Jump to content

IG report finds mistakes but no political bias in FBI’s bid to spy on Trump campaign staffer


Geee

Recommended Posts

fisa-report-doj-watchdog-releases-findings-on-russia-probe-surveillance

The Justice Department’s inspector general on Monday released the long-awaited internal review concerning the origins of the Russia investigation, revealing that while the probe's launch complied with DOJ and FBI policies, there are "significant concerns with how certain aspects of the investigation were conducted and supervised."

Specifically, the report concluded that investigators found no intentional misconduct or political bias surrounding efforts to seek a highly controversial Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant to monitor former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page in the early months of the Russia investigation -- but faulted the FBI over numerous "omissions" and "inaccuracies" in the application process.

The IG probe identified at least 17 "significant" errors in the Page applications and said they would launch a new audit into the FISA process.

At the same time, the report said key officials including former FBI bosses James Comey and Andrew McCabe did not act with political bias and extended a similar finding to the overall surveillance efforts targeting Page.:snip:


 
Link to comment
Share on other sites

BREAKING: Read the Horowitz IG Report on Spygate

Department of Justice Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz released his report on the Trump-Russia probe and FISA applications Monday afternoon. His report considers whether or not there was any wrongdoing in the probe, run by the Obama administration and launched against the candidate who ran against many of Obama's policies. The grounds for the investigation proved extremely weak, from the Clinton campaign-funded Steele dossier to tenuous links regarding obscure members of the Trump campaign like Carter Page and George Papadopoulos.

"We did not find documentary or testimonial evidence that political bias or improper motivation influenced the decisions to open the four individual investigations," the report states.

 

Yet the report also reveals many errors in the investigations. It is also likely to reveal more bias in the Obama administration against Trump and for Hillary Clinton. The notorious Peter Strzok and Lisa Page both feature in the report.:snip:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

From Tough 'Dirty 30' Prosecutor to Tame Deep State Drone

From Tough 'Dirty 30' Prosecutor to Tame Deep State Drone

“I think we’ll learn part of the story tomorrow,” Carter Page told Fox News host Maria Bartiromo on Sunday. As Page had learned, “there’s a lot of exculpatory evidence that’s remaining classified, and there’s been internal battles.” On Monday, the former Trump advisor was on full alert when the Department of Justice Inspector General released the massive Review of Four FISA Applications and Other Aspects of the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane Investigation.

“We identified at least 17 significant errors or omissions in the Carter Page FISA applications, and many additional errors in the Woods Procedures” of the FBI, the report explains. On the other hand, the Inspector General did not conclude that the decision to surveille Page “was based on improper considerations in the absence of documentary or testimonial evidence to the contrary.” That leaves open the possibility the someone in the DOJ wasn’t talking, or advanced false information.

The FBI’s Peter Strzok, known for texts with Lisa Page touting an “insurance policy,” appears in the report 66 times. Strzok’s supervisor, William Priestap, Assistant Director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division, “ultimately made the decision to open the investigation,” and that decision came “after multiple days of discussions and meetings that included Strzok and other leadership in CD, the FBI Deputy Director, the FBI General Counsel, and an FBI Deputy General Counsel.”

Even so, the report contends, “we did not find documentary or testimonial evidence that political bias or improper motivation influenced his decision.” The report mentions “prosecution” ten times but does not recommend criminal prosecution of any FBI or DOJ official. So Carter Page was right that the report would be redacted and reveal only part of the story. Attorney General William Barr also weighed in.:snip:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Judicial Watch Statement on FISA Application Report

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton made the following statement regarding today’s Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General report:

Today’s IG report on the Russiagate FISA abuse provides abundant evidence that the FBI and DOJ massively violated the law in order to obtain the Carter Page spy warrants targeting President Trump.

As IG reports are both exposés and cover-ups at the same time, it is no surprise that the IG punted on implicating senior officials directly in the spy scandal.

President Trump should directly appoint a special counsel from outside of the DOJ and FBI to investigate the Obama/Clinton/Deep State Spygate scandal and other crimes that are in plain sight. In the meantime, Judicial Watch will continue its dozens of Freedom of Information Act lawsuits and investigations, which have already revealed much of what is known about Spygate – the biggest corruption scandal of all time.:snip:

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

WHAT, OTHER THAN POLITICAL BIAS, CAN EXPLAIN THE FBI’S EGREGIOUS MISCONDUCT

An important aspect of the FBI’s assessment of Steele’s election reporting involved evaluating Steele’s source network, especially whether the sub-sources had access to reliable information. As noted in the first FISA application, Steele relied on a primary sub-source (Primary Sub-source) for information, and this Primary Sub-source used a network of sub-sources to gather the information that was relayed to Steele; Steele himself was not the originating source of any of the factual information in his reporting. 

The FBI employed multiple methods in an effort to ascertain the identities of the sub-sources within the network, including meeting with Steele in October 2016 (prior to him being closed for cause) and conducting various investigative inquiries. For example, the FBI determined it was plausible that at least some of the sub-sources had access to intelligence pertinent to events described in Steele’s election reporting. Additionally, the FBI’s evaluation of Steele’s sub-sources generated some corroboration for the election reporting (primarily routine facts about dates, locations, and occupational positions that was mostly public source information). Further, by January 2017 the FBI was able to identify and arrange a meeting with the Primary Sub-source.:snip:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • 1711726681
×
×
  • Create New...