anyone who thinks the IG report is a vindication of the FISA

Posted on: December 10, 2019 at 02:08:51 CT

b/c Horowitz surmises that the opening of the investigation was lawfully predicated and that no bias could be confirmed clearly didn't read the report.

Comey, McCabe, and Co. on various news programs saying they are vindicated are lying to you.


That so many basic and fundamental errors
were made by three separate, hand-picked teams on
one of the most sensitive FBI investigations that was
briefed to the highest levels within the FBI, and that FBI officials expected would eventually be subjected to close scrutiny, raised significant questions regarding the FBI chain of command's management and supervision of the FISA process.



1. Omitted information the FBI had obtained from
another U.S. government agency detailing its
prior relationship with Page, including that Page
had been approved as an "operational contact"
for the other agency from 2008 to 2013, and
that Page had provided information to the other
agency concerning his prior contacts with certain
Russian intelligence officers, one of which
overlapped with facts asserted in the FISA
application;

2. Included a source characterization statement
asserting that Steele's prior reporting had been
"corroborated and used in criminal proceedings," which overstated the significance of Steele's past
reporting and was not approved by Steele's
handling agent, as required by the Woods
Procedures;

3. Omitted information relevant to the reliability of
Person 1, a key Steele sub-source (who was
attributed with providing the information in
Report 95 and some of the information in
Reports 80 and 102 relied upon in the
application), namely that (1) Steele himself told
members of the Crossfire Hurricane team that
Person 1 was a "boaster" and an "egoist" and
"may engage in some embellishment" and (2) (redacted)

4. Asserted that the FBI had assessed that Steele
did not directly provide to the press information
in the September 23 Yahoo News article based
on the premise that Steele had told the FBI that
he only shared his election-related research with
the FBI and Fusion GPS, his client; this premise
was incorrect and contradicted by documentation
in the Woods File- Steele had told the FBI that
he also gave his information to the State
Department

5. Omitted Papadopoulos's consensually monitored
statements to an FBI CHS in September 2016
denying that anyone associated with the Trump
campaign was collaborating with Russia or with
outside groups like Wikileaks in the release of
emails;

6. Omitted Page's consensually monitored
statements to an FBI CHS in August 2016 that
Page had "literally never met" or, "said one word
to" Paul Manafort and that Manafort had not
responded to any of Page's emails; if true, those
statements were in tension with claims in Report
95 that Page was participating in a conspiracy
with Russia by acting as an intermediary for
Manafort on behalf of the Trump campaign; and

7. Included Page's consensually monitored
statements to an FBI CHS in October 2016 that
the FBI believed supported its theory that Page
was an agent of Russia but omitted other
statements Page made that were inconsistent
with its theory, including denying having met
with Sechin and Divyekin, or even knowing who
Divyekin was; if true, those statements
contradicted the claims in Report 94 that Page had met secretly with Sechin and Divyekin about
future cooperation with Russia and shared
derogatory information about candidate Clinton.

8. Omitted the fact that Steele's Primary Sub-source who the FBI found credible, had made statements in January 2017 raising significant questions about the reliability of allegations included in the FISA applications, including, for example, that he/she had no discussions with Person 1 concerning Wikileaks and there was "nothing bad" about the communications between the Kremlin and the Trump team, and that he/she did not report to Steele in July 2016 that Page had met with Sechin;

9. Omitted Page's prior relationship with another U.S. Government agency, despite being reminded by the other agency in June 2017, prior to the filing out of the final renewal application, about Page's past status with the other agency; instead of including this information in the final renewal application, the OGC Attorney altered an email from the other agency so that the email stated that Page was "not a source" for the other agency, which the FBI affiant relied upon in signing the final renewal application;

10. Omitted information from persons who previously had professional contacts with Steele or had direct knowledge of his work-related performance, including statements that Steele had no history of reporting in bad faith but "demonstrates lack of self-awareness, poor judgment," and it was "not clear what he would have done to validate" his reporting;

11. Omitted information obtained from Ohr about Steele and his election reporting, including that (1) Steele's reporting was going to Clinton's presidential campaign and others. (2) Simpson was paying Steele to discuss his reporting with the media, and (3) Steele was "desperate that Donald Trump not get elected and was passionate about him not being the U.S. President";

12. Failed to update the description of Steele after information became known to the Crossfire Hurricane team, from Ohr and others, that provided greater clarity on the political origins and connections of Steele's reporting, including that Simpson was hired by someone associated with the Democratic Party and/or the DNC;


13. Failed to correct the assertion in the first FISA
application that the FBI did not believe that
Steele directly provided information to the
reporter who wrote the September 23 Yahoo
News article, even though there was no
information in the Woods File to support this
claim and even after certain Crossfire Hurricane
officials learned in 2017, before the third
renewal application, of an admission that Steele
made in a court filing about his interactions with
the news media in the late summer and early
fall of 2016;

14. Omitted the finding from a FBI source validation
report that Steele was suitable for continued
operation but that his past contributions to the
FBI's criminal program had been " minimally
corroborated," and instead continued to assert
in the source characterization statement that
Steele's prior reporting had been "corroborated
and used in criminal proceedings";

15. Omitted Papadopoulos's statements to an FBI
CHS in late October 2016 denying that the
Trump campaign was involved in the
circumstances of the DNC email hack;


16. Omitted Joseph Mifsud's denials to the FBI t hat
he supplied Papadopoulos with the information
Papadopoulos shared with the FFG (suggesting
that the campaign received an offer or
suggestion of assistance from Russia); and


17. Omitted information indicating that Page played
no role in the Republican platform change on
Russia's annexation of Ukraine as alleged in the
Report 95, which was inconsistent with a factual
assertion relied upon to support probable cause
in all four FISA applications

Edited by blake1771 at 02:29:31 on 12/10/19