The FISA Court is Compromised

I hate to write this, but there is just no good way to look at this. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, specifically Presiding Judge James Boasberg, has hired former DOJ National Security Division head, Mary McCord, as amici curiae advisor to the court. [LINK] The placement was first noted by an announcement from Georgetown Law ICAP.

Presiding Judge James Boasberg, is the decision-maker in the appointment of Amici Curiae to the FISA court. There is no way, NO WAY, Judge Boasberg does not know Mary McCord was at the epicenter of the fraudulent FISA application used against Carter Page. Remember, in addition to being the FISC Presiding Judge, Boasberg was also the trial judge in the case against Kevin Clinesmith, the FBI lawyer who lied about Page working for the CIA on the FISA application. {Go Deep}

Boasberg knows Mary McCord took over from former DOJ-NSD head John Carlin (October 2016); and it was McCord who guided the Carter Page FISA application through the court and across the finish-line (October 2016 and January 2017). That FISA application was built upon fraud and Mary McCord was at the center of it.

Mary McCord was also the DOJ-NSD official who went with Sally Yates to confront the White House Counsel, Don McGhan, about the Michael Flynn interview with the FBI. {Go Deep} It was also Mary McCord who had Michael Atkinson as the chief-legal-counsel for the DOJ-NSD -that’s her office attorney- when the FISA application was submitted in October 2016, and renewed in January 2017.

Michael Atkinson went from DOJ-NSD counsel to become the Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG). {Go Deep} In that new role Atkinson changed the rules to allow an anonymous CIA whistleblower (Ciaramella on behalf of Vindman) to file the complaint that led to the Ukraine impeachment effort. {Go Deep} Who was the lead lawyer in the Jerry Nadler led House Judiciary Committee? Why Mary McCord of course. Judge Boasberg knows all of this… AND MORE.

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Once again the FBI is outlined by the FISA court using the NSA database for warrantless searches of American citizen information.  This is the fourth consecutive year the FISA court has outlined abuse of the NSA database by FBI workers, contractors and officials.

The latest 67 page FISA compliance review for the year 2020 was written by FISA Court Presiding Judge James Boasberg (same judge from Clinesmith trial).  The opinion was written in November 2020 and declassified (with lots of redactions) today. [pdf version HERE] – [SCRIBD pdf HERE and Below]

I’m still going through the report; however, understanding the issues in current politics, TechnoFog has a well written succinct encapsulation of the top-line issues [READ HERE] which includes:

[…] April 2019 – July 2019: An FBI technical information specialist was involved in “Compliance incidents” by conducting 124 queries of Section 702-acquired information on (1) Volunteers who had requested to participate in the FBI’s “Citizens Academy”; (2) Persons who needed to enter the field office to perform repairs; and (3) Persons who reported they were victims of a crime.

[…] In other words, the FBI is using FISA acquired information to investigate domestic crimes – not matters of foreign intelligence. These included investigations of “health-care fraud, transnational organized crime, violent gangs, domestic terrorism involving racially motivated violent extremists, as well as investigations relating to public corruption and bribery.”

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The content of the story is less important than the network within it.

The New York Times writes a story about John Durham issuing subpoenas to the Brookings Institute for records of Igor Danchenko’s work there.   Danchenko was Chris Steele’s primary sub-source for the infamous Steele Dossier.

The material provided by Danchenko to Steele was described as unsubstantiated “gossip”, “rumor”, “hearsay” and innuendo by Danchenko himself after he was questioned by the FBI.

New York Times – […] Mr. Durham has keyed in on the F.B.I.’s handling of a notorious dossier of political opposition research both before and after the bureau started using it to obtain court permission to wiretap a former Trump campaign adviser in 2016 and 2017 and questioned witnesses who may have insight into the matter.

In particular, Mr. Durham has obtained documents from the Brookings Institution related to Igor Danchenko, a Russia researcher who worked there a decade ago and later helped gather rumors about Mr. Trump and Russia for that research, known as the Steele dossier, according to people familiar with the request.

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The Washington Examiner notes an interview with Rod Rosenstein, and he now admits to having a conversation with Andrew McCabe where recording President Trump was discussed by Main Justice and the FBI group targeting the administration.

WASHINGTON – In his first TV interview since leaving the Trump administration in May 2019, Rosenstein told FOX 5 that there was talk of recording the 45th president for the inquiry but denied that he ever intended to wear a “wire” during the turbulent days that followed Trump firing FBI Director James Comey in 2017 before the appointment of Robert Mueller as special counsel.

“I had a conversation with Andrew McCabe about an investigation that he was conducting involving the president. And there was a discussion about whether or not the president would be recorded in the course of that investigation. I never intended to wear a wire, and I think that if Mr. McCabe asked me to wear a wire, we would’ve had to reconsider the whole thing. Because you can’t run an investigation and serve as a witness,” Rosenstein said in an episode of the Siege on Democracy podcast published last month.” (read more)

Those who followed the details closely, read the overlay of timelines, FOIA releases, congressional releases and testimony CTH provided, already know Rosenstein and Robert Mueller DID record President Trump in the Oval Office on May 16, 2017.  The evidence was within a series of disconnected memos, interview notes and the inspector general report.  The reason no-one reported on the evidence was because it was a series of events only evident if disconnected data was put together.

~ READ IT HERE ~

An announcement today from the U.S. District of Connecticut John Durham is a little perplexing.  According to the announcement USAO John Durham is resigning from office effective February 28.   However, there is no information about his prior appointment as special counsel to review the DOJ and FBI conduct in the Trump investigation.

Here’s the announcement:

John Solomon at Just The News has obtained the FBI memos and 302 reports from their interviews and interactions with their enlisted spygate operative Stefan Halper.

[Direct pdf link – and Embed below]

The FBI documents outline how Stefan Halper was enlisted by the FBI for their operation to target the campaign of Donald Trump in 2016. Halper agreed to become a confidential human source (CHS) or spy for the FBI, and record contacts with several members of the Trump campaign in order to frame the Russian collusion narrative.

Despite secret recordings showing Carter Page clearly had no idea about any Russian connections to the campaign, or people within it; and despite Page clearly rebuking any effort to draw those inferences; the FBI still went forward with a Title-1 FISA surveillance warrant against Page and never informed the court of the exculpatory recordings.

SOLOMON – […] The memos show that the FBI instructed Halper in August 2016 not to focus on Papadopoulos first, but rather on Page, whom the FBI described as an “opportune target.” Papadopoulos was given the code name Crossfire Typhoon (CT), while Page was given the codename Crossfire Dragon (CD) in the memos.

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Congressman Devin Nunes and former lead HPSCI Investigator Kash Patel appear with Maria Bartiromo to discuss the light sentence handed-down by FISA Presiding Judge James Boasberg for FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith.

Clinesmith plead guilty to doctoring an email to make the FISA application against Carter Page and the Trump administration appear valid.  Clinesmith lied to create a fraudulent FISA application and the Judge said he had suffered enough.  Nuts, all of it.

https://youtu.be/hyHwmeQKSIo

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Within recently released transcripts of documents by Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham there is a deposition by FBI Supervisory Special Agent 1, Joseph Pientka.

SSA Pientka has always been a little bit of an enigma because his name, exclusively, has been redacted from every official government document within the full investigation of DOJ and FBI misconduct.  Even in tangential court documents (Flynn), related to Joseph Pientka and Peter Strzok’s investigative collaboration, Pientka is ALWAYS redacted from everything.   The system in DC essentially ‘ghosted’ him in all things.  Now, the nature of that motive is surfacing.

If the recent Senate transcripts are an indication of SSA Pientka’s side of the stories, it would appear the testimony and truthfulness of Pientka’s statements would be adverse to the interests of EVERYONE who framed the Trump-Russia narrative.

Within his testimony; and if we accept it is likely consistent with internal investigative statements to the IG and others; it appears Pientka realized the activity of the FBI was intentionally taken to hide the truth of how intelligence was weaponized against the Trump administration.

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Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham released 11 transcripts of interviews conducted during the Senate Judiciary Committee’s inquiry into the origins and aftermath of the Crossfire Hurricane Investigation.  (press release)

1. Handling Agent 1: Interviewed on Tuesday, March 3, 2020 (Transcript)
2. Michael B. Steinbach: Interviewed on Friday, June 12, 2020 (Transcript)
3. Stephen C. Laycock: Interviewed on Monday, June 15, 2020 (Transcript)
4. Dana J. Boente: Interviewed on Monday, June 22, 2020 (Transcript)
5. Bruce Ohr: Interviewed on Tuesday, June 30, 2020 (Transcript)
6. Stuart Evans: Interviewed on Friday, July 31, 2020 (Transcript)
7. Supervisory Special Agent 1: [Joseph Pientka, the name no-one is allowed to repeat] Thursday, August 27, 2020 (Transcript)
8. Jonathan Moffa: Interviewed on Wednesday, September 9, 2020 (Transcript)
9. Deputy Chief, Counterintelligence and Export Control Section, Justice Department: Interviewed on Friday, September 18, 2020 (Transcript)
10. Case Agent 1: Interviewed on Friday, September 25, 2020 (Transcript)
11. Supervisory Intelligence Analyst: Interviewed on Thursday, October 29, 2020 (Transcript)

“The bottom line is that going forward we must have more checks and balances when it comes to political investigations. We must have more meaningful sign-offs on warrant applications, and we need to restore the trust to the American people in this system.”  – Press Release

Lots of reading to do… I shall be starting with #4 Dana Boente, the FBI legal counsel hired by FBI Director Chris Wray who was removed from his position by AG Bill Barr.

President Trump issued full pardons to 15 individuals and commuted part or all of the sentences of an additional five people, the White House announced Tuesday.

Included in the list are Duncan Hunter, a former GOP congressman from California, Chris Collins, a former GOP representative from New York and former Trump campaign advisor George Papadapoulous who was targeted by Robert Mueller as part of building the Russian conspiracy theory.

[Read White House Statement Here]

In May 2016 George Papadopoulos was contacted by two members of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA),Terrence Dudley and Greg Baker, working out of the U.S. embassy in London.

Two American spies working in London put Papadopoulos in contact with their ally/counterpart in the Australian Embassy, Erika Thompson. [ie. ‘unofficial channels’] After meeting with Downer’s aide, Erika Thompson on May 6th, she sets up a meeting between George Papadopoulos and her boss for May 10th.

On May 10th, 2016, Ms Erika Thompson and Mr. Alexander Downer then meet with George Papadopoulos.  After the meeting, Ambassador Downer reports back to the Australian government on his conversation with Papadopoulos. [document release]. It is from this May 10th, 2016, meeting where communication from Downer, July 26th, 2016, is referenced as the origin of Crossfire Hurricane July 31st.

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