Below is my column in the Hill newspaper on the controversy over the four-page memo continues to simmer in Washington. The memo will not change the course of the Mueller investigation. It may lead however to new investigations. Indeed, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has referred the matter to internal investigators while members have called for a new special counsel. There remains considerable questions over representations on both sides in the dispute. For example, various Democrats have publicly stated that Deputy Director Andrew McCabe did not say that, absent the dossier, the FBI would probably not have received approval of its FISA application. What is clear is that someone is lying to the American people. Indeed, as the column below discusses, the public was already misled on the classified content of the memo.
The release of the four-page memo by the House Intelligence Committee has triggered preset responses from both sides. The memo is, in fact, enlightening in a number of respects. However, the most alarming elements may be what it does not contain.
First, it is important to start with what we previously knew. At the heart of this controversy is the dossier that was compiled by Christopher Steele, a former British spy, and Fusion GPS with funding from Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee. Previously, Clinton’s top campaign lawyer, Marc Elias, and former campaign chairman, John Podesta, denied any connection to the dossier. After news stores confirmed the funding, Elias and Clinton herself admitted that they did fund this effort.
Second, we knew that Steele shopped the information in the dossier to various reporters to try to get them published during the election. Third, the contents of this dossier were so unverified that virtually all of the reporters declined to run the story during the campaign.
The memo confirms that top FBI officials, including former director James Comey and his deputy Andrew McCabe, used the dossier to secure secret surveillance targeting a U.S. citizen. That citizen was Carter Page, an aide to the presidential candidate of the party opposing the Obama administration. Comey signed off on multiple Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) applications targeting Page.
The memo states that the applications never mentioned that the dossier was funded in significant part by the Clinton campaign, even though high-ranking officials knew about that funding. That would obviously be highly material to judging the value of the information. To make matters worse, Steele admitted to FBI agent Bruce Orr, who was later demoted, that he hated Trump and was “desperate that Donald Trump not be elected and was passionate about his not being president.”
The memo alleges that McCabe admitted in testimony that, absent the Democratic-funded dossier, there would not have been a FISA surveillance order. In fairness to the Democrats, it should be noted that this brief memo does not reveal the full record given to the FISA court. Page has a rather suspicious history in dealings with the Russians that is entirely separate from this dossier.
Moreover, this is largely a summary of testimony, and we should read that testimony once truly classified information has been redacted. Finally, there is reference to a prior investigation of George Papadopoulos, who later advised Trump on foreign affairs, which preceded the dossier and may have been an added basis for the original application.
However, my greatest concern is what is not in the dossier: classified information “jeopardizing national security.” Leaders like Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) declared that the committee had moved beyond “dangerous irresponsibility and disregard for our national security” and “disregarded the warnings of the Justice Department and the FBI.”
Now we can read the memo. There is a sharp and alarming disconnect between the descriptions of Pelosi and the House Intelligence Committee’s Ranking Minority Member Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and the actual document. It clearly does not contain information that would reveal sources or methods.
The memo reaffirms concerns over the lower standards that apply to FISA applications as well as the misuse of classification authority. Most of this memo references what was already known about the use of the dossier. What was added was testimonial evidence and details to the publicly known information. Yet, the FBI vehemently objected to the release of the memo as threatening “grave” consequences to national security ground.
However, even before the release, the FBI seemed to be objecting to the framing of the facts rather than the disclosure of “sources and methods.” The FBI said publicly that it had “grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo’s accuracy.” That is not an objection to classified material but the fairness of the portrayal. For years, many of us have objected that the intelligence agencies classified material for improper purposes to frame public debate or conceal embarrassing information. Unless there was a material change in this memo, it proved to be an empty “grave” after weeks of overheated hyperbole.
The FBI opposition to declassification of this memo should be a focus of both Congress and the public. The memo is clearly designed to avoid revealing classified information. For civil libertarians, this is a rare opportunity to show how classified rules are misused for strategic purposes by these agencies. The same concern can be directed toward members who read this memo and represented to the public that the release would clearly damage national security. In the end, there are legitimate questions of political bias raised in the conduct of some FBI officials. This does not mean that there are not legitimate answers for these questions but the effort to keep this memo classified should be itself a matter of grave national concern.
There are indeed two narratives competing in this controversy, one involving improper political influences in the FBI, and another of improper political pressure from the White House. Both could well be true but it is bizarre to suggest that only one of those allegations should be investigated. The FBI and the intelligence agencies have a long and documented history of such abuse. This includes the targeting of political leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. As I discussed earlier, Subsection 11(g) of Rule X was created to allow members of Congress to vote to release classified information when the majority determines “that the public interest would be served by such disclosure.”
This serves the public interest, as would a response from the Democrats and the FBI. Regardless of what comes out of the merits of the Russian investigation, Congress should investigate the misuse of classified proceedings in both the securing of the FISA applications and the later effort to prevent the release of this memo.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. He has been lead counsel in national security cases for more than two decades and has testified before the intelligence committees. You can follow him on Twitter @JonathanTurley.
“There is a sharp and alarming disconnect between the descriptions of Pelosi and the House Intelligence Committee’s Ranking Minority Member Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and the actual document. It clearly does not contain information that would reveal sources or methods.”
***************
Really no disconnect, JT, if you accept this simple edit: “Pelosi and Schiff are snake oil selling, Carney barking, Democratic liars.” Saves a lot of column space. On the other hand it might be redundant or pedantic. You decide.
We could go an extra step Marc:
Pelosi & Schiff are Democrats.
A & B = Liar
D= Liar
As always nothing to add but stupidity.
Pray tell then why do you read it? Einstein had you pegged apparently. Anonymity becomes you.
“…the contents of this dossier were so unverified that virtually all of the reporters declined to run the story…”
Sad commentary that the FBI has lower standards in FISA courts than does the press. Suggests that our 4th Amendment is not really valued by the FBI.
They were unverified at the time the media first became aware of them which was months before the election. It was also raw intel and provided solely as that. So no way to know how much has, or has not, been verified since then.
Sounds like a defense of the memo written by Nunes. Many matters regarding this memo distorted or overlooked. For example: The Wall Street Journal, citing a source who has reviewed the FISA application, reports that the dossier constituted only part of the application. Contradicting the Nunes document’s claims, the source indicated that the FISA application did, in fact, disclose that Steele was paid by a “law firm working for a major political party.” https://www.lawfareblog.com/thoughts-nunes-memo-we-need-talk-about-devin
Good catch! Tyll van Geel. Keep them coming.
The mysterious source was “Louie” at the newsstand out front whose second wife’s cousin works at the federal building in DC and who knows a clerk who talked to a bailiff who walked the application from the judges chambers to the clerks office. Don’t believe anonymous sources.
Yeah, the guy at the newstand somehow always knows everything. One of the great tropes of the last century.
I hate to be the one to break the news to you, but lawfare is a totally bogus democrat website. There are too many ridiculous statements in the article you linked to catalogue here, but take this one for an example:
“… the Special Counsel has continued, its counterintelligence investigation into Russia’s election interference and links to the Trump campaign.”
That’s a pretty goofy statement for a website that calls itself “law”fare to make, considering the regulatory FACT that a special counsel can ONLY be appointed to investigate/prosecute CRIMES. Counterintelligence is NOT a matter that a special counsel can lawfully be appointed to become involved in.
28 CFR § 600.1 Grounds for appointing a Special Counsel.
“The Attorney General, or in cases in which the Attorney General is recused, the Acting Attorney General, will appoint a Special Counsel when he or she determines that criminal investigation of a person or matter is warranted ***”
Counterintelligence investigation is NOT the same thing as criminal investigation. Counterintelligence and crime are entirely separate divisions of the FBI, with very different governing regulations. Nobody that knows anything about the law would suggest that they are equivalent or that authority to investigate crime translates into authority to conduct a counterintelligence investigation.
I guess lawfare forgot to mention that or the fact that Mueller’s investigation is unlawful for a number of reasons, not the least of which are that Rosenstein had no legal authority to appoint a special counsel to conduct a counterintelligence investigation, and Mueller is merely continuing an unlawful investigation that was unlawfully begun by the FBI while failing to disclose to congress AS REQUIRED that the investigation had been started.
I recommend you locate a reputable source of information.
WSJ – that biased, liberal, partisan rag -LOL. I guess they’re part of the Deep State conspiracy, too [I always hear creepy monster movie music when I write the words deep state]
I just wish their editorial board would buy a subscription so they can read what their reporters are finding out.
Thanks for posting this!
‘For civil libertarians, this is a rare opportunity to show how classified rules are misused for strategic purposes by these agencies.’
For all Americans this should be an obvious opportunity to show how rules and positions are misused for objectives of biased reasons. In theory the justice department, FBI, CIA, etc are supposed to be independent of political bias. Presidents interfering by pardoning those who break the law for political or personal aims should be the basis for these pardons being revoked. Political appointees in positions of the ‘justice’ segment of our government should be heavily scrutinized and afforded no harbor to hide their actions. The American public should have the right to have access to the ingredients that go into the make up of the government.
This move by Nunes is a perverse attempt at addressing the right to view information that may or may not illustrate crimes. The perversity lies in the editing by Nunes of the ‘memo’ and the exclusion of the Democrats in Congress during this process. This smacks of a Trumpian cherry picking and designing to draw attention away from another and much larger process.
The only way to both clear this up and set new precedents is to release all the information surrounding the ‘memo’ and establish a foundation for full disclosure, including Trump’s tax returns. If there was and is no collusion between Russia and the Trump end, or any other end for that matter, then full disclosure is the necessary part. Then we can listen to the lawyers offering up their interpretations.
We have a position of President that sometimes equates to that of a omnipotent ruler. We have a bought and paid for system of representatives that produce two choices, one more than that of an omnipotent ruler. We have the worst of the worst in leadership positions. Perhaps it’s time to revamp the system. Our peer nations with more successful elected representatives, where money is not the determining factor, where the issues and not the circus is presented to the voters, etc have all revised their systems on an ongoing as needed basis. Why does America cling to this carved in stone mentality that restricts and limits the necessary evolution of the government structure?
Happy Sunday morning, February 4th, Issac!
Late4Dinner
Wow, you remembered.
I will never forget you, Isaac. If I was supposed to remember something else, I’m afraid it slipped my mind.
J. Edgar Hoover said that inside information proved that Martin Luther King was a communist. He was killed on that basis. The public knows nothing. The media wants the public to know nuthin. The media don’t know nuttin bout birthin babies.
Well done!
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/19/us/politics/carter-page-russia-trump.html
Excerpted from the article linked above:
“In April 2013, Mr. Page was caught on an F.B.I. wiretap in an investigation of suspected Russian intelligence officers in New York. Victor Podobnyy, one of three men later charged with being unregistered agents of a foreign power, had met Mr. Page at an energy symposium and was recorded describing him as “an idiot” with dreams of lucrative deals. There is no evidence that Mr. Page knew the man was an intelligence officer.”
Keep in my that it is not necessary for the FBI to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Carter Page is guilty of any crime in order for the FBI to obtain a FISA warrant on Carter Page. All the FBI had to do to get the FISA warrant on Carter Page was to demonstrate probable cause for suspecting that Carter Page may have been acting as the agent of a foreign power. The FBI succeeded at demonstrating probable cause for a FISA warrant on Carter Page in 2014. Carter Page got the attention of the FBI again in 2015 when Carter Page handed a cache of economic analyses to a Russian spy the FBI had been tracking.
In July of 2016, Carter Page made a trip to Moscow as a representative of the Trump campaign to deliver a speech at the New Economic School that was highly critical of The United States’ relations with The Russian Federation at that time and since the Russian annexation of The Crimea in 2014. At the time of Carter Page’s Moscow speech, Christopher Steele had not yet even been hired by Fusion GPS nor had any of Steele’s memos in the dossier yet been filed with the FBI. Carter Page’s Moscow speech got the attention of the FBI for the third time since 2013. It also got Carter Page fired from the Trump campaign by none other than Don McGahn.
To suggest, as Ninny-Na-Na Nunes’s memo would have us believe, that the October 2016 FISA warrant on Carter Page was somehow unwarranted and abusive is to ignore all available press reports about Carter Page in favor of a wild-eyed, paranoiac, conspiracy theory that all-too-conveniently serves the interests of The POTUS, Trump. It’s almost admirable that so very many Trump supporters and defenders are so deeply loyal to the Pig-in-a-Poke with whom they’ve all stuck themselves. But Trump has done nothing whatsoever to earn nor deserve such undying loyalty from anyone. Wake up! Snap out of it! Start paying attention to what’s going on around here before it’s too late.
Correction: Fusion GPS hired Christopher Steele in June of 2016. Carter Page’s Moscow speech as in July of 2016. Even so, Steele did not file any reports with the FBI until August of 2016.
Diane – the pressitutes of the media are mouthpieces of the DNC.
I bet you like the word Obummer, too. If you rely on the state news media at Fox for your information, then your comment is absolutely hilarious.
rachael – I prefer baby Jesus Obama and I do not watch Fox. I get my news from alternative sources.
Unfortunately, PCS is unable to discern truth from fiction, he loves him some Faux News.
YNOT – unlike you I do not get my talking points every morning from Correct the Record. However, this attack was very weak, you getting the flu? If so, take care, people are dying?
https://twitter.com/tedlieu/status/959702913986609152
Excellent questions. I have no idea what the answers might be. Why did McGahn fire Page from the Trump campaign after the Moscow speech? Did the FBI warn McGahn about Carter Page? Beats me. I’d bet that he who will not be deterred, Robert Swan Mueller The Third, might eventually have a few words to say on the subject.
Still wonder why we did not know more about the Russia Trump investigation before the election.
The official story is that the FBI did not want to appear to be intervening in an election. The unofficial story is that they assumed that Clinton would beat Trump. The real story remains just about anyone’s guess. As for Comey’s letter reopening the investigation into Clinton’s emails, the word on the street is that Rudy Guiliani and the New York office of the FBI forced Comey’s hand. Just imagine the hue and cry that would still be reverberating across the land had Comey not sent that letter and Clinton had beaten Trump. Oy geveldt.
Comey made some poor choices in my opinion and should have stayed professional and kept his mouth shut.
Yes, that’s true. Comey should’ve forced Guiliani’s hand right back at him and the New York office of the FBI. It is most unnatural of me to offer any defense of Comey’s poor choices. But that misfortune has become my lot in life for the foreseeable future. Everybody knows damned well that the FBI intervened in the 2016 election. And no one knows it better than Trump, who may very well have been the person most surprised that the dirty trick actually worked. Perhaps that’s why Trump had to fire Comey. A person like Comey who caved in to pressure tactics in the first place was supposed to have caved in to pressure tactics in the second place as well. Or else Trump resented Comey for having put Clinton’s shoes on Trump’s feet. As Turley would say, what do you think?
Willfully and unlawfully removing, concealing, and/or destroying federal records is a crime — 18 U.S. Code § 2071(b) — and it looks like that statute needs to be amended to include intentional and/or negligent misclassification of federal records. Perhaps even misrepresenting to the public that information is classified when it’s not should also be added to the criminal statute, because the practical result of misclassifying information or politicians and bureaucrats lying to the public about requested information being classified is that information that should be available to the public ends up being concealed from the public, and that’s what that criminal statute is intended to prevent and punish.
And maybe it’s time that the laborious and convoluted necessity of submitting FOIA requests should be replaced by a practice of posting ALL unclassified government records on a website for instantaneous availability. In the long run, that would probably be a much more economical, efficient, and consistent way of dealing with unclassified government records and information. Certainly the current system is an ad hoc nightmare. Sometimes it seems that a FOIA request itself alerts government functionaries to the possibility that the requested information includes information that the government would prefer to hide from the public. Until someone specifically asked for some particular information, it might not even occur to people in government that the requested information could be a source of embarrassment to them.
As things are, when someone requests government records, it appears that the first thing that occurs to people in government is that they might want to hide that information because somehow it could be a source of embarrassment to them. “Why else would someone want it?” is probably the first thought that passes through their “minds” (for lack of a better word).
Great post. But complete transparency will never happen. Your last paragraph is right on.
But, regarding Turley’s comments about the DOJ misleading the FISA court – we don’t really know that from this memo. MSNBC says that the FISA court was informed about everything involving the dossier (but probably not that some involved FBI persons despised Trump – although how relevant would that have been?).
RDKAY – was the FISA court informed that Clinton and the DNC paid for it? I think not,
Read Tyll van Geel’s post with a link currently near the top of the thread.
Truth is not his concern.
“MSNBC says that the FISA court was informed about everything involving the dossier (but probably not that some involved FBI persons despised Trump – although how relevant would that have been?).”
(1) Personally, I don’t consider MSNBC a credible source. Too many reasons to go into here. But near the top of the list is a habit of saying anything — almost literally anything — and then never mentioning the subject again after it turns out to be a total fabrication. Many “news” outlets do that, but MSNBC is one of the worst offenders. It’s funny how all of their “mistakes” inevitably favor democrats. They never error in favor of anyone BUT democrats.
And the fact that they hired “Reverend” Al Tawana Brawley Sharpton says a lot about who they are, just as hiring notorious unprosecuted multiple felon James Clapper — an admitted perjurer — says all one needs to know about CNN’s standards regarding factual accuracy.
But the stories they DON’T cover is at the top of the list, setting aside the things that they do promote.
(2) I believe the negative motives by Steele — known to the DOJ (if not the FBI, and I don’t see a legitimate reason for the DOJ to keep that information from the FBI) — are the more significant aspect of the “memo” than the negative motives of the FBI.
(3) Potential negative motives by Steele would have mattered greatly to the FISA court (or should have) in the absence of reliable verification of the information in the “dossier.” In the absence of verification of relevant facts, the author’s motive in magnified a thousand times.
(4) And the fact (or allegation) that the FBI let Steele go for violating its rule about maintaining confidentiality by speaking to the press — a fact allegedly withheld from the court — would have also mattered greatly to the court under any circumstances, but particularly since in speaking to the press Steele and the FBI fabricated supposed credibility for the “dossier” my manufacturing a “second source” which was, in reality, the same source — Steele.
Now we know why Steele and Fusion GPS were so involve in trying to get the “dossier” into the “news.” It wasn’t just to get the negative publicity to damage the Trump campaign, but to tamper with supposed evidence the FBI intended to present to the FISA court. People should go to prison for that.
Speaking of gullible rubes, perhaps mark m. would like to cite the exact law he feels Trump is guilty of breaking…Oh and the evidence/proof would by nice too.
We all know the ones hilary broke. If no prosecution is good enough for the LOSER of the 2016 election it is certainly good enough for the WINNER.
Dawn – my understanding is that there are currently 3 active investigations into the Clinton Crime Family. This may be one of the reasons why Hillary is staying off the radar the last couple of weeks. Judicial Watch is still getting her emails although the State Dept is slow-walking them. The judge has said they have to be completed by the end of 2018, so we will have most of them before the midterms. Huma Abedin is clearly at legal risk from the DoJ again. Judicial Watch has uncovered some 16 classified emails on the same computer that Weiner was using to sext an underage girl from. That puts both Hillary, Weiner, and Huma at risk.
The FBI’s failure to quickly locate the documents on Weiner’s device also raises a question of what the FBI was doing while pretending to investigate Hillary’s email fiasco. Did they even ask Huma about it when they interviewed her? Did they ask Weiner about it during the investigation? The way the story’s been told, the FBI would’ve NEVER discovered the government records, including classified information, on Weiner’s laptop if they hadn’t been investigating him for an unrelated crime.
The FBI framed the original email investigation as ONLY related to mishandling of classified information, per referral of the “intelligence community.” In so doing, they steered the investigation and parallel narrative in Congressional hearings away from discovering or even noticing obvious misconduct that didn’t involve mishandling classified information. Theft and destruction of government property comes to mind.
For an investigation misdirected specifically to issues of mishandling classified information (to the apparent exclusion of all other crimes), it sure doesn’t seem like the FBI looked very hard for classified information that leaked out through Hillary’s enormous sieve, since it turned out that there was a trove of it sitting on a laptop of the husband of one of the main subjects of investigation. What the FBI did during that investigation was like catching a bank robber and frisking him, and then letting him go because they didn’t find the bank’s money on him, and in the process not bothering to frisk the bank robber’s spouse.
If they don’t prosecute Huma, it will probably be because that would shine a bright spotlight on the FBI’s own negligence or collusion, and if we’ve learned nothing else in the last week (or maybe the last two years) it’s that the FBI would prefer to allow crimes to go unprosecuted and even unnoticed if the facts of the case don’t make the FBI look like the mythical legend it likes to think of itself as being.
W. Bayer,..
– I hope that the IG’s report addresses the issues you raised in your comment.
Whatever that report contains, it seems to have hastened McCabe’s ” retirement”.
The emails between McCabe and Peter Strzok show that BOTH of them knew of the Hillary emails on Huma/ Weiner/ “Carlos Danger” laptop on September 28, 2016.
Unless they kept Comey out of the loop, all three of the highest ranking FBI officials were aware of it by Sept. 28.
Comey waited until October 28 to announce that he was re-opening the investigation of Hillary’s emails.
We might learn what these guys were doing, and what they were communicating to each other, during that one month lag.
Yep. The IG’s report is crucial. However, I’m remembering that the State Department’s IG’s report, critical as it was of the unprosecuted multiple felon formerly known as “Hillary in a landslide,” didn’t amount to anything more than a little negative publicity, despite tens of thousands of federal records having been removed, concealed, and destroyed.
Until I hear a rumor that the IG is building a guillotine on the lawn out in front of his office, I’m not counting on anything coming from his report — but as you say, one can hope.
You are nothing but a propagandist, JW is a hack organization thus I understand your affinity.
YNOT – for a hack organization, they are pretty effective.
More blather.
All this memo does is fill in the redacted parts of the recently released FISC memo which was heavily redacted. Thank you, Nunes and Pres. Trump.
While this tempest in a teapot may be interesting to some, it has absolutely no effect on the investigation and prospective prosecution of the trump buffoon and his minions which they have earned for the treasonous crimes which they have committed.
On the bright side, you gullible rubes will be able to look up the trump buffoon’s Bureau of Prisons address on BOP.gov.
May have. Nothing is settled yet.
As usual, Turley is kickin’ arse and takin’ names! Bravo!
JT mentions “targeting of Martin Luther King”. MLK was targeted by the FBI and their aim was a success– they killed him.
Discuss that. The history of the FBI gets ignored in the media and in this blog.
J. Edgar Hoover pulled the trigger on John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy.
Put that in your pipe and do your enema.
It’s just sad to see journalists like Brokaw and Carl Bernstein act as shills for the FBI and the Democrats. I think Berstein was the saddest and most pathetic. A former trailblazer arguing the this is indermining our faith in law enforcement.
Where was he when most of the press were helping push the narrative that cops were deliberately hunting and killing unarmed black men?
While the FBI, DOJ, CIA, and other Deep State Operations are led by lying, corrupt, anti-American Leftists, they don’t have to worry about being thrown out by Americans because there are so many, many Leftists making up the US population.
And Leftists are BEYOND STUPID. Want proof? Here you go . . .
Nothing is more hypocritical that our MSM claiming that releasing this memo would cause a constitutional crisis as attacking our intelligence and law enforcement agencies cannot be tolerated.
Quite a switch after the MSM patted themselves on the back in the recent movie “The Post” and of course all the leaks that have occurred since Pres. Trump has taken office.
How can anyone have confidence in the FBI hierarchy as Mr. Comey thought it was prudent to leak work product to his friend, now attorney?
How can anyone have confidence in our intelligence agencies as just last year they were claiming “a blow to national security” if Pres. Trump declassified JFK assassination material from 50 years ago?
Hopefully, Rep. Nunes’ memo is just the start of other memos coming our way. The IG report of the DOJ is due this month. Sen. Grassley is working on a similar memo about the Steele dossier.
The few folks left in Congress that want the truth exposed, should be concerned about their physical being. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.
Mike Peterman,…
– I don’t know if this is seperate from the Grassley/ Steele dossier memo that you mentioned, but the criminal referral that Grassley sent to the DOJ ( re possible criminal violations by Steele) seems to be based on Steele’s pre-election contacts with the media promoting the allegations in the dossier.
This is a summary of what was reported in the Jan.6, 2017 Washington Examiner in an article entitled:
“What the criminal referral on the Trump dossier means” :
The article states that in a London lawsuit, Steele’s lawyers said that in September 2016, Fusion GPS instructed Steele to brief reporters from the New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, Yahoo News, and Mother Jones on the allegations contained in the Russian Dossier.
Steele did those briefings.
..only Mother Jones published material based on
Steele’s briefing.
That was at or near the end of Oct., 2016, c. 10 days before the election.
None of the other media outlets would publish unverified material based on Steele’s briefings.
But the objective was to “get this out” in the news c. 2 months before the election.
The article stated that if Steele lied about his media contacts to the FBI, he could face criminal charges.
If the FBI didn’t bother to ask Steele if he was he was briefing the media about the dossier, that probably clears Steele of the charges.
It would also raise the question of why the FBI didn’t bother to check to see if Steele was simultaneously passing information on the media as he was briefing the FBI.
I think there may be more information obtained from these civil suits that throws more light on the activities of of Fusion GPS and Steele.
As a British citizen, Steele may not be too concerned about the possibly consequences of the DOJ criminal referral.
If Fusion GPS has testified that they did NOT seek pre-election media coverage of the dossier allegations, and the statements of Steele’s London lawyers are born out, then Fusion GPS may find itself facing criminal charges.
Thanks for that info.
Carter Page is a “patsy”. Carter Page is the modern Lee Harvey Oswald. Carter Page is a “useful idiot” who was used by the “deep state” Intel.
Carter Page has never been charged with or prosecuted for any crime.
Carter Page had the misfortune to have been “approached” by two Russian businessmen/spooks in 2013.
Carter Page has been “run” like the “patsy”, Oswald, ever since.
What I also found this interesting, is that the FISA warrant considered Carter Page a possible spy for Russia, which gave our undignified authorities to not only eavesdrop once the warrant was granted, but allowed them to go back in time as he had already separated from the Trump campaign.
And the fact that this guy was never interviewed until months later shows the FBI knew he wasn’t a spy.
http://time.com/5132126/carter-page-russia-2013-letter/
Excerpted from the article linked above:
“In June 2013, the FBI interviewed Page regarding his contacts with the Russians, Page says. The FBI believed that Russian intelligence services had attempted to recruit Page as an agent with promises of business opportunities in Russia, according to the 2015 court documents.
According to published reports, the FBI obtained a first FISA warrant to eavesdrop on Page’s electronic communications during 2013. And they have been paying attention to him, on and off, ever since.”
mike Peterman said, “And the fact that this guy was never interviewed until months later shows the FBI knew he wasn’t a spy.”
Gee willikers, mike peterman, as it turns out your statement of supposed fact is factually wrong–in Carter Page’s own words, no less.
Late for Dimner is not the only thing you’re late for. When did the FBI interview Mr. Page for the current Russia investigation? Approximately June of 2017. That would be 9 months after the FISA warrant was issued.
If the FBI had any evidence on him, don’t you think he would’ve been interviewed earlier? Of course. And the FBI got another extension of the warrant after the interview.
This is called ‘being duped’ and trying to find something to cover their butts. Carter Page is still walking free.
What mike peterman actually posted the first time was that Carter Page “. . . was never interviewed until months later . . . ”
“Never interviewed.” Your words, Peterman. Now go read the article to which I posted a link and find out how long the FBI has monitoring Carter Page and how many times the FBI has interviewed Carter Page.
P. S. The FBI does not have to prove that Carter Page is guilty of espionage in order to obtain a FISA warrant on Carter Page. Likewise, the FBI interview of Carter Page in June of 2017 or thereabouts may have been conducted as a courtesy to Carter Page to give Carter Page a chance to clarify the record on his communications with Russians. Moreover, the fact that Carter Page has not yet been charged with a crime in no way whatsoever entails that Carter Page will not be charged with a crime.
This just in: The FBI interviewed Carter Page for ten hours in March of 2017. That’s before Trump fired Comey and, therefore, before Rosenstein hired Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller The Third who will not be deterred.
Lee Harvey Oswald was manipulated to explain the JFK assassination.
Carter Page was manipulated to “justify” FISA surveillance of DJT.
Loretta Lynch was the Attorney General who directed the DOJ including the FBI and its “spooks”.
Barrack Obama was the President who directed the Attorney General.
The pawns are moved around the chessboard.
Your last sentence only proves that you are not capable of making credible deductions.
And they terminated Carter Page just like they did to Lee Oswald. Termination does not only have to result in the death of the patsy. Sometimes mere permanent silence is sufficient.
Media interviews with Carter Page are widely available in both print and video. He practically went on a public relations tour after McGahn fired him from the Trump campaign.
George said, “Carter Page has never been charged with or prosecuted for any crime.”
That’s because the FBI did not charge an innocent man with any crime that that innocent man had not committed. And not to put too fine a point on it, George, but if Trump is innocent of any crime, then Mueller will not charge Trump with any crime that Trump has not committed.
You are a disingenuous “spin doctor” with a PhD you issued to yourself. Where would you be without “Affirmative Action Privilege” and generational welfare? You are the very personification of an artifice, which, apparently, you live under a perceived mortal threat of losing.
Carter Page has never been charged or prosecuted for a crime because Carter Page has never committed a crime. Carter Page was weaponized the FBI/DOJ/INTEL “deep state”.
The facts are available and the FBI/DOJ criminals have already begun to fall, McCabe, Strzok, Page, Ohr et al.
You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!
Best of luck deflecting and defeating the facts and the truth.
It is on and all roads lead to Obama.
_____
Every single last American citizen in the United States can be arrested, investigated and prosecuted for some crime, somewhere, sometime in his life.
You have committed crimes for which you could be prosecuted.
Mueller is said to have proposed charging the President with obstruction of justice for asking an employee, who serves at the pleasure of the President, whom he voted for. Absolutely ridiculous.
Mueller is on a mission, assigned by his party to impeach the political opponent of his party, which has been revealed in texts and testimony.
Kurtz – “McCabe said he asked for the meeting to tell Priebus that “everything” in a New York Times story authored by Michael S. Schmidt, Mark Mazzetti, and Matt Apuzzo was “bullsh-t.” McCabe and Comey refused to go public.
Strzok texted of the need for an “insurance policy” and that he would be a part of “history” were he to join the Mueller “impeachment” team.
Mueller’s commission was illegitimate from the outset because NO evidence, as “probable cause”, of a crime existed, there were only political accusations cited by Rosenstein, a member of the same political party, in his frenetic and duplicitous act of assigning a special prosecutor to investigate “nothing”.
Mueller has not, can not and never will find the democrat hypothesized “Russian Collusion”.
Mueller has changed his charge from “Russian Collusion” to various “process crimes”.
Mueller’s mission is to CREATE a PROCESS crime.
Mueller has committed the crimes of willful and deliberate illegal leaking, abuse of power, conspiring to falsely implicate an innocent party and insurrection against the government of the duly elected President of the United States of America.
It is preposterous for you to present that Hillary and the rest of the criminal democrats should not have been charged with the many, multiple crimes that they manifestly perpetrated but the President should be impeached subsequent to a fraudulent and wholly political “investigation of nothing”.
Egregious doesn’t begin to describe the actions of Rosenstein, Mueller and the “deep state” accomplices.
George said, “Carter Page has never been charged with or prosecuted for any crime.”
L4D said, “That’s because the FBI did not charge an innocent man with any crime that that innocent man had not committed.”
George said, “Carter Page has never been charged or prosecuted for a crime because Carter Page has never committed a crime.”
The issue is whether there was probable cause to obtain a FISA warrant on Carter Page in October of 2016. The issue is not whether there is sufficient evidence to secure a Grand Jury indictment against Carter Page for any alleged crime. George is well aware of the distinction at issue. But for some reason most likely unbeknownst even to George, himself, George evidently thinks that his statement that “Carter Page has never committed a crime” is somehow a refutation of L4D’s statement that “the FBI did not charge an innocent man with any crime that that innocent man had not committed.” George then parlays that non-refutation refutation into an extended foray on the presumption of guilt on the part of a long list of criminal defendants who have not yet even been charged with any crime. And the simple fact that none of those defendants have yet been charged with any crime just so happens to be the Absolut proof positive in George’s figgy pudding.
Well, at least George didn’t scare the children–again.
That’s assuming they were working with a business as usual poltician which is no longer the case. Best chance is a rip their throat out non politician like the one we hired to do the job. looks like The Collective has fallen back in disarray until they can get reprogrammed.
But as i count it’ s one in progress investigation starting physically in Little Rock, Arkansas, Another one going after the National Security Violations now going into Phase II as they put it. A new one from the Senate Intelligence Committee and Mr. Meuller now has to sort out where he’s at. The Dems are bitching about what the House Committee said even though they clarified this would not interfere or hold up his investigation. They did not however go so far as to say his findings based on the released memo were valid or even if valid are usable under the Fruit of the Poisoned Tree Rule. .
They are also running the Demo version through the required steps to be released but have the copy so the left can’t change it every five seconds. this should prove to be entertaining.
Next question for Meuller why the russkie ham’n’egger hasn’t been called to testify and
Latest news is Huma Gotcha Abedin is as of late December working for Clinton and laying low… however no reported sightings since New Years and here investigation is definitely a fourth on going one so if she survives Chappaqua (damn that’s scary it’s so close to chappaquidic) and the evidence mentioned has her cold on more than one felony then how long before she’ll take the fall or turn states evidence.
But an update on the pork bellies phase of the new clinton investigation did you HEAR all that squealing today from the left? send them to Iran. .
Do tell.
Michael Aarethun wants Trump to use the FBI and the DOJ to investigate and prosecute Trump’s political opponents both from the past and, far more importantly, going forward into the future. Michael probably thinks that’s the only way Trump can get reelected to a second term in office. There is, of course, at least one other way for Trump to get reelected in 2020. But it’s a longshot and extremely risky. Not to mention hush-hush.
We ALREADY know who the liars are. The Mainstream Media Presstitutes and their Deep State allies, the Democratic Party Prostitutes, lied, saying the FISA Memo contained vital secrets that risked national security, when they knew the memo contained no such things.
However, the Deep State ALWAYS protects their own, no matter how criminal and heinous their activities. So, at best, I expect that the Deep State will appoint an expendable flunky to take the fall, even though even that flunky will end up on his feet later down the road, thanks to the Deep State,
The motto of the Deep State has always been: “Crime Pays, and pays well.”
Please elaborate further on this “Deep State” organization which you have so cleverly uncovered. It seems that through your remarkable sleuthing talents that you have uncovered a cabal of ne’er-do-wells which is hell-bent on eradicating our ‘Merican way of life; or fluoridating are precious bodily fluids, or some such.
this is to “Inspector Clouseau” ralphie
Markie “Mental”– The Deep State was first disclosed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in his farewell address that specifically referenced the Military-Industrial-Complex. President John F. Kennedy also warned of the very same conspiracy behind the scenes players in his “Secret Society” speech below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ykr2BfcwLF4
In case you failed to notice, during the last presidential election process, all of the mainstream media united to present a pro-Clinton, anti-Trump propaganda program. The reason that Clinton was preferred over Trump was because Clinton could be trusted to follow orders, having done so for decades. That was the Deep State in action. The Deep State has been desperately trying to undermine President Trump ever since he was elected.
Perhaps you would have a sense of reality if you would take the opportunity to stop spending all of your spare time in the same place that Leston Lawrence of Barrhaven, Ottawa prefers to store his gold.