Remember these words: "I'd bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to Election! Well, turns out Trump was correct. "

I'd bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to Election!" Trump tweeted in March. 

And now,  CNN is reporting that a Federal Judge is demanding an investigation into the possibility that the Feds are hiding documentation it has previously denied using:

Washington (CNN)  A federal judge told the Department of Justice to explain why the release of the House Intelligence Committee's memo today shouldn't force investigators to acknowledge the existence of more records related to foreign surveillance.

Until this point, the Justice Department said it couldn't confirm or deny the existence of foreign surveillance-related records regarding Donald Trump and his business and campaign associates. That disclosure would hurt national security and could interfere with the ongoing special counsel investigation into Russian collusion and the election, the FBI has claimed.

The White House declassified and House Republicans released a controversial memo Friday that prompted the judge's action. The memo describes Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court actions that allowed federal authorities to monitor former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page in 2016 and 2017.

The Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, filed by the James Madison Project and USA Today reporter Brad Heath in April, sought records from the FBI of FISA applications and authorizations for surveillance of the Trump Organization, President Donald Trump, his campaign and associated people.

BTW,  doesn't this Federal Court action confirm the legitimacy of the Nunes memo?  Answer: OF COURSE it does.  

Here is a comprehensive review of the facts on display in the Nunes memo. The man is an American hero, folks.

Brietbart News gives an excellent review of the Nunes memo and  those who referenced therein,  whether directly or implicitly.  Understand that Carter Page was NEVER a Russian agent.  He has been a person of interest to the FBI since 2013,  with no charges nor any evidenccial claims against the man (this is why he is usually smiling).  But, after Trump made him a part of the transition team,  briefly,  the partisan players within the FBI,  those followers of Obama,  he became linked to Trump, along with a man named George Papadopoulos, and the Russian Fantasy became a Democrat "fact." . 

•  The anti-Trump dossier funded by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee formed an “essential” part of the initial and all three renewal surveillance applications against Trump campaign adviser Carter Page;

•  The political origins of the dossier were “known to senior DOJ and FBI officials,” but those origins were not included in applications to obtain the warrant; (The FISA court was told,  in a non-descript reference, of "political funding" with no details as to Russian ties to the Dossier,  nor the complicity of either the DNC  or the Hillary campaign ~  blog editor)

• Also used to justify the surveillance warrants against Page was a news story supposedly corroborating the dossier, that was pushed by the dossier author Christopher Steele himself — yet the FISA application incorrectly says Steele did not provide the information in the article;  (in other words,  we have Steele testifying in the article, in support of Steele,  while the FBI used the news article as an "outside source" confirming the dossier, an outright lie known to the FBI ~ blog editor).

• Perkins Coie — the law firm for the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee hosted a meeting with Steele, Fusion GPS and media (this revelation makes it harder for the Clinton campaign and the DNC to deny they knew about the dossier, though Clinton and other top DNC officials at that time have denied knowing about it);

• Steele was “suspended and then terminated” as an FBI source, after the FBI learned that he made an authorized disclosure of his relationship with the FBI to liberal media magazine Mother Jones, and he lied to the FBI about his previous media contacts with Yahoo! and other outlets;

• Steele — although portrayed as a “boy scout” by Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson — had personal bias against candidate Donald Trump, telling senior Justice Department official Bruce Ohr that he was “desperate that Donald Trump not get elected and was passionate about him not being president”;

• Ohr’s wife Nellie Ohr assisted with the dossier, but the FBI or the DOJ did not disclose this connection in the application for the FISA warrant, even though Bruce Ohr worked “closely” with Deputy Attorney Generals Sally Yates and then Rod Rosenstein — who both signed off on at least one FISA application or renewal;

• At the time that the FBI used the dossier to obtain the spy warrant on Page in October 2016, head of the FBI’s counterintelligence division Bill Priestap had assessed that the corroboration of the dossier was still in its “infancy,” and after Steele was terminated as a source, an FBI unit assessed his reporting as only “minimally corroborated”; (in fact, the dossier has never been confirmed as a wholistic document used in the Russian pole.  It remains only a Hillary Clinton opposition research document ~ editor).

• FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe acknowledged to the House Intelligence Committee in December 2017 that no warrant would have been sought without the dossier;

• The FISA warrant also mentioned information related to another Trump campaign adviser, George Papadopoulos, even though there was no evidence of cooperation or conspiracy between Page and Papadopoulos; (Papadopoulos was a nobody who played virtually no role as member of the transition team. He lied to the FBI and is being prosecuted for that reason.  Steele lied to the FBI and is not being prosectured  ,  go figure  ~ blog editor).

• The memo does not state what the information about Papadopoulos was, but said that information was the trigger to the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation on Russian meddling and collusion in late July 2016 (he had told an Australian diplomat at a London bar that a Maltese professor connected to Russia had told him he had dirt on Clinton in the form of emails);

• Peter Strzok, the No. 2 at the FBI’s counterintelligence division opened the bureau’s investigation on Russian meddling and collusion (text messages between him and fellow FBI official and lover Lisa Page show that he held an anti-Trump bias);

• The FBI authorized payments to Steele, but never disclosed that in any of the FISA warrant applications.

A denial based on "plausible deniability" is, by definition, an attempt to deceive. It is a lie and that is the Democrat defense against the Nunes Memo. Here is how it works:

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Misleading as Hell Excerpt from the Wa/Post  -  

A now-declassified Republican memo alleged that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court was duped into approving the wiretap request by a politicized FBI and Justice Department. The memo was written by House Intelligence Committee Republicans and alleged a “troubling breakdown of legal processes” flowing from the government’s wiretapping of former Trump aide Carter Page.

But its central allegation — that the government failed to disclose a source’s political bias — is baseless, the officials said.

The Justice Department made “ample disclosure of relevant, material facts” to the court that revealed “the research was being paid for by a political entity,” said one official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity.

The application for the warrant only mentions
"payment to a political party,"  conveniently leaving out all of the following details  (taken from the Nunes memo): 

1) The “dossier” compiled by Christopher Steele (Steele dossier) on behalf of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Hillary Clinton campaign formed an essential part of the Carter Page FISA application. Steele was a longtime FBI source who was paid over $160,000 by the DNC and Clinton campaign, via the law firm Perkins Coie and research firm Fusion GPS, to obtain derogatory information on Donald Trump’s ties to Russia.
a) Neither the initial application in October 2016, nor any of the renewals, disclose or reference the role of the DNC, Clinton campaign, or any party/campaign in funding Steele’s efforts, even though the political origins of the Steele dossier were then known to senior DOJ and FBI officials.
b) The initial FISA application notes Steele was working for a named U.S. person, but does not name Fusion GPS and principal Glenn Simpson, who was paid by a U.S. law firm (Perkins Coie) representing the DNC (even though it was known by DOJ at the time that political actors were involved with the Steele dossier). The application does not mention Steele was ultimately working on behalf of—and paid by—the DNC and Clinton campaign, or that the FBI had separately authorized payment to Steele for the same information.

 

Again,  NONE of the above details were ever mentioned in any FICA warrant application or renewal of an existing warrant   . . . .   no mention at all.  And,  if you think that such omissions violate a threshold of some sort,  then welcome to the Patriot Nation.  Understand that the Dems NEVER camp on a lie without drafting something they can use as "plausible deniability."  That is the way they think.  They are crooks to the bone,  and the very beginnings of this Russian nonsense is proof.   

Never ever forget that Obama Care was passed into law by a President and his Party who lied about every,  single , critical fact concerning that bill.   It was all a lie and no one in that Party of liars was even embarrassed. 

 

Look,  if one of your kids acted as the Democrats do,  when asked whether she cleaned her room,  she would answer "Yes" or state," I picked up all my clothes and hung them in the closet."  Neither answer tells you she cleaned her room.  Plausible deniability works like this:  

You go into the rooms and discover it is still a mess.  You confront your kid.  "I thought you told me you cleaned your room."  The kid answers,  "But I never said I cleaned all of it."  

 

The Dems are saying,  "We told FICA that there was a political payment component to the Dossier."  That tells the court next to nothing in view of Point One of the Nunes memo   . . . . .  and any idiot can see this.    

An important point in the Nunes Memo is "corrected" by the Post . . . . or is it?

You are left with the impression that the FISA court did not know that the Hillary Campaign had paid for the Steele Dossier.  The memo charges that this fact was omitted.  

The Washington Post pretends to correct this "false reporting," with the following words:  

 The court that approved surveillance of a former campaign adviser to President Trump was aware that some of the information underpinning the warrant request was paid for by a political entity, although the application did not specifically name the Democratic National Committee or the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the matter.

Now,  correct me if I am wrong,  but,  after reading the Post's correction,  did the FISA court know that the DNC and the Hillary Campaign had funneled money through Fusion GPS,  to the Russians and their lacky,  a man named Steele,  to produce the Dossier;  that the Dossier was nothing more than opposition research?  The answer is "no." 

Nunes and this blog believe the court was not so advised,  that it should have known, that the entire worthless campaign against Donald Trump as President of the United States, was/is a bogus effort to take down his presidency and install Hallary as president. And,  that the Dems cannot prove otherwise.    We call this a "palace coup."   

Understand that the Dems were plotting to negate the 2016 election and install Hillary as the rightful successor to the presidency,  thus eliminating the entire Trump cabinet,  avoiding any changes to the so-called "Obama legacy." 

Now you know.   

Advice on how to read with understanding, the Nunes Memo:

 In the  following post  (scroll down),  you have the memo and its 5 points.  The WSJ gives some advice on what to look for,  in the following bullet points. I would add one point:  Treat each of the 5 points independently.  And ask yourself,  "Do I believe that the actions described in point 1 or 2 or whichever,  to be honest and above board?  Do I see rank bias?  And why should I believe in an agency or its actions (against the President,  in this case),  when it plays so loosely with the rules?

• Rationale. Did the FBI have cause to open a full-blown counterintelligence probe into an active presidential campaign? That’s a breathtakingly consequential and unprecedented action and surely could not be justified without much more than an overheard drunken conversation or an unsourced dossier. What hard evidence did the FBI have?

• Tools and evidence. Government possesses few counterintelligence tools more powerful or frightening than the ability to spy on American citizens

 If the FBI obtained permission from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to monitor Trump aide Carter Page based on information from the Christopher Steele dossier, that in itself is a monumental scandal. It means the FBI used a document commissioned by one presidential campaign as a justification to spy on another. Ignore any arguments that the dossier was not a “basis” for the warrant or only used “in part.”

If the FBI had to use it in its application, it means it didn’t have enough other evidence to justify surveillance.
Look to see what else the FBI presented to the court as a justification for monitoring, and whether it was manufactured. Mr. Steele and his client, Fusion GPS, ginned up breathless news stories about the dossier’s unverified accusations in September 2016 in order to influence the election. The FBI sometimes presents news articles to the court, but primarily for corroboration of other facts. If the FBI used the conspiracy stories Mr. Steele was spinning as actual justification—evidence—to the court, that’s out of bounds.

Nunes memo - read and approved by the FBI

January 18, 2018
To: HPSCI Majority Members
From: HPSCI Majority Staff
Subject: Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Abuses at the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Purpose
This memorandum provides Members an update on significant facts relating to the Committee’s ongoing investigation into the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and their use of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) during the 2016 presidential election cycle. Our findings, which are detailed below, 1) raise concerns with the legitimacy and legality of certain DOJ and FBI interactions with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), and 2) represent a troubling breakdown of legal processes established to protect the American people from abuses related to the FISA process.

Investigation Update
On October 21, 2016, DOJ and FBI sought and received a FISA probable cause order (not under Title VII) authorizing electronic surveillance on Carter Page from the FISC. Page is a U.S. citizen who served as a volunteer advisor to the Trump presidential campaign. Consistent with requirements under FISA, the application had to be first certified by the Director or Deputy Director of the FBI. It then required the approval of the Attorney General, Deputy Attorney General (DAG), or the Senate-confirmed Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division.
The FBI and DOJ obtained one initial FISA warrant targeting Carter Page and three FISA renewals from the FISC. As required by statute (50 U.S.C. §,1805(d)(l)), a FISA order on an American citizen must be renewed by the FISC every 90 days and each renewal requires a separate finding of probable cause. Then-Director James Comey signed three FISA applications in question on behalf of the FBI, and Deputy Director Andrew McCabe signed one. Then-DAG Sally Yates, then-Acting DAG Dana Boente, and DAG Rod Rosenstein each signed one or more FISA applications on behalf of DOJ.
Due to the sensitive nature of foreign intelligence activity, FISA submissions (including renewals) before the FISC are classified. As such, the public’s confidence in the integrity of the FISA process depends on the court’s ability to hold the government to the highest standard—particularly as it relates to surveillance of American citizens. However, the FISC’s rigor in protecting the rights of Americans, which is reinforced by 90-day renewals of surveillance orders, is necessarily dependent on the government’s production to the court of all material and relevant facts. This should include information potentially favorable to the target of the FISA application that is known by the government. In the case of Carter Page, the government had at least four independent opportunities before the FISC to accurately provide an accounting of the relevant facts. However, our findings indicate that, as described below, material and relevant information was omitted.

 

1) The “dossier” compiled by Christopher Steele (Steele dossier) on behalf of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Hillary Clinton campaign formed an essential part of the Carter Page FISA application. Steele was a longtime FBI source who was paid over $160,000 by the DNC and Clinton campaign, via the law firm Perkins Coie and research firm Fusion GPS, to obtain derogatory information on Donald Trump’s ties to Russia.
a) Neither the initial application in October 2016, nor any of the renewals, disclose or reference the role of the DNC, Clinton campaign, or any party/campaign in funding Steele’s efforts, even though the political origins of the Steele dossier were then known to senior DOJ and FBI officials.
b) The initial FISA application notes Steele was working for a named U.S. person, but does not name Fusion GPS and principal Glenn Simpson, who was paid by a U.S. law firm (Perkins Coie) representing the DNC (even though it was known by DOJ at the time that political actors were involved with the Steele dossier). The application does not mention Steele was ultimately working on behalf of—and paid by—the DNC and Clinton campaign, or that the FBI had separately authorized payment to Steele for the same information.

 
2) The Carter Page FISA application also cited extensively a September 23, 2016, Yahoo News article by Michael Isikoff, which focuses on Page’s July 2016 trip to Moscow. This article does not corroborate the Steele dossier because it is derived from information leaked by Steele himself to Yahoo News. The Page FISA application incorrectly assesses that Steele did not directly provide information to Yahoo News. Steele has admitted in British court filings that he met with Yahoo News—and several other outlets—in September 2016 at the direction of Fusion GPS. Perkins Coie was aware of Steele’s initial media contacts because they hosted at least one meeting in Washington D.C. in 2016 with Steele and Fusion GPS where this matter was discussed.

a) Steele was suspended and then terminated as an FBI source for what the FBI defines as the most serious of violations—an unauthorized disclosure to the media of his relationship with the FBI in an October 30, 2016, Mother Jones article by David Corn. Steele should have been terminated for his previous undisclosed contacts with Yahoo and other outlets in September—before the Page application was submitted to the FISC in October—but Steele improperly concealed from and lied to the FBI about those contacts.
b) Steele’s numerous encounters with the media violated the cardinal rule of source handling—maintaining confidentiality—and demonstrated that Steele had become a less than reliable source for the FBI.

 
3) Before and after Steele was terminated as a source, he maintained contact with DOJ via then-Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr, a senior DOJ official who worked closely with Deputy Attorneys General Yates and later Rosenstein. Shortly after the election, the FBI began interviewing Ohr, documenting his communications with Steele. For example, in September 2016, Steele admitted to Ohr his feelings against then-candidate Trump when Steele said he “was desperate that Donald Trump not get elected and was passionate about him not being president.” This clear evidence of Steele’s bias was recorded by Ohr at the time and subsequently in official FBI files—but not reflected in any of the Page FISA applications.

a) During this same time period, Ohr’s wife was employed by Fusion GPS to assist in the cultivation of opposition research on Trump. Ohr later provided the FBI with all of his wife’s opposition research, paid for by the DNC and Clinton campaign via Fusion GPS. The Ohrs’ relationship with Steele and Fusion GPS was inexplicably concealed from the FISC.

 
4) According to the head of the FBI’s counterintelligence division, Assistant Director Bill Priestap, corroboration of the Steele dossier was in its “infancy” at the time of the initial Page FISA application. After Steele was terminated, a source validation report conducted by an independent unit within FBI assessed Steele’s reporting as only minimally corroborated. Yet, in early January 2017, Director Comey briefed President-elect Trump on a summary of the Steele dossier, even though it was—according to his June 2017 testimony—“salacious and unverified.” While the FISA application relied on Steele’s past record of credible reporting on other unrelated matters, it ignored or concealed his anti-Trump financial and ideological motivations. Furthermore, Deputy Director McCabe testified before the Committee in December 2017 that no surveillance warrant would have been sought from the FISC without the Steele dossier information.

 
5) The Page FISA application also mentions information regarding fellow Trump campaign advisor George Papadopoulos, but there is no evidence of any cooperation or conspiracy between Page and Papadopoulos. The Papadopoulos information triggered the opening of an FBI counterintelligence investigation in late July 2016 by FBI agent Pete Strzok. Strzok was reassigned by the Special Counsel’s Office to FBI Human Resources for improper text messages with his mistress, FBI Attorney Lisa Page (no known relation to Carter Page), where they both demonstrated a clear bias against Trump and in favor of Clinton, whom Strzok had also investigated. The Strzok/Lisa Page texts also reflect extensive discussions about the investigation, orchestrating leaks to the media, and include a meeting with Deputy Director McCabe to discuss an “insurance” policy against President Trump’s election.

 

Update:  Make note of the fact that Director McCabe in Congressional testimony,  testified to the fact that without the Steele Dossier,  there would have been no FISA WARRANT  . . . .   his testimony as recorded in point 4,  above.  

Jobs report for Decenmber: Excellent

People in the know,  predicted 180,000 jobs for December.  The actual number is 200,000.  The participation rate came in at 62.7%,  the lowest in more than 30 years.  The U6 unemployment rate is 8.2% (U6 is the rate of unemployment for those seeking full and parttime work  . . . .   the U3 rate of 4.1% remains the same). 

average work week came in at 34.3 hours; wages up 2.9% from a year ago, fastest growth rate since early 2009; Construction unemployment has dropped from 9.4% to 7.3%  (36,000 construction jobs added in December);  

black unemployment rose from 6.8% to 7.7%, white unemployment 3.5%,  Hispanic 5% up from 4.9%,   Asian unemployment rose to 3% from 2.9%.  Note: the increases in minority unemployment was expected due to the fact that the rules for measurement changed from previous months and December.   

Friday is D Day - dedicated to the Democrats and proof of their bias.

See you sometime tomorrow.  
Still on track.  The memo should be released
by Congressional figures later today.

Friday AM update:  Today is the day when the Schiff hits the fan. 

Another Fake News Headline - demonstrably false and without debate

Elise Foley / HuffPost: Donald Trump Pits Dreamers Against American Citizens In State Of The Union

Editor:  It is not Trump but the Democrat Party who bears the guilt,  here.  And understand the context.  We are not simply talking about the Dreamers,  but all of the illegal alien population.  Understand that "amnesty" puts the illegals at the front of the line,  years and years ahead of the legal immigrant population.  Hell,  California has already given its illegal population voting rights, so don't tell me that "they" have not only been pitted against the legal population,  but the Dems do not believe in defining borders,  the rule of law,  or the validity of the US Constitutional processes. With Dems,  being a patriot harkens back to the 200 plus years of "tribalism" we left behind during the Obama years. 

The choice is between patriotism and the Democrat's Borderless World.  That's it.  Me,  I am going with the Flag,  the Anthem and what it stands for,  established law and order, and God  - however you define that Presence. 

TPM overstates the talking point against the Nunes Memo, opening the door to public scrutiny . . . . well deserved public scrutiny.

Allegra Kirkland / Talking Points Memo: FBI Publicly Savages Nunes Memo For ‘Material Omissions Of Fact’

Editor:  "Publicly Savages" is far too harsh for what actually happened in this article.  The TPM article asserts a partial reading of the text,  by the FBI,  when,  in fact,  the memo is only four pages and takes no more than 10 minutes to read.  Partial reading??  What,  the FBI only read the first page or maybe page three?  

More than this,  the FBI does not assert errant facts in the publication.  Rather,  it is "concerned" about the context of the memo's description as to how the agency gathered information in the Trump/Russian fiasco. 

The FBI stonewalled the House Committee for more than a year,  and now,  must pay the price.  Enough of the nation's citizenry is aware of the FBI's malfeasance regarding the Hillary Clinton email investigation to hold the agency with any regard at all.  I mean,  Hillary took a hammer to some of her cell phones,  and bleached all of those 33,000 "missing" emails, and the FBI saw no criminal intent in those acts  ???!!!!!  No,  the agency is not deserving of trust and may be about to receive its just due.