Fox News host Brett Baier interviews Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes after the release of the House Intelligence Committee memo:
There is a key distinction being overlooked, perhaps conflated, by many who are reviewing the recently released HPSCI memo as it relates to the outlined targeting of U.S. individual Carter Page.
In the HPSCI outline it specifically notes the targeting of U.S. individual Carter Page was NOT a FISA Title VII search request. Title VII is FISA(702), the incidental collection of U.S. person information as it relates to National Security or Counterintelligence operations targeting foreign individuals.
The FISA ‘warrant’ request, against Carter Page, was made October 21st, 2016, under Title I of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Meaning the surveillance application was specifically stating, to the court, the U.S. individual was likely an actual agent of a foreign government, ie. “a spy.”
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Like you, I’m going through the HPSCI Memo release FISA and mining some of the more nuanced facts the media will overlook. This one is quite explosive (memo page 3 pdf-pg 4):
That is a stunning aspect. Nellie Ohr was hired by Fusion GPS in/around the end of April, beginning of May, 2016. According to the memo, while employed by the Clinton Campaign (via Fusion) to do opposition research on Donald Trump, Nellie Ohr’s findings were delivered directly to the FBI by her husband Bruce Ohr.
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The House Intelligence Committee released the much anticipated memo on Friday afternoon. (pdf here) Full Memo Embed Below. The memo discusses abuses involving FISA, or the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, during the 2016 election.
[scribd id=370603711 key=key-fPY5BzDJxyAnWBuIM7vD mode=scroll]
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There continue to be questions about the substance behind the pending release of the House Intelligence Committee memo. With that release in mind, today it is worthwhile remembering this is the beginning of exposing the corruption within the DOJ not the end.
For several years the U.S. justice department has maintained an attitude of non-accountability within its ranks. The Obama years elevated that attitude and provided multiple examples of a DOJ gone rogue.
A complicit media enables that attitude by engineering a false narrative the U.S. Justice Department was/is an independent fourth branch of government; unaccountable to congress and entirely separate from the executive branch.
The House Intelligence Memo is simply using the example of currently known FISA abuse to open the door and show the U.S. electorate how corrupt this unaccountable institution has become. Behind that door are very uncomfortable realities for all of those who constructed the weaponized agency; and also those who have benefited from it.
Consider:
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Earlier today President Donald Trump delivered remarks during the House and Senate GOP conference in White Sulpher Springs, West Virginia.
The presidential message was simple MAGA (Making America Great Again), and the remarks delivered by the President solidify, and represent, an institutional shift of the Republican party apparatus to reflect new values -within a new era- as highlighted by the policies and perspectives of President Trump.
The President has shifted the GOP toward the People’s Party. After a year of policy implementation, the modern era GOP is is POTUS Trump’s party now.
If the apparent Nunes, Grassley, Goodlatte and Horowitz timing remains as previously evidenced, today should be Memo Release Day.
The White House having allowed a full 36 hours of media discussion time to talk through the SotU address, is poised to permit the Executive Branch declassification approval of the Legislative Branch intelligence work product.
In a last minute effort to block the executive approvals, Minority Chair of the House Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff, claimed last night there were changes to the legislative work product.
Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes shared with Adam Schiff some minor edits to the drafted memo that resulted from the executive branch (FBI Director Wray) making a request upon initial review:
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Representative Mark Meadows appears on Lou Dobbs last night to discuss the four-page House Intelligence Committee FISA abuse memo currently under executive branch review. The HPSCI of the Legislative Branch has created a classified work product (the memo) and is requesting executive branch declassification.
After invited (executive) review by Christopher Wray on Sunday night, and two officials on Monday, the HPSCI voted to release to the executive. The remaining executive branch (NSC, OLC, WH legal, CoS, etc.) is currently reviewing. Lou Dobbs is concerned about five FBI officials visiting the White House (w/ Chief-of-Staff Kelly).
Gotta love the professionally obtuse former DNI James Clapper.
As much as he is a stuttering doofus, and therein showcases his political value for the former administration; and to the extent that Clapper has previously stated there was no attempt by the DOJ/FBI to gain a FISA authorized approval for surveillance on any Trump campaign officials: “none that I’m aware of“; …it is always valuable to listen to Clapper because he has a tendency to, well, to let slip stuff that makes the black hats cringe.
Cue the audio visual “slippage.” Inside tonight’s interview by Jake Tapper, former DNI James Clapper now unwittingly refutes his previous assertion of “no Trump FISA warrant“, and simultaneously lets it slip out that the Clinton/Steele dossier was not used in gaining origination authority for FISA-702 surveillance, but rather for an “extension” of a previous application for FISA-702 surveillance. WATCH:
06:48 ..”as I understand it, this was simply an extension of uh, the original, uh, FISA request. Meaning that, or implying, that apparently, there was information that was considered, uh, ‘valuable’, that was being obtained, via the initial FISA request.”
“FISA’s have, uh, finite dates. Uh, in other words they have deadlines; they aren’t indefinite… So when the time was up for the initial FISA report, FISA request, then it was time to get an extension. So on its face, I don’t know that the dossier played, very much, in this at all”…
Well, that’s interesting. I wonder who gave Clapper the “as I understand it” part? Now let’s go back to March 5th 2017 and review what DNI James Clapper said about the Department of Justice getting FISA-702 surveillance authority on Trump campaign officials.
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Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross appears on CNBC to discuss ongoing trade initiatives including NAFTA, China and the more broad Asia background. Additionally, Wilburine discusses growth in GDP and anticipated economic enhancements from the tax cut legislation.