By Nancy Thorner & Ed Ingold -
In an article by Tom Howell Jr published in The Washington Times on Sunday, February 4, 2018, Trey Gowdy: FBI concealed Clinton role in Steele dossier, it was noted that Trey Goudy, the House’s top investigator, said "the FBI failed to notify a surveillance court that it was relying on material backed by the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign when it asked to snoop on a former adviser to the Trump campaign."
Rep. Trey Gowdy also said judges wouldn’t have authorized and repeatedly renewed a warrant to spy on the former campaign aide, Carter Page, if it hadn’t been for the material in that very dossier, compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele.
Mr. Gowdy told CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday, May 4th:
"They could have easily said it was the DNC and Hillary Clinton. That would have been really easy. It took longer to explain it the way they did than if they just came right out and said, ‘Hillary Clinton for America and DNC paid for it.’ But they didn’t do that.”
After the memo was released, Mr. Trump told reporters that the FBI’s conduct was a disgrace. He refused to say whether he had confidence in Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who signed at least one of the surveillance applications and later appointed Robert Mueller as special counsel to investigate the Russia accusations, although Mr. Gowdy made the claim that the Republican memo “doesn’t have anything to do with obstruction of justice,” something Mr. Mueller is reportedly exploring after Mr. Trump fired FBI Director James B. Comey last year (Mr. Gowdy was involved in drafting the bombshell memo that details the FBI’s decision to use the Clinton-backed material to try to spy on Mr. Page in October, 2016. It also explores the role of top FBI and Justice Department officials in seeking and renewing those snooping powers.).
Here is the four-page memo released on Friday, July 30, 2018. It's shocking how cavalier the FBI was by omitting highly relevant information to obtain its FICA warrants. Those involved at the highest level of the FBI include Comey, McCabe, Sally Yates and Rosenstein. The FBI omissions are either deliberate and reckless or from incomprehensible incompetence. You be the judge.
Carter Page, a rather insignificant former Trump campaign aid, is just a pawn in this political play. He has been under surveillance since 2013 without resulting in a criminal or civil complaint. The renewed interest in 2016 occurred while he served as a foreign affairs consultant for the Trump campaign. Getting the FISA court warrant to monitor Page’s phone calls gave the FBI the ability to monitor anyone he called, who called him, or even used the same phone system such as calls made to and from Trump Tower. In more colorful terms, this is how the camel got his nose under the tent. Furthermore, the Mueller investigation reached Papadopoulos through the wiretap on Carter Page resulting from the improper securing of the FISA warrant. According, that connection by Mueller was improper because the track to him was flawed. No reasonable court would accept that evidence, including his guilty plea.
Names of persons in the US swept up in this inquiry were supposed to be “masked”, that is redacted from transcripts and searches relating to the surveillance of Carter Page. This is where the White House stepped in. Operatives of President Obama were able to search the message logs for names related to the Trump campaign. Only persons with high level security clearance would be able to see the content or names, even in a search. The White House then relayed these messages to as many as 16 other agencies with these names un-redacted. In the absence of any evidence that these agencies were part of the Carter investigation, it is plausible that the purpose of this distribution was to increase the chance that someone would leak information to the press. It worked. If the FBI and NSA collect everything, and searching for particulars is possible, it is tantamount to directly tapping their phones.
It is possible that Obama did not order these activities. Anyone in power is surrounded by sycophants who will do anything to gain recognition from those in charge. Obama could also have kept at arm’s length, for what is called “plausible deniability.” However, as an obsessively controlling individual, it is highly unlikely Obama did not learn of these activities and at least grant tacit approval.
Trump is not vindicated in the Nunes memo relating to Mueller’s investigation, because there is no discussion of collusion with the Russian government; however it does confirm that his phones were taped under questionable circumstances, a claim widely ridiculed by the Democrats and press when first made early in the campaign. Together with emails and text messages, it also verifies that high level officials in the FBI, and by inference other intelligence agencies, were acting in a partisan manner against him.
Very few people will take to read the entire Nunes Memo, or any original document for that matter. Instead they rely on what other people say was in them. Like a game of “Telephone,” we know how things get distorted and embellished when repeated, particularly when there is a political agenda. At Fox News, only Laura Ingraham picked up on the “camel’s nose” angle. As a former prosecutor, she is very aware of legal maneuvers of this sort.
In Conclusion:
Robert Mueller, ousted FBI Director James Comey, FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein all misled the FISA court by failing to state a conflict of interest, and that the primary source of the Trump-Russia collusion dossier was created by former British Intelligence officer Christopher Steele who hated President Donald Trump and was hired in part by the DNC to destroy and even impeach Trump. It was the Steele Russian collusion dossier that brought about the appointment of Robert Mueller as Special Counsel to oversee the claim that Trump colluded with Russia, which has now expanded beyond Mueller's initial charge.
According to The Washington Post, it was the FBI itself that authorized payments to Steele for work on the dossier. Both top FBI and DOJ officials knew the political origins of the dossier. The FBI like the CIA is just one part of what is known as the Deep State
Without a doubt, Trump's claim of a witch hunt cannot be disputed, which won’t resonate on the Democrat side on in the mainstream media, but Trump is on very solid grounds.
Heads will or should roll.
