This has been one of the odd aspects to the special counsel investigation deployed under the nameplate of Robert Mueller. However, with the trial of Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann bringing more curious minds to the backstories, here’s one that few people understand.
You will remember the massive media debate in early 2018 about the FISA application deployed against former short-time Trump campaign aide Carter Page. The DOJ, at the time under the control of the Mueller special counsel for all things Trump-Russia related, wouldn’t let congress see the FISA application. Devin Nunes complained to House Speaker Paul Ryan.
Eventually a deal was struck and two members from the House Intelligence committee (democrats and republicans) and two members from the House Judiciary Committee, were allowed to go to Main Justice and read the FISA application, but not copy it. Four congressmen were allowed to go read and take notes. Trey Gowdy and John Ratcliffe represented the two republicans, and their notes formed the basis for what later was called “The Nunes Memo.”
The Democrats were not happy with the claims in the Nunes memo, and subsequently HPSCI ranking member Adam Schiff wrote the democrat version.
Both of those sets of memos then needed to be declassified, more delays, before they could be made public. For weeks and weeks, the Nunes -vs- Schiff memos were debated by both sides, with each saying their version was the truth and the other party’s version was spin and/or false. All of this was happening in January, February and March 2018.
Then, later in the summer, something really weird happened. Main Justice completely reversed position on keeping the FISA application secret, and for the first time in U.S. history a top secret classified Title-1 FISA application was released to the public (with redactions).
People were so filled with curiosity about the Carter Page FISA application that few, heck, almost no one, stopped to ask why it was released? Why the sudden secrecy reversal by the DOJ?
The FISA application was made public under the auspices of a Freedom of Information Act request from the media. However, if you were intellectually honest and curious that justification never made any sense. If there was ever a document easy to keep hidden from the public, a Title-1 top secret, classified, FISA application was that document. No FOIA lawsuit was ever going to penetrate that firewall, it was simply too easy for the government to keep hidden.
The FISA application was released over the weekend on July 21st and 22nd, 2018, a Saturday and Sunday.
Everyone quickly rushed to read the national security search warrant. Heck, no one in the public had ever seen one before. The FISA application confirmed the details of a Trump campaign official under a year of extensive surveillance and search authority; but again, few stood back and asked why it was being released. Here’s the background.
Former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosensten gave testimony to the Senate in June of 2020 {LINK}. Within Rosenstein’s election year and little covered testimony, he revealed that Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his main deputy Andrew Weissmann were completely in charge of Main Justice at the DOJ during the time the special counsel investigation was happening. Attorney General Jeff Sessions was recused, and DAG Rosenstein was in charge of how much power and authority Mueller and Weissmann’s team held in the DOJ.
Rosenstein testified the special counsel had full control over everything and anything related to Trump-Russia, including the Carter Page FISA application the special counsel had re-submitted for the third renewal on June 29, 2017.
Anything that remotely touched the Trump-Russia investigation was completely and unilaterally controlled by Mueller and Weissmann, including any ancillary investigation that would come as an outcome from anything to do with Trump-Russia (the SSCI leak by James Wolfe is one example).
Rosenstein also testified he deferred everything to Mueller/Weissmann and never challenged any of their requests for expanded investigative scope or authority. Rosenstein felt the special counsel was in charge, and anything they wanted – they got. As Deputy AG Rosenstein said all the special counsel operations were part of their investigative authority, and he felt he had no place in questioning, challenging or refusing anything related to their investigative authority.
Mueller/Weissmann had full control.
That June 2020 testimony was the final piece of the puzzle as to who authorized the release of the Carter Page FISA application to the public. It was Andrew Weissmann; but why?
In the background of June and July 2018, unbeknownst to the public at the time, Inspector General Michael Horowitz had just discovered that FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith fabricated an email, which was used as part of the FISA application. The CIA told Clinesmith that Carter Page was working for them. Clinesmith doctored the email and told the FBI and DOJ that Carter Page was NOT working for the CIA. The exact opposite of the CIA statement to him. If the truth was known about Page working for the CIA, the DOJ would never have been able to get the second renewal of the FISA application in April 2017.
The INSD office of the Inspector General discovered the Clinesmith material lie, but at the time in June 2018 no one else knew. However, internally the Weissmann special counsel knew exactly what IG Horowitz discovered. Now they had a problem. The special counsel had renewed the application using the Clinesmith lie in June 2017.
If the search warrant application was based on fraud, the search warrant could be invalidated by the same court that authorized it. That would be a problem because the legal cases against Paul Manafort, and Michael Flynn, along with the investigations of Michael Flynn Jr., George Papadopoulos and Walid Phares were all based on evidence obtained by the fraudulently constructed search warrant.
The Weissmann special counsel had a fruit of the poisonous tree problem on their hands. When the FISA court (FISC) finds out about the results of the IG report, which will include the fabrication by Kevin Clinesmith, the FISC could revoke and invalidate the authority of the Title-1 search warrant. If the FISC did that, all of the evidence against Manafort and Flynn would disappear, and they would have to drop any investigative path that came from the exploitation of an unlawful warrant.
The search warrant was already getting massive scrutiny from congress and the public. People quickly discovered the FBI had used the Steele Dossier as the ‘Woods file’ underpinning the application. People were finding out the Steele Dossier was based on fictitious and debunked information the FBI knew about in January and February of 2017, even before the second and third renewals.
On July 12th, 2018, the Weissmann special counsel jumped into action and drafted a letter to the FISC saying despite recent information from congressional investigations, the predicate for probable cause still existed (see below). This letter was written to the FISC, filed quietly, and never shared with DAG Rosenstein or congress. It was a very big lie from the Weissmann special counsel. [NOTE, only the FISA court knew this letter existed until 2020.]
[NOTE, only the FISC knew this letter existed until 2020. When the FISC saw the IG report and the details about Kevin Clinesmith the FISC demanded the DOJ send a copy of that July 2018 letter to congress for oversight and accountability – SEE HERE] Weissmann lied to the FISC to protect his criminal cases which were at a very important stage in mid 2018. By the time the FISC found out about the Clinesmith fabrications in late 2019 it was too late. The fraudulent search warrant had been made public, the cases that used the warrant authority were over and the special counsel had concluded. The FISC demanded that congress be notified, and Bill Barr did as the FISC requested… he told congress. Congress did nothing.
However, going back to that critical time in 2018, there was also another issue surrounding the FISA application that also surfaced mid-summer providing a second reason to make the FISA application public.
An indictment of Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) Security Director James Wolfe was unsealed in the DC court {June 7, 2018, LINK}. James Wolfe was busted for leaking information to journalists from the Senate Intelligence Committee, one of those leaks was the Carter Page FISA application, which Wolfe leaked to Ali Watkins on March 17, 2017, a year earlier.
Wolfe was going to face a criminal trial for charges related to the leaking of that FISA application. Again, this was problematic for the special counsel because that leak was part of the reason why the special counsel was appointed.
On March 17, 2017, SSCI Vice-Chairman Mark Warner wanted a special counsel appointed. There was a debate about whether President Trump was under an investigation of any sort. Senator Warner’s motive for the special counsel was exactly because he knew the DC machinery needed to throw a bag over all of the corrupt targeting of Donald Trump; a special counsel could do that, and be weaponized to continue the attacks.
Senator Mark Warner told SSCI Security Director James Wolfe to leak the FISA application on March 17, 2017. Three days later, March 20, 2017, FBI Director James Comey first admitted publicly, while testifying to congress, that President Trump was under investigation since July of the previous year (2016). The timing of the two events was not accidental. Warner and Comey both wanted a special counsel investigation put into place for the same reason. Both needed a cover-up operation.
Fast forward to the end of December 2017 and James Wolfe is busted for the FISA application leak. The investigative evidence against Wolfe had to flow through the special counsel, before it could be given to a grand jury, because the special counsel had control over anything that touched Trump-Russia and that included their FISA application.
Between January and late April 2018, the Special Counsel went to work diffusing the damage within the Wolfe evidence files. What they did with that evidence file is jaw-dropping, but that’s for another story. In late April the now weakened evidence file against Wolfe was given back to DC U.S. Attorney Jessie Liu and a grand jury was seated May 3, 2018. The Wolfe criminal indictment was unsealed June 7th.
♦ After lying to the FISA court about a justified predicate still existing on July 12,2018, Andrew Weissmann made the FISA application public on the weekend of July 22, 2018, for two reasons:
(1) To protect the predicate of his search warrant authority; and by extension preserve the cases he created using it; and by extension avoid the fruit of the poisonous tree issue by diluting the need or the FISC to invalidate the Title-1 search warrant.
(2) To render moot and remove the most explosive element of the criminal case against James Wolfe.
It was the special counsel, specifically Andrew Weissmann, who released the FISA application to the public.
Few people knew that.
Even fewer knew why.
Now you do.
The gateway to expose the corrupt DOJ and FBI officials does not lie at the end of the path where you find Hillary Clinton, Perkins Coie, Fusion-GPS or any of their cohorts and corrupt political/media allies. Following that trail leads to obfuscation, ‘mistakes were made’ justification and institutional preservation.
Instead, the gateway to expose the corrupt DOJ and FBI officials, lies at the end of the path walked by the Mueller-Weissmann special counsel.
Follow that Weissmann trail and you walk right in the front door of Main Justice and the Washington DC FBI office.
“The gateway to expose the corrupt DOJ and FBI officials does not lie at the end of the path where you find Hillary Clinton, Perkins Coie, Fusion-GPS or any of their cohorts and corrupt political/media allies. ” It appears that Hillary and company are being painted the fall guy. Let’s see if she has any horsepower left in Washington. Any Bets?
If in fact Hillary is the fall guy, she will go full scorched earth. If you start seeing talking heads discussing her health decline or opinion articles of same you will know they are laying groundwork for ignoring her claims as she is taken down.
I believe Robby Mook, who seemingly took his hand on the Bible oath seriously in court testimony, has gone to ground. No one seems to know where he is. I bet he doesn’t get much sleep these days, one eye open and all.
my guess?
dead.
Arkancide anyone????
I’m just skeptical that Hillary and co. will face any penalties. I will believe it when I see it. Plus if she becomes the fall guy, she is the type to name names and destroy everyone she can.
“Plus if she becomes the fall guy, she is the type to name names and destroy everyone she can.”
If she actually does this, it’ll be the first and only time I’ll become her cheerleader.
Soviet Show Trials were predicated on inside dishonesty, corruption and criminality, the very same as the Deep Cesspool’s dirty hands on the throat of American Justice.
I’m not sure how America can be saved when the foundation of Lawful Authority, the DOJ and the FBI are so thoroughly rotten.
And Carter Page worked for the CIA? Another plant inside the Trump Campaign. Disgusting.
The Democrat party has been conducting shadow trials for over a century on the local and federal levels. The Democrat party is not just a political organization. It was founded as a mafia type organization focused on gaining power as a way to gain wealth. We are in a better place today because we can see the corruption. Before the internet, when democrats controlled the broadcast news, we all lived in a Truman Show.
Why are any of these traitors to our Republic allowed to continue to breathe free from prison air?
Because, altogether they have been stealing all they can lay their greedy, dirty little hands on from this Great Republic we once knew as the United States. I don’t care if they have a D, an R, or and I behind their names, they are in this for themselves.
It is when the majority of the public see it as the “UniParty” it is when perhaps progress can be made.
This disgusting worm Weisman and his “poor old man” Mueller need to be swinging from a high branch. That Congress scumbag MW too. But no consequence will come for them. Ever. Change my mind. It’s like watching a freight train crash for 10 years now…
Nothing big will ever happen unless the alphabet media actually reports some truthful facts. I saw a poll that said only 30% had ever heard of John Durham until about a month ago.
So how does this happen? I submit that one or some wealthy investor gets fed up with certain coverage and buys any one of the lamestream media and gets the entire operation. Once one starts reporting fairly the others will initially try to destroy that one but a determined new owner will not relent. Eventually the others will change or they will fade into oblivion.
Without the media support, the left can not win or cheat or steal or come up with any more lies. The RINO’s will also have a change of heart. Everything starts with the alphabets being destroyed because when the 30% of population who only listen to them becomes aware, it is over for the left.
Elon?
When Weissman’s bill comes due, I hope it involves a pre-dawn warrant being served at his home by a 20-man SWAT team in front of tipped-off CNN cameras.
It doesn’t matter how it is as much as that it is.
RSBN, OANN, Newman, CNN with Wallace 😊
Just Saying
Thank Obama for weaponizing our own government against us. He is a traitor to America. Period.
NOT possible…Ozero has questionable claims to being a US citizen and as an inserted foreign national his actions do NOT constitute treason….this presupposes his OWN claims of being born in Kenya are true…as such MOMMY was not able to confer citizenship on him failing to have resided here 5 years PAST her 14th birthday (she was 18 at the time of his reported birth)
Or his claim (and the fake BC) of being born in Hawaii?
.
? Obama’s mother lived in the U.S.
.
When she wasn’t deployed by the CIA.
WOW! Hope Team Trump reads this one!
Great article! Thank you Sundance. Yes, at the time the release of the Carter Page FISA application it appeared like a win for the good guys. Just the opposite was the case.
“To protect the predicate of his search warrant authority; and by extension preserve the cases he created using it; and by extension avoid the fruit of the poisonous tree issue by diluting the need or the FISC to invalidate the Title-1 search warrant.”
I still don’t understand why thr FISA court was so easily ‘fooled’. These ridiculous applications were renewed four times! On the face of it, it was obvious that something stunk. Yet, these judges signed off on all applications. They HAD to know something was not right. In any honest and vigilant court this would have been stopped in it’s tracks and serious questions asked.
FISA Judge Rosemary Collyer did produce a court document questioning some of this. It was well after the fact and weak in it’s summary. Nothing came of it. George Bush, and The Patriot Act, have a lot to answer for. The Patriot Act should be repealed tomorrow. Secret Court hearings, with secret ‘evidence’ being used, have no place in a free society. If this proceeding were done in a regular court setting this entire breach of the law could have been avoided.
Ben Franklin’s famous quote certainly applies: “People willing to trade their freedom for temporary security deserve neither and will lose both”.
<I still don’t understand why the FISA court was so easily ‘fooled’>
Please refer to Sundance article from 3/16/2018:
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2018/03/16/contreras-recusal-conflict-fbi-agent-peter-strzok-friends-with-flynn-judge-rudolph-contreras/
My point exactly. Rudolph Contreras was the obvious example of conflict here. The others were more subtle.
We, in this Republic, don’t need ANY court that acts in secret and with impunity. Allowing the Andrew Weissmanns of this world that kind of secret access to a very powerful court will ALWAYS lead to abuses. And, by the way, this was NOT this guy’s first rodeo. Alaska Senator Ted Stevens was totally railroaded by Weissmann and company. One of the prosecutors committed suicide over the issue of false evidence and lies used to get a prosecution. The good Judge Sullivan precided over that case too.
Innocent defendants in the Enron prosecution were railroaded by Weissmann and suffered the same fate. It goes on and on. We need to quit worrying about Russia and get our own house and country in order.
“….. why the FISA court was so easily ‘fooled’ ”
You are assuming they were in fact “fooled”. By now, it should be painfully evident that the FISC authorities were not fooled, or not surprised, or (at worst) in agreement with the scheme. The evidence supporting that conclusion is that they ultimately did NOTHING to force the correction of the crimes, nor took any action against the DOJ/FBI perpetrators of the fraud.
Immorality, deceit, and all forms of corruption run deeply throughout all
threefour branches of the current federal government. There is little remaining visible effort to even pretend that they respect the U.S. Constitution, the rule of law, or the long-honored concept of “equal justice for all.”Hang them all on Marthas Vinyard
I think history supports the conclusion that granting secrecy to agencies or courts for whatever reason, especially “national security,” leads inevitably to abuse of that secrecy by those protected by it, to secure for themselves and their colleagues, both money and power.
Yep, those FISA warrants are the root of the criminality. They implicate Roberts, as he’s in charge of the FISC, and McConnel/Ryan et al, who enabled all of this.
All 3 branches, and the entire Uniparty. Criminals, violators of their constitutional oaths.
I know, let’s blame Hillary!
Justice would be a SC managed by Sidney Kraken Powell.
I could have gone happily the rest of my life without being reminded of Rod “Little Ratf**ker” Rosenstein, the most slimy, slippery, disgusting and forgettable little puke in this whole bloody mess. I can only trust that he will someday soon, in his shameful retirement, blow his own brains out after looking at himself in the mirror one too many times.
All of these characters have forfeited their humanity, and justice is due.
I caught a line from a U2 tune that I had never really noticed before, the other night –
“I have spoke with the tongue of angels
I have held the hand of a devil
It was warm in the night
I was cold as a stone
…
Only to be with you”
Obama reminds me more and more often of The Mule in Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy, and the media is his visisonor, the Voice of the Snake. All of this fruit has fallen from his tree, and he will be cursed in the memory of faithful men and women for all eternity.
Evil abounds upon Earth.
Just Donated lets help Sundance continue His mission
Are any of these bottom feeders squirming??? Or are they just – same crap different day!!!
The “bottom feeders” are squirming. Let’s put it this way, you wouldn’t want to be one right now.
I was shocked then that half the country didn’t see that Andrew Weisman was in control of this maloderous enterprise- certainly after Mueller embarrassed himself in nationally televised Congressional hearingsby saying over andd over that he knew bsolutley nothing about the Report that bore his name and cost the American taxpayers $40 million. This was a Democratic operation, based on lies and innuendo that resulted in TWO impeachments of a President (like him or not), who has now been PROVEN innocent of all they accused him of: Hillary PAID for , and released to the press the phoney Steele Dossier that was the (outrageous and hard to believe) basis for this investigation- Schiff lied when he emerged from his basement investigation to say he saw “with his own eyes” evidence of Trump’s Russian Collusion…why are these people stil lin DC? We have to get rid of the Dems in order to clean this cancer from DC
The only reason they are still in DC is no one or entity has the wherewithal to take them out. Now people can piss and moan about it, but it is all it is.
RINO GOP too.
.
Uhm… where the hell is Carter Page these days and what is he up to?
.
Hillary will claim she knew the Russia lies were going to the media but not the FBI, and nothing will happen to her. Sussman may or not get convicted (far left jury it sounds like) and that will be it.
Look, all of these lost souls working for Satan will see God’s justice unless they repent and completely turn their lives towards God before death.
It sure feels like all of creation was made by God to winnow out the evil, from the sycophants, from those that love God completely independent of absolute knowledge of his existence?
Side Note: Sleuths Corner last night online discussion – Undead FOIA, Hans Manache, ShipwreckedCrew, kingmaker, etc – noted a few salient points.
Few people understood the FISA court, how 99.9% of requests are approved, and *there is no physical court* – it apparently operates online, electronically.
FYI.
Remember, Comey testified under oath the House committee chaired by Gowdy(?) that it is “reeeeealy hard to get a FISA application approved”.
I hope we /Durham takes a Comeyesque “HARD STARE” at that blatantly-fakes statement…and uses it against that beanpole!!!
Don’t fret; he’s not alone.
i am no lawyer and i may well be a dummy… sundance lays out an excellent trail but at the end i don’t get the “why” of the leak. sundance asserts but imho doesn’t show. please help me understand.
on the other hand i would forgo an explanation in exchange for some rope and a handy tree, which is all the various perps need at this point.
Which leak?
FTA:… “On March 17, 2017, SSCI Vice-Chairman Mark Warner wanted a special counsel appointed. There was a debate about whether President Trump was under an investigation of any sort.
Senator Warner’s motive for the special counsel was exactly because he knew the DC machinery needed to throw a bag over all of the corrupt targeting of Donald Trump; a special counsel could do that, and be weaponized to continue the attacks.
How nice of you Sundance to answer Jstert… Really!!! If I had a “bucket list” (I don’t) To meet you would be first on my list…
These people make Benedict Arnold look like a total slacker. I hope someday honest people are in charge again and we can have daily executions for a few months.
I don’t know if Sundance is a Lawyer or not , but he has been educating me on these things for years now. Making the complex understandable to a novice like myself.
Elon Musk has talked of building a Legal DreamTeam, I would nominate Sundance as a tenacious truth seeker with a clear understanding of these monumental issues to be part of that team, should it get to that I for one would feel like a true American Patriot is on our side. Not even sure if Elon is on any side but I pray the Truth comes out however it can and as wide across this Nation as possible.
The FBI has proven to be a gang of Flying Monkeys.