FISAgate
March 6, 2020 — Scott Johnson
I had reached part 4 in my series We now know: FISA court must go” when events permitted a break. Today I return on the occasion of the March 4 Opinion and Order entered by FISA court Chief Judge James Boasberg (embedded below). Under the terms of the order, as Catherine Herridge and Mellissa Quinn report in their CBS News story, “Surveillance court judge bars some DOJ and FBI officials
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February 6, 2020 — Scott Johnson
As of this moment, my January 31 post “James Freeman’s question” is the most read post on Power Line. How can this be? Howie Carr got the ball rolling; Howie tweeted out my post that morning. Thank you, Howie. President Trump retweeted Howie’s tweet last night (screenshot below), and some of President Trump’s 72 million followers on Twitter are now checking out the post. Thus the traffic to the post
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January 31, 2020 — Scott Johnson
In his online Wall Street Journal Best of the Web column, James Freeman asks “Who is Kevin Clinesmith?” The column explores the media’s extreme lack of interest in Clinesemith since the publication of the Department of Justice Inspector General report on FISA abuse in the matter of Carter Page and the Trump 2020 presidential campaign. The headline poses a good question, but Freeman closes his column with an even better
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January 29, 2020 — Scott Johnson
We have yet to get to the bottom of the wrongdoing by the Comey/McCabe FBI against the Trump presidential campaign and presidency. There are depths yet to be plumbed. In an interesting development that is unlikely to attract much attention from the mainstream media, Senators Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson allege that four classified footnotes in the Horowitz IG report on the FBI/DoJ FISA abuse directly contradict claims made in
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January 23, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Today the FISA court published the declassified and redacted version of a two-page order on the Carter Page FISA warrants (embedded below). According to the court order signed by Presiding Judge James Boasberg, the Department of Justice now concedes that “at least” two of the four warrants approved by the FISA court lacked probable cause and were therefore “invalid” (i.e., illegal). Judge Boasberg adds that “[t]he government apparently does not
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January 20, 2020 — Scott Johnson
David Kris is the amicus curiae appointed by the FISA court to assess the Department of Justice/FBI response to the court’s post-Horowitz order on FISA abuse. The FISA court itself stands revealed as an accomplice of the FBI in the wrongdoing committed against Carter Page. What we have here is an infuriating case of Kabuki theater. What is to be done with the FISA court? It is difficult to imagine
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January 17, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Former federal prosecutor George Parry takes up the question presented by the FISA court in the American Spectator column “The Potemkin court.” The column covers the same ground and arrives at the same destination as my previous posts on the FISA court’s appointment of one David Kris to serve as amicus curiae in the wake of the Department of Justice Inspector General report on the FBI’s FISA abuse and the
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January 14, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Today’s Wall Street Journal carries an unsigned editorial (I’m sure by Kim Strassel) under the headline “Another FISA fiasco.” The editorial covers the same ground and arrives at the same destination as my previous posts on the FISA court’s appointment of one David Kris to serve as amicus curiae in the wake of the Department of Justice Inspector General report and the Department of Justice’s pathetic response thereto. The editorial
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January 13, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Maria Bartiromo’s Sunday Morning Futures is the one Sunday morning gabfest worth watching. Yesterday morning she had a brief segment with Rep. Devin Nunes, who is a frequent guest on the show (video below). At around 3:30, Bartiromo asks Nunes about the appointment of one David Kris to serve as amicus curiae to the FISA court to help it assess the Department of Justice/FBI response to the court’s December 17
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January 11, 2020 — Scott Johnson
David Kris served as Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice under President Obama and Attorney General Holder. He drew on his prestige as a former senior official in the Department of Justice to disparage Rep. Devin Nunes in his exposure of the FBI’s misconduct in the Russia haox and assure anyone who would listen to him that all was in order. He is an apologist for FBI misconduct
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January 11, 2020 — Scott Johnson
This past December 17 FISA Court Chief Judge Rosemary Collyer issued a four-page order taking notice of the egregious government misconduct committed in connection with the FISA warrants it approved on Carter Page. Like so many involved in the Russia hoax, Judge Collyer claimed only lately to have tumbled to the misconduct committed before her court, courtesy of the Department of Justice Inspector General report issued the previous week. I
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December 24, 2019 — Scott Johnson
In the aftermath of the Department of Justice Inspector General report on FISA abuse in the FBI’s investigation of the Trump campaign and the Trump presidency, Dan Bongino interviewed Rep. Devin Nunes at length about “the biggest political scandal in US history.” I have not previously heard Nunes speak at such length about the Russia hoax, at least since the release of the Horowitz report on December 9. I will
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December 20, 2019 — Scott Johnson
When FISA court presiding judge Rosemary Collyer issued her order rebuking the FBI earlier this week, I wondered where the court had been. Don’t FISA judges read the newspapers? Like so many involved in the Russia hoax, Judge Collyer gave every appearance of having tumbled only lately to the misconduct committed before her court, courtesy of the Department of Justice Inspector General report issued last week. I embedded a copy
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December 18, 2019 — Scott Johnson
Several renowned journalists published hagiographic profiles of Christopher Steele as some kind of a savior: Howard Blum, John Cassidy, and, preeminently, Jane Mayer come to mind, among many others. Mayer wrote a ludicrous 15,000-word profile of Steele that appeared in the March 5, 2018 number of the New Yorker. I mocked Mayer’s profile of Steele in a five-part series that I called “Jane Mayer’s Dossiad.” The link is to part
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December 17, 2019 — Scott Johnson
At long last the FISA court has taken notice of the egregious government misconduct committed in connection with the FISA warrants it approved on Carter Page. The order appears under the signature of FISA court presiding Judge Rosemary Collyer. Like so many involved in the Russia hoax, she claims only lately to have tumbled to the misconduct committed before her court, courtesy of the Department of Justice Inspector General report
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December 17, 2019 — Scott Johnson
When then House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes released his memo asserting that the FBI had improperly taken out FISA warrants on Carter Page, Ranking Member Adam Schiff responded with a memo of his own disputing it. The Nunes memo is accessible here and elsewhere; the Schiff memo is accessible here and elsewhere. Both Nunes and Schiff had access to the same classified information for their memos, but Nunes was
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December 16, 2019 — Scott Johnson
Last year one April Doss published articles at the Atlantic and the Weekly Standard on the FISA warrants taken out on Carter Page. Doss had served as senior minority counsel on the Senate Intelligence Committee (she worked for the Democrats). She also spent over a decade at the National Security Agency, where she was associate general counsel for intelligence law. Doss touted her professional experience and expertise to assure us
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