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Secret FISA Court Issues Highly Unusual Public Rebuke of FBI for Mistakes

posted by martyb on Wednesday December 18 2019, @09:03AM   Printer-friendly
from the follow-the-rules dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/secret-fisa-court-issues-highly-unusual-rebuke-fbi-mistakes-n1103451

The secret federal court that approves orders for conducting surveillance on suspected foreign terrorists or spies issued a strong and highly unusual public rebuke to the FBI on Tuesday, ordering the agency to say how it intends to correct the errors revealed last week by a Justice Department report on one aspect of the FBI's investigation of Donald Trump's 2016 campaign.

Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz said the FBI made serious and repeated mistakes in seeking under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, to conduct surveillance of Carter Page, a former Trump campaign adviser.

The FBI's submission to the court made assertions that were "inaccurate, incomplete, or unsupported by appropriate documentation," the report said.

Rosemary Collyer, presiding judge on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, said in the unusual public order that the report "calls into question whether information contained in other FBI applications is reliable." She ordered the FBI to explain in writing by Jan. 10 how it intends to remedy those problems.

Document here: https://www.scribd.com/document/440156909/Fisa-Court-to-FBI

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday December 18 2019, @07:37PM (3 children)

    by DeathMonkey (1380) on Wednesday December 18 2019, @07:37PM (#933869) Journal

    Oh ya got me! I should have said 'investigations' instead of 'applications.'

    In addition to repeating the errors contained in the first FISA application, we
    identified other, similarly significant errors in the three renewal applications,

    They found errors in the Carter Page application and those errors weren't fixed in the renewals.

    They reviewed FOUR investigations:
    Carter Page
    George Papadopolous (who is now a felon)
    Paul Manafort (who is now a felon)
    And, Michael Flynn (who is also now a felon)

    From the OIG report:

    he decision to open Crossfire Hurricane and four
    individual cases on current and former members
    of the Trump campaign, George Papadopoulos,
    Carter Page, Paul Manafort, and Michael Flynn;
    the early investigative steps taken; and whether
    the openings and early steps complied with
    Department and FBI policies;

    Starting Score:    1  point
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  • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @08:25PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @08:25PM (#933885)

    I don't even believe that is what you original meant (you most likely copy-pasted that talking point from somewhere), but this report only tangentially touches on those other investigations:

    With respect to the four individual investigations, CD transferred the Carter
    Page investigation to NYFO, and it remained assigned to Case Agent 1, who
    returned to that office following his 90-day TDY. DAD Jennifer Boone and SSA 3 of
    Operations Branch II at FBI Headquarters assumed program management
    responsibilities over the case. The Papadopoulos investigation was transferred to
    the Chicago Field Office and assigned to Case Agent 3. The Flynn investigation was
    transferred to the Washington Field Office (WFO) and assigned to Case Agent 4.
    Strzok and SSA 2 of Operations Branch I retained program management
    responsibilities over both of these investigations. The Manafort investigation was
    transferred to a white collar criminal squad at WFO. 185

    However, as to whether those investigations were above board:

    We concluded that the FBI's decision to open Crossfire Hurricane and the four
    related individual investigations was, under Department and FBI policy, a
    discretionary judgment call and that the FBI's exercise of discretion was in
    compliance with those policies. For the reasons described below, we found that
    each investigation was opened for an authorized purpose and, in light of the low
    threshold established by Department and FBI predication policy, with adequate
    factual predication. We also found that the FBI satisfied the DIOG's notification and
    approval requirements for designating Crossfire Hurricane and the four related
    individual investigations as SIMs. Nevertheless, we were concerned about the
    limited notice requirements under Department and FBI policy before opening
    investigations such as these, relating to constitutionally protected activity occurring
    during a national presidential campaign. We were also concerned about the limited
    notice requirements before using more intrusive investigative techniques that could
    impact constitutionally protected activity.

    And finally there is this:

    In addition, Source 2 told the Crossfire Hurricane team that Source 2 had
    known Trump's then campaign manager, Manafort, for a number of years and that
    he had been previously acquainted with Michael Flynn. Case Agent 1 told the OIG
    that "quite honestly ... we kind of stumbled upon [Source 2] knowing these folks."
    He said that it was "serendipitous" and that the Crossfire Hurricane team "couldn't
    believe [their] luck" that Source 2 had contacts with three of their four subjects,
    including Carter Page.

    Whenever you see something surprising, that means one of your premises is probably wrong. This is why Barr/Durham said they disagreed about the predication for the case because they had extra info. Here the CIA comes into play, we will see that coming out later.

    So anyway, the report does not say what you claim it does (as usual). Now go forth and continue to spew your propaganda.

    • (Score: 2) by Aegis on Thursday December 19 2019, @12:12AM (1 child)

      by Aegis (6714) on Thursday December 19 2019, @12:12AM (#934001)

      You realize that your quotes say there were four cases and that they were opened appropriately, right?

      • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 19 2019, @12:20AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 19 2019, @12:20AM (#934005)

        Can you see where it says "appropriately" is according to some very low standards that should be changed, and only refers to *opened* as a preliminary investigation vs continued after contrary evidence accumulated (and was hidden and falsified).