgetting that there’s still another game to play on this, where John Durham will be making the foul calls, with a much wider latitude to deal with people than Horowitz had with his more limited powers as IG).
I do hope that the next time an FBI agent is sworn to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, he doesn’t find the snickering from the jury box too disconcerting.
Heads on pikes.
Agreed. I’m still reading, but I’m not feeling disappointed yet. (My light remarks on the other thread notwithstanding.) My first impression is this is a measured, careful report. Horowitz is an inspector, after all. What counts is what Wray and Barr do with the report.
The FBI is the enemy of the people at it’s highest levels.
I think the FISA Court should issue a show cause order to those involved who appeared in court to tell it why they shouldn’t be sanctioned.
What are the implications for General Flynn and his persecution?
That’s what I was wondering myself. Can’t hurt?
“
This is the ultimate CYA statement. The “decision makers” were not given the proper information, therefore when they, ahem, lied to the FISC they were just unknowing innocents making purely unintentional errors of ignorance instead of criminal and conscious errors of omission.
So, did our Boy Wonder dig deeper to find out why the CH team “failed to meet the basic obligation”? Was it incompetence? Gross negilence? Or perhaps was it was because the answer might come back “extreme bias against Trump”?
My guess is the latter . . .
No, he properly refrained from addressing the why. That is precisely what makes his findings of documented facts unassailable.
Isn’t it now the duty of the judges who were intentionally mislead to issue warrants to call to justice those who have sullied the process? If not, FISA must be repealed. It is an unconstitutional and out of control process.
Or Justice Roberts – who is in charge of the courts, including the FISC – should step in.
Chief Justice Roberts is the wild card in this game. Don’t count on him to keep anything constitutional. I don’t think his motives are clear to anyone.
Wrong. Facts can include uncovering evidence of motive. Horowitz is a biased shill covering for his buds . . .
Good point. He seems to have a “don’t rock the boat” attitude when it comes to his decisions and actions. The question is which rocking the boat is worse: Impeaching and convicting Trump, or preserving the institutions of the FBI, CIA, DOJ, IG, etc.
Roberts could easily opt to split the difference here because he knows there aren’t going to be 67 votes to impeach. So he could easily lean towards trying to keep the Senate trial from becoming more a debate about the government agencies than about Trump confident in the knowledge that by doing so, Trump’s still going to be president after the trial.