A few weeks ago I gave you the 17 “omissions” in the Carter Page FISA applications which lead to the FBI spying on the Trump campaign. You don’t even have to read the full document to see the clear evidence that the FBI intentionally lied to try to influence the election. But this report proves another thing. Remember the memos that both sides released in 2018? The Republicans released a memo where they found 4 findings of FISA Abuse:
- The unverified Steele Dossier was the central and essential focus of the FBI’s effort to get a FISA warrant on Carter Page. (The FBI knew that Steele was working for the DNC but they never told that to the FISA Court)
- The FBI cited a Yahoo news article to back up the information in the Steele Dossier, but failed to mention that Chris Steele was the source of the article.
- A DOJ official and his wife, Bruce and Nellie Ohr, were funneling information from Steele to the FBI.
- The Dossier was “only minimally corroborated” and unverified, but they never told this to the Court.
Now of course this is all a conspiracy and the Republicans are all a bunch of liars. So obviously the reasonable thing to do is to release another memo calling the Republicans out for their lies and to correct the record. That’s exactly what Adam Schiff did. According to Adam Schiff’s responding memo:
- The FBI and DOJ never omitted information to the court.
- The Steele Dossier was only “narrowly” used in the application.
- Steeles’ information was corroborated.
- The FBI and DOJ repeatedly informed the court about Steele’s background, credibility, and potential bias.
- Steele’s reporting had been used in “criminal proceedings”.
We know now that the Adam Schiff lied on all of these points. The IG report released last month backs up all of Devin Nunes’ claims in his memo in 2018. Even a fact-checker for the Washington Post was forced to admit that Devin Nunes got a “fair amount” right in his memo and that the truth sides more with the Republicans then with the Democrats.
Steele claimed that nothing was omitted from the FISA court, but the IG Report uses the word “omitted” 39 times. One of those times was “inaccuracy” #6 which directly contradicts Schiff’s first claim. “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…”
Adam Schiff’s second claim that “The Steele Dossier was only “narrowly” used in the application” was debunked by the Inspector General (IG). According to the report, “We determined that the crossfire Hurricane Team’s receipt of Steele’s election reporting on September 19, 2016 placed a central and essential role in the FBI’s and department’s decision to seek the FISA order.”
Sciff’s and the Democrats third claim that “Steeles’ information was corroborated.” was debunked. According to the IG Report “We further determined that the crossfire Hurricane Team was unable to corroborate any of the specific substantive allegations regarding Carter Page contained in Steele’s election reporting which the FBI relied on in the FISA applications.”
The FBI couldn’t verify any of the information and yet they continued to use it as an excuse to spy on a member of a Presidential campaign. But it gets even worse then that. The CIA even tried to warn the FBI about the lack of vetting, according to this report and yet they still used it as justification to spy on an American citizen. “…The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) expressed concern about the lack of vetting for the Steele election reporting and asserted it did not merit inclusion in the body of the report. An FBI intel section chief told us the CIA viewed it as a “internet rumor”. In contrast, as we describe in chapter six, the FBI, including Comey and McCabe, sought to include the reporting…”
The Democrats claims that “The FBI and DOJ repeatedly informed the court about Steele’s background, credibility, and potential bias.” was also proven to be inaccurate. The IG found that the FBI hid the fact that Steele was working for the Clinton campaign, and that “Steele was desperate that Donald Trump not get elected and was passionate about him not being the U.S. President.”
That leads us to Democrat lie #5. The claim that “Steele’s reporting had been used in “criminal proceedings” was debunked in this report. This characterization “… 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….”
It’s also important to point out that the FBI “…altered an email from the other agency (CIA) so that the email stated that Page was “not a source” for the other agency, which the FBI affiant relied up on signing the final renewal application.” Let me repeat that in case you thought you were seeing something. The FBI “altered an email from the CIA” because they did not want the FISA court to know that Carter Page worked with the CIA to bring down a Russian spy ring back in 2013. The CIA said that Carter Page “was a source” and the FBI changed it to say that Carter Page was “not a source” before submitting that to the FISA court. That was how they got the approval to spy on the Trump campaign.
Before the 2016 election and after Steele was caught leaking information, the FBI was forced to deem Christopher Steele “closed for cause” meaning that he wasn’t credible. Instead of ending their relationship with Steele, they continued an off the books relationship through Bruce Ohr. All communications between Steele and the FBI were suppose to stop, according to the official rules of the FBI. But they didn’t. 13 secret meetings illegally took place after Steele was deemed “closed for cause”.
We need a full investigation of the FBI and a complete halt of the FISA court until a full investigation is complete and we can answer these three questions:
- Who in the FBI was pushing the Steele Dossier and Christopher Steele’s reporting?
- Why did the FBI continue an off the books relationship with Steele after he was officially deemed “closed for cause”?
- Were members of the FBI acting independent from members of the DOJ? Who else was involved?
So that leaves me with several questions. Why are we listening to anything that Adam Schiff claims? Why are we listening to a guy who continues to push something that he knows to be false? Why isn’t anyone in the media demanding an explanation from Adam Schiff on why he thought it was appropriate to lie to the American people? Why is no one in the Democratic Party calling Schiff out for his lying?
I can’t end this article without mentioning that this IG Report did not come from a “alt-righter” nominated by Donald Trump. This report came from the Inspector General who President Barack Obama nominated for that position. It was an Obama nominee who uncovered the truth and debunked all of the Democrat talking points.
Read the full IG Report here: https://www.justice.gov/storage/120919-examination.pdf