There is a major issue within the use of the FISA-702 authority that must be immediately understood.  A silo problem that is not being discussed within Congress as the potential for FISA-702 reauthorization is looming.

I’m setting aside my opinion of the entire process in order to just outline the facts as they appear.  I am not in support of any of this FISA process; nor do I support the baseline premise of the NSA database capturing the private electronic communication of Americans, which I do not believe is legislatively authorized to exist.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) recently released the 2023 FISC opinion on FISA-702 activity as reported by the NSA, FBI and to a lesser extent CIA and NCTC [REPORT HERE].

In this report, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) is reviewing legal compliance by the NSA and FBI in accessing the NSA database that houses the private electronic records, metadata, of every American.  This is the core of the FISA-702 authorization, where 702 indicates an American citizen protected from illegal searches and seizures by the Fourth Amendment.

The NSA database contains the private electronic data (metadata) of every single American – including emails, text messages, social media posts, instant messages, direct messages, phone calls, geolocation identifiers, purchases by electronic funds, banking records and any keystroke any American person puts into any electronic device for any reason. [A big issue here is the use of Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) but that’s for a different article.]

The 2023 FISC report reviews the action of the FBI and NSA to ensure compliance with rules and restrictions in the search of this database.

The NSA and FBI report violations of the process to the FISA Court; this is somewhat of an honor system.  You may have heard FBI Director Christopher Wray recently saying they have reduced the number of unauthorized searches of this database by 80%.  The FBI has presumably tightened up the rules and restrictions on who and how this database can be searched.

The ODNI release only covers the compliance of the NSA and FBI (and the CIA and NCTC) to the FISA-702 rules.  The CIA and NCTC are foreign mission authority only, therefore they should never even be involved in searching American citizens.

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There are buckets and buckets of legal contingencies in the fabricated case created by Special Counsel Jack Smith, acting on behalf of Andrew Weissmann, Barry Berke, Norm Eisen and Mary McCord, and the DOJ case against Donald J. Trump.

So many contingencies, there is almost no reason to look at any procedural process with any inclination the date will have consequence.  However, that said, Judge Aileen Cannon has smartly delayed the trial portion of the case until May 20, 2024.  [Full Legal Outline pdf]

I say smartly, because by Mid-May 2024, President Trump will likely have wrapped up the GOP nomination, and that structural reality itself will punt the rest of the gibberish into a time ever more distant.   Smart base-covering and no room for appeal move by Judge Cannon.

Some may see this as a loss or a gain for either side.  Personally, I view this as a structural and procedural win for President Trump, a wrongly targeted American citizen within a process weaponized by a comprehensively corrupt government.

Judge Cannon is no dummy. She knows the stakes, sees the transparency of the effort, and is not an ideologue.  Her earlier rulings, in the document side of the FBI raid, reflected her awareness the system was being manipulated by agents of Lawfare intent.  May 20th, which will never happen, is a good target all things considered.

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Steve Bannon rages against the regime at the Turning Point Action conference in West Palm Beach. {Direct Rumble Link}

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Prior to Elon Musk taking control of Twitter, the social media company entered a consent decree with the Federal Trade Commission putting a neutral arbiter from Ernst & Young in an oversight position for the company’s privacy, data collection and information security protocols.  Given what we know about DHS and FBI control and influence over Twitter content, there is a certain irony in the prior position of the FTC regarding user privacy.

That said, Twitter’s new parent company X Corp filed a court motion Thursday [PDF HERE] asking a federal court overseeing the settlement to either throw out the consent decree entirely, or put it on hold until the FTC turns over documents to Twitter showing historic bias against the company. Twitter is also seeking to bar the FTC from deposing CEO Elon Musk over issues that preceded his arrival.

Within the filing, Twitter presents some alarming information as shared by Ernst and Young about the FTC pressure applied to them.

[SOURCE LINK]

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan questioned FTC Chair Lina Khan about this issue today during a congressional hearing.

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Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL) expresses a great deal of contempt for FBI Director Chris Wray during questioning today.

From the topic of FBI conduct in the Hunter Biden investigation to the FBI surveillance of American citizens through unauthorized and illegal database searches, Matt Gaetz goes full wolverine on the FBI director.  WATCH: 

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If you accept a very specific outlook into the mindset of the Lawfare operatives (Weissmann, Eisen, Berke, McCord et al) as strategic thinkers -the brain trust- behind the Special Counsel Jack Smith prosecution, then you might see the dynamic in this story.

Previously, amid his grand prose and proclamations outlining his spectacular and magnificent legal constructs, wunderkind Jack Smith was so confident in his case he strategically announced he would demand a “speedy trial” in order to preserve the great American democracy.

If you see Lawfare as a narrative construct, the pontification made sense.

However, less than two weeks later, suddenly the ever-confident Jack Smith is reversing his position and asking Florida Judge Cannon to delay the trial.

(Via NBC) – Special counsel Jack Smith has asked the judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s classified documents case to delay the start of his criminal trial until December.

The request came in a series of new motions filed late Friday by the special counsel.

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon had set a tentative date of Aug. 14 for the start of the trial. (more)

Remember, Lawfare is first and foremost a narrative construct intended for public media consumption.  Lawfare originates from the perspective of an established legal goal, and then all of the activity is structured around supporting that goal.  [A version of find me the man I’ll find you the crime.]

Lawfare is the opposite of following evidence.  In fact, in its purest and most visible form, political Lawfare actually requires the ignoring of evidence.

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Representative Andy Biggs and Representative Matt Gaetz both confronted John Durham about his role in covering for a politically corrupt and weaponized Dept of Justice and FBI.

Matt Gaetz specifically confronts Durham over his lack of holding people accountable.  The confrontation between Matt Gaetz and John Durham should have been the tone of the entire hearing.  WATCH:

You can like or dislike the approach by Matt Gaetz, personally I appreciate it, but what Gaetz says in this confrontation is factually accurate and true.

The questioning from Andy Biggs is below.

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Today, for the first time, the broader American public met the face of the four-year investigation into the origin of the Trump-Russia hoax.  Special Counsel John Durham testified before the House Judiciary Committee.

What a larger audience is now recognizing is what people on these pages have been discussing for quite some time.  John Durham was/is the institutional preservation officer hired by Bill Barr to carefully navigate the corruption of the DOJ and FBI without actually holding anyone accountable for the corruption within the DOJ and FBI.  Put succinctly, Bill Barr was the Bondo application and John Durham was the spray paint.

The rotting and corrupt carcass of our justice system is what remains hidden underneath the efforts of Mr. Barr and Mr. Durham.  This is their legacy. Congressman Tom McClintock asks high-brow questions of John Durham, WATCH:

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The House Judiciary Committee will hold a public hearing today at 9:00 a.m. ET. The hearing will focus on the report of Special Counsel John Durham that examined the origins and justifications of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Crossfire Hurricane investigation against then-presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Following a 316 page report that outlined how the Trump-Russia collusion fraud was created, promoted and then weaponized by government agencies, there are many people very interested in both the questions the Judiciary Committee might ask and the answers from John Durham.  Livestream links below:

House Judiciary Committee Livestream Link – PBS Livestream Link – Alternate Livestream Link 

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Today he testified in classified setting before the House intelligence committee.  Tomorrow is the public version.

Special Counsel John Durham is scheduled to be questioned tomorrow by members of the House Judiciary Committee in a public setting.  The hearing is scheduled for 9:00am ET, Rayburn Office Building [ DETAILS HERE ] – “The hearing will focus on the report of Special Counsel John Durham that examined the origins and justifications of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Crossfire Hurricane investigation against then-presidential candidate Donald Trump.”

Questions have been passed along, and hopefully this summary is timed to avoid giving Mary McCord and her Lawfare team prep-time to construct their defensive talking points.

[Durham Report Here] Questions like:

(1) Mr. Durham, having spent four years investigating, researching, reviewing, interviewing and pouring through files related to the overall Trump-Russia collusion story, your report -like the report of Robert Mueller that preceded it- found no substantive predicate existed to ever open an investigation of candidate Donald Trump for any efforts with Russians or foreign actors to interfere in the 2016 election.  As a result of your time and diligence, you are likely the #1 subject matter expert in the entire series of events.

♦ Question: In your opinion, was President Obama aware there was no reason in 2016 to investigate Donald Trump, who then became President-elect Trump?

(2) You note in your report that you never re-reviewed any of the material evidence that formed the baseline for the Robert Mueller special counsel investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

♦ Question: Why not?

♦ Question: Who made the decision not to review the 2-year Mueller probe activity as part of your investigative review?  Why was that decision made?

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