Previously Chairman Lindsey Graham promised to hold public hearings on reforms needed to the FISA process prior to any reauthorization vote.  However, with two weeks remaining until current FISA authorization expires the Senate Judiciary Committee has yet to hold a single hearing, and the senate calendar is empty.

In November of 2019 buried deep in the congressional budget Continuing Resolution (CR) was a short-term extension to reauthorize the FISA “business records provision”, the “roving wiretap” provision, the “lone wolf” provision, and the more controversial bulk metadata provisions [Call Detail Records (CDR)], all parts of the Patriot Act.  As a result of the FISA CR inclusion the terminal deadline was pushed to March 15, 2020.
The Senate is scheduled to go back into recess on March 13th.  Additionally, the DOJ/FBI response to the FISA court order (due February 5th) has still not been made public.  At a minimum the DOJ/FBI response to the FISA court needs to be made public prior to any reauthorization by congress; and to better understand the scale of the issue, an explanation of the the DOJ/FBI sequestered evidence needs to be made public.
Representatives requesting FISA reform prior to renewal include: Mark Meadows, Jim Jordan, Doug Collins, Jody Rice, Devin Nunes and Steve Scalise.  Additionally, Senator Mike Lee and Senator Rand Paul are trying to force reform or let the current version expire.  However, Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell, along with AG Bill Barr, want a clean FISA renewal without public hearings….
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This is likely the most insufferably short-sighted political position in decades.  Faced with years of evidence showing worsening abuses by government officials using the FISA court, U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr says a clean reauthorization bill is the best option because his DOJ and FBI will not abuse it.
Note the import of AG Barr’s position.  He is not saying the system *cannot* be abused; and he is not saying that reform isn’t needed to prevent systemic abuse; only that he can give assurances under his tenure FISA data collection and exploitation will *not* be abused.   What happens when an administration changes?…. ::::crickets chirping::::

In November of 2019 buried deep in the congressional budget Continuing Resolution (CR) was a short-term extension to reauthorize the FISA “business records provision”, the “roving wiretap” provision, the “lone wolf” provision, and the more controversial bulk metadata provisions [Call Detail Records (CDR)], all parts of the Patriot Act.  As a result of the FISA CR inclusion the terminal deadline was pushed to March 15, 2020:

WASHINGTON – Attorney General William Barr told Senate Republicans on Tuesday that the Trump administration could support a clean extension of contentious surveillance laws set to expire next month. And Barr said he could make changes on his own to satisfy President Donald Trump and his allies who have railed against the use of the law to monitor his 2016 campaign, according to senators at a party briefing.

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Lou Dobbs reminds everyone tonight about a rapidly approaching FISA reauthorization deadline coming quickly on March 15th without any public input, public hearings, information about current DOJ/FBI corrective measures, or sunlight on the issues.
Appearing tonight with Mr. Dobbs is House Judiciary Committee ranking member Doug Collins who has been trying to draw attention to an upcoming reauthorization and the refusal of House democrats to hold hearings on the need for reform in the wake of yet another IG report hightlighting abuses of the current system.

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As outlined by Lou Dobbs, in November of 2019 buried deep in the congressional budget Continuing Resolution (CR) was a short-term extension to reauthorize the FISA “business records provision”, the “roving wiretap” provision, the “lone wolf” provision, and the more controversial bulk metadata provisions [Call Detail Records (CDR)], all parts of the Patriot Act.  As a result of the FISA CR inclusion the terminal deadline was pushed to March 15, 2020:
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The Armador County Sheriff’s department now appears to be walking back their initial claim of suicide in the death of DHS Whistle-blower Phillip Haney.  In addition to the announcement the sheriff’s office has requested assistance from the FBI:

From Gateway Pundit – […] “Unfortunately, there was misinformation immediately being put out that we have determined Mr. Haney’s death to be a suicide. This is not the case. We are currently in the beginning phase of our investigation and any final determination as to the cause and manner of Mr. Haney’s death would be extremely premature and inappropriate. No determination will be made until all evidence is examined and analyzed.” (read more)

Prior statement below:
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A previously incurious New York Times is now exposing members of the FBI crew who participated in fraud upon the FISA Court.  Are the corrupt former top-tier FBI officials starting to position lower-level FBI participants as scapegoats?

Inside an insufferable article, engineered to defend the need for the DOJ and FBI to continue using FISA intelligence gathering information against U.S. persons, the New York times outlines Stephen M Somma as Case Agent 1, the handler for FBI confidential human source Stefan Halper.

(NYT) […] The Page report criticized an F.B.I. agent for ignoring that very procedure as part of half a dozen personal failings that included not passing on the information from the C.I.A., singling the agent out as “primarily responsible for some of the most significant errors and omissions.”

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Representative John Ratcliffe appears with Maria Bartiromo to answer questions about the fraudulent information within an intelligence briefing last week and the House democrats weaponizing a false narrative.  Ratcliffe points fingers toward Adam Schiff for manufacturing the false media assertions & perpetuating a hoax on the American people.
Additionally Mr. Ratcliffe notes the upcoming reauthorization of FISA authority is taking place under a cloud of abuse by government officials and a host of deep state resistance interests who do not want to admit abuse within the FISA system.

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In December of 2019 congress buried the short-term extension to reauthorize the FISA “business records provision”, the “roving wiretap” provision, the “lone wolf” provision, and the more controversial bulk metadata provisions [Call Detail Records (CDR)], all parts of the Patriot Act.  As a result of the FISA CR inclusion the terminal deadline was pushed to March 15, 2020. [Backstory]

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Against the backdrop of a then pending OIG FISA report, in December of 2019 buried deep in the congressional budget Continuing Resolution (CR) was a short-term extension to reauthorize the FISA “business records provision”, the “roving wiretap” provision, the “lone wolf” provision, and the more controversial bulk metadata provisions [Call Detail Records (CDR)], all parts of the Patriot Act.
As a result of the FISA CR inclusion the terminal deadline was pushed to March 15, 2020:

FISA Court judges Rosemary Collyer (declassified 2017) and James Boasberg (declassified 2019) both identified issues with the NSA bulk database collection program being exploited for unauthorized reasons.  For the past several years no corrective action taken by the intelligence community has improved the abuses outlined by the FISA court.  The sketchy programs, and abuse therein, needs more public attention.
However, there is now a confluence of events highlighting a likelihood congress and the intelligence apparatus writ large want to reauthorize the FISA surveillance and collection authorities without further sunlight and without public input. Here’s what’s going on….
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Sooner or later Ms. Bartiromo is going to have to call Senator Graham to task for his delays, obfuscations and can-kicking.   During an interview this morning Maria Bartiromo asks Lindsey Graham about whether he is actually going to hold the hearings he has discussed for over six months.  Graham’s response isn’t exactly inspiring confidence.
One of Graham’s “problems” per se’, is the reality that many members of the Senate, including John McCain, Richard Burr, Dianne Feinstein, Harry Reid and later Mark Warner, participated in the events in/around the intelligence targeting of candidate -then President- Donald Trump.  About mid-way through this interview it appears Bartiromo recognizes Graham is professionally can-kicking once again. WATCH:

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In 2017 SSCI Security Director James Wolfe was caught leaking Top Secret Classified information, the Page FISA application, to his journalist girlfriend. In late 2018 the SSCI intelligence breech was covered-up by DAG Rod Rosenstein and DC Attorney Jessie Liu.
In 2019 Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) employee, Henry Kyle Frese, was caught leaking Top Secret classified intelligence to his journalist girlfriend.  In 2020 he pleads guilty to the charges:

[Via DOJ] – An employee of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) pleaded guilty today to charges related to his disclosure of classified national defense information (NDI) to two journalists in 2018 and 2019.
[…] According to court documents, Henry Kyle Frese, 31, of Alexandria, was employed by DIA as a counterterrorism analyst from February 2018 to October 2019, and held a Top Secret//Sensitive Compartmented Information security clearance.

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President Trump appointed Richard “Ric” Grenell to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the surprise appointment begins immediately.  Within minutes the media intelligence apparatus displayed apoplexy at the announcement.
All of the right administrative state interests are visibly triggered by the appointment; and it appears this could be a key turning point in President Trump’s push-back against the permanent intelligence apparatus that has targeted his administration for three years.

It does not seem accidental the appointment of Ric Grenell as Acting DNI comes after AG Bill Barr publicly displayed his weakness in managing the DOJ and FBI.  When the U.S. Attorney General chooses to complain about POTUS tweets making it “impossible to do his job” via public statements, the underlying message is an AG unwilling to do his job.
The challenge for the Office of the Presidency has been executive leadership unwilling to confront visible corruption within the DOJ, FBI and Intelligence Community (IC).
Failed executive leadership includes Jeff Sessions (DOJ), Rod Rosenstein (DOJ), Chris Wray (FBI), David Bowditch (FBI), Dana Boente (FBI), Michael Horowitz (OIG) Mike Pompeo (CIA), Gina Haspel (CIA), Michael Atkinson (DOJ-NSD/ICIG), Matt Whitaker (DOJ), Dan Coats (DNI), Rex Tillerson (DoS), James Mattis (DoD), the list is long.
The evidence of ongoing efforts to undermine the presidency have surfaced in everything from the FBI not addressing rampant politicization, to an Intelligence Community Inspector General (Michael Atkinson) willing to facilitate an impeachment effort.
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