Travesty
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If your second point is true it is time to shut down FISA courts entirely.
Was reading up on this topic. That seems to be exactly the case.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/31/us/politics/fbi-fisa-wiretap-trump.html
An inspector general uncovered pervasive problems in the F.B.I.’s preparation of wiretap applications, according to a memo released Tuesday about an audit that grew out of a damning report last year about errors and omissions in applications to target a former Trump campaign adviser during the Russia investigation..
The follow-up audit of unrelated cases by the Justice Department’s independent watchdog, Michael E. Horowitz, revealed a broader pattern of sloppiness by the F.B.I. in seeking permission to use powerful tools to eavesdrop on American soil in national security cases. It comes at a time when Congress is debating new limits on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA.
The finding of systemic incompetence is devastating for the F.B.I. But in the Trump era, the discovery is leavened by an unusual side benefit for the bureau: It undercuts the narrative fostered by President Trump and his supporters that the botching of applications to surveil his campaign adviser Carter Page is evidence that the F.B.I. engaged in a politically biased conspiracy.
Mr. Horowitz’s investigators reviewed so-called Woods files, where the F.B.I. is supposed to catalog supporting documentation for factual claims in a FISA application, in a random sample of 29 requests to wiretap someone as part of a terrorism or espionage investigation under FISA. They found problems with all 29..
We do not have confidence that the F.B.I. has executed its Woods Procedures in compliance with F.B.I. policy, or that the process is working as it was intended to help achieve the ‘scrupulously accurate’ standard for FISA applications,” the inspector general report said.
Testing the FISA applications against their underlying evidence “identified apparent errors or inadequately supported facts in all of the 25 applications we reviewed,” the report said.
The other four could not be scrutinized at all because the F.B.I. could not even locate the required Woods file. In the 25 applications reviewed, there was an average of about 20 problems each. One alone had 65 issues..
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The investigation into Flynn was codenamed "Crossfire Razor" at the FBI. In January of 2017, before the inauguration of Trump, the FBI found "no derogatory information" and will CR is "no longer a viable candidate" as part of Crossfire Hurricane.
And then Peter Strzok intervenes:
And, the Obama White House was involved:
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A summary of today's revelations:
FBI Closed Flynn Case, Dubbed ‘Crossfire Razor,’ In Early 2017, Until Strzok Ordered It To Stay Open
New evidence released Thursday shows that the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), closed its criminal counterintelligence investigation of retired Gen. Mike Flynn on January 4, 2017, only to have it reopened by Peter Strzok.
“The goal of the investigation was to determine whether [Flynn], associated with the Trump campaign, was directed and controlled by and/or coordinated activities with the Russian Federation in a manner which is a threat to the national security and/or possibly a violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act,” the FBI memorandum formally closing its investigation of Flynn stated. “Following the initiation of captioned case, the [Crossfire Hurricane] team conducted a check of logical databases for any derogatory information on [Flynn].”
“No derogatory information was identified in FBI holdings,” the memo stated.
“Hey if you haven’t closed RAZOR, don’t do so yet,” Strzok texted at 2:14 p.m. on January 4, 2017.
“Razor still open,” Strzok immediately texted to Lisa Page, a former assistant to fired former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe. Strzok and Page reportedly had an adulterous affair that was captured by their text messages to each other.
Additional texts from Strzok on February 10 also confirm suspicions that Strzok personally rewrote the official FBI account of his and FBI agent Joe Pientka’s interview of Flynn on January 24, 2017.
“Lisa, you didn’t see it before my edits that went into what I sent you,” Strzok texted his former lover at 5:37 p.m. on February 20, 2017. “I was trying to completely re-write the thing so as to save [redacted] voice and 2) get it out to you for general review and comment in anticipation of needing it soon.”
The redaction is likely a reference to Pientka, who took the original notes during the Flynn interview.
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Lengthy explanation of not what happened, but why it happened;
https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/05/fbi-set-up-michael-flynn-to-preserve-trump-russia-probe/
To understand what happened here, you have to understand what the FBI’s objective was, first formed in collaboration with Obama-administration officials. That includes President Obama, Vice President Biden, and Flynn’s predecessor, national-security adviser Susan Rice, with whom then-Acting Attorney General Sally Yates and then–FBI director James Comey met at the White House on January 5, 2017 — smack in the middle of the chain-of-events that led to Flynn’s ouster. Recall Rice’s CYA memo about the meeting: “President Obama said he wants to be sure that, as we engage with the incoming team, we are mindful to ascertain if there is any reason that we cannot share information fully as it relates to Russia” (emphasis added). Rice wrote those words on January 20, at the very time the FBI was making its plan to push Flynn out.
The objective of the Obama administration and its FBI hierarchy was to continue the Trump–Russia investigation, even after President Trump took office, and even though President Trump was the quarry. The investigation would hamstring Trump’s capacity to govern and reverse Obama policies. Continuing it would allow the FBI to keep digging until it finally came up with a crime or impeachable offense that they were then confident they would find. Remember, even then, the bureau was telling the FISA court that Trump’s campaign was suspected of collaborating in Russia’s election interference. FBI brass had also pushed for the intelligence community to include the Steele dossier — the bogus compendium of Trump–Russia collusion allegations — in its report assessing Russia’s meddling in the campaign.
But how could the FBI sustain an investigation targeting the president when the president would have the power to shut the investigation down?>The only way the bureau could pull that off would be to conceal from the president the fullness of the Russia investigation — in particular, the fact that Trump was the target.
That is why Flynn had to go.
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Really disturbing stuff. I feel so badly for any Democrat voter who now definitely is in favor of this sort of behavior, and who's very souls are in peril.
The behavior of the FBI is nothing new, It is and always has been SOP. What’s different now is the flipping of who is okay with it and who is not. It’s so obvious but too frightening to say out loud.
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The Justice Department has abandoned its prosecution of President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn, throwing in the towel on one of the most prominent cases brought by special counsel Robert Mueller.
Flynn pleaded guilty in 2017 to lying to the FBI about his dealings with the Russian ambassador to the U.S.
But department officials, including Attorney General William Barr, concluded in light of recently disclosed evidence that the FBI’s questioning of him just four days after Trump’s inauguration lacked a proper investigative basis.
"A review of the facts and circumstances of this case, including newly discovered and disclosed information, indicates that Mr. Flynn’s statements were never 'material' to any FBI investigation," read the motion to dismiss the two-and-a-half year old criminal prosecution.
The move to dismiss the case was approved by Barr at the urging of a longtime federal prosecutor he assigned in January to conduct a review of the matter, Jeffrey Jensen, the U.S. Attorney in St. Louis.
"Through the course of my review of Gen. Flynn’s case, I concluded the proper and just course was to dismiss the case," Jensen said in a statement. "I briefed Attorney General Barr on my findings, advised him on these conclusions, and he agreed."
The bombshell court filing asking U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan to dismiss the case bore the signature of only one prosecutor: U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Timothy Shea, a former Barr aide named to the post in January.
Moments before Shea's filing, the top prosecutor in the Flynn case withdrew abruptly and without explanation. Brandon Van Grack, who served as one of special counsel Robert Mueller's top lawyers and remained on the Flynn case even after Mueller's office closed down, signaled his exit from the case in a terse, one-sentence filing with U.S. Sullivan.
In another sign of discord, the prosecutor who handled the matter alongside Van Grack over the past year — Assistant U.S. Attorney Jocelyn Ballentine — was also absent from the filing seeking to drop the case.
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We have the freedom to choose our actions, but we do not get to choose our consequences.
Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run, there's still time to change the road you're on. -
"My pronouns are FA/FO." - Mik, 2024
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Former FBI Director James Comey and former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe slammed the Justice Department’s decision to drop its case against former national security adviser Michael Flynn on charges he lied to the FBI about his contacts with Russians.
“The DOJ has lost its way. But, career people: please stay because America needs you. The country is hungry for honest, competent leadership,” Comey tweeted.
The DOJ has lost its way. But, career people: please stay because America needs you. The country is hungry for honest, competent leadership.
— James Comey (@Comey) May 7, 2020
McCabe said in a statement Flynn had “high level interactions with Russian officials” whom he “actively tried to influence.” He also said Flynn had lied about the substance of his talks with Russian officials.“His lies added to our concerns about his relationship with the Russian government,” said McCabe. “Today’s move by the Justice Department has nothing to do with the facts or the law — it is pure politics designed to please the president.”
In a court filing Thursday, the Justice Department said it was moving to drop its case against Flynn and was no longer sure it could make its case.
Justice moves to drop case against Flynn
McCabe and Comey were both ousted from their positions at the FBI by Trump and have had long public feuds with the president.
McCabe was accused of lying to investigators about a leak to the media, but the Justice Department in February decided against bringing charges against him.
Comey was criticized by the Justice Department's inspector general in an August 2019 report over his handling of memos on his conversations with Trump and the FBI.
