In Wake of FBI Lies FISA Court Orders Review of all Requests for Surveillance (Could Be Bad for Obama) - Granite Grok

In Wake of FBI Lies FISA Court Orders Review of all Requests for Surveillance (Could Be Bad for Obama)

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The FISA Court is pissed. The Office of Inspector General report has identified multiple acts of fraud by the FBI in its pursuit of warrants to spy on the Trump team. The court (FISC) would like to know if that same indifference to the law taints other requests? Now.

Related: Obama was Spying on Trump – “POTUS wants to know everything we are doing.”

The OIG Report describes in detail the preparation of the four applications for electronic surveillance of Mr. Page. It documents troubling instances in which FBI personnel provided information to NSD which was unsupported or contradicted by information in their possession. 7 It also describes several instances in which FBI personnel withheld from NSD information in their possession which was detrimental to their case for believing that Mr. Page was acting as an agent of a foreign power. 8

As we’ve noted previously the Russian connections the FBI used to lie to the FISA court to get a surveillance warrant was developed in service to the CIA. That wasn’t the whole of the FBI’s malfeasance, but it is criminal. Excluding exculpatory information is bad. But at least one Grokster was hoping for something from FISC with a bit more oomph behind it.  Percy sent me an internal email with a few thoughts.

The contents of the file I sent you are the very least they could do. They did not vacate the orders issued. They did not indicate that the orders issued have expired. They did not suspend the offending agency from having authority to make an application to the court for cause. This is a disgusting bureaucratic punt of the faith of the governed. They admitted the damming nature of the IG’s report. They shrugged and are ready to continue business as usual. All they acknowledge is a need for a remedial action plan… for the agency only. What an entirely inadequate response.

I don’t disagree with that. But there’s more to this in my opinion, and it’s good stuff. The otherwise very quiet FISA court just told the FBI and the world that everything they have done (at least in recent years) is suspect.

The FISC expects the government to provide complete and accurate information in every filing with the Court. Without it, the FISC cannot properly ensure that the government conducts electronic surveillance for foreign intelligence purposes only when there is a sufficient factual basis.

THEREFORE, the Court ORDERS that the government shall, no later than January 10, 2020, inform the Court in a sworn written submission of what it has done, and plans to do, to ensure that the statement of facts in each FBI application accurately and completely reflects information possessed by the FBI that is material to any issue presented by the application. In the event that the FBI at the time of that submission is not yet able to perform any of the planned steps described in the submission, it shall also include (a) a proposed timetable for implementing such measures and (b) an explanation of why, in the government’s view, the information in FBI applications submitted in the interim should be regarded as reliable.

In other words, we don’t trust anything you have sent us, and you had better prove to us that the lying and hiding of exculpatory material were limited to these 4 FISA’s. 

Given what we know about the history of the Obama Administration’s spying (private citizens, congress, the media, political opponents), this seems like a great opportunity. The Trump administration now has carte blanch – by court order – to wade through all the Obama-Era FISA requests looking for evidence of corruption and illegality.

Yes, I’d liked to have seen something stronger from the FISA Court, but this looks like keys to the kingdom from where I sit if the Trump Administration feels like it has the resources and someone (someones) they trust to do that digging.

 

Here’s the order.

FISA Russia Collusion FISC Request

 

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