Mark Wauck, retired FBI agent and AT contributor, has written an important essay on the true dimensions of the Russia hoax, on his blog Meaning in History. Building on Andrew McCarthy’s close analysis of the redacted FISA warrants two days ago. I will take the liberty of quoting his argument, but urge those interested to read the whole thing:
McCarthy gets to the heart of the matter--the first of many important points he makes--right up front:
Page has never been charged with any crime, much less with espionage. That is a salient fact because to get a FISA warrant on an American citizen, the FBI is required to show that the citizen’s activities on behalf of a foreign power violate federal criminal law. The FBI and Justice Department went to the FISA court four times over nine months, from October 2016 through June 2017, claiming to have grounds that Page was involved in heinous clandestine activity. Why isn’t he in handcuffs?
I believe it is because they never had a case. All they appear to have had were the 2013 attempt by Russian spies to recruit Page as an asset, and the Steele dossier.
Now here's what I want to make clear. The original FISA order, when the target is a US Person (USPER) such as Carter Page, lasts for 90 days. A FISA order can be renewed, but the renewal is NOTgranted on an "if at first you don't succeed, try try again" basis. To get an extension on a FISA--and let me say here that I completely agree with McCarthy that the initial FISA was pure BS--the FBI has to either:
1) make a reasonable showing that it is making progress in its investigation as a result of its use of FISA, i.e., it is moving forward with additional evidence gained through FISA that tends to confirm the presentation of the case that was made in the initial application, or
2) in the absence of such progress, the FBI must make a reasonable showing that the extension is likely to produce progress.
2) in the absence of such progress, the FBI must make a reasonable showing that the extension is likely to produce progress.
No extension should be granted unless one or the other condition is met; if not, the FISA should be shut down. Yet in this case three extensions were granted--despite the fact, as McCarthy convincingly shows, that there is absolutely no reason to suppose that either condition was ever met. We'll know for sure if/when President Trump finally declassifies these documents, but any fair reader of the redacted versions will be forced to McCarthy's conclusion: The FBI never had a case.
Prescinding from the corruption involved in the initial application, the fact that there were three extensions requested and granted is astounding--it should truly shock any normally aware citizen. That the top levels of both the FBI and DoJ should approve the extension requests, having nothing to show for their previous supposed investigative efforts, and that four separate Federal judges should approve such threadbare--not to say facially deficient and therefore bad faith--applications in a case that is so consequential for our Constitutional order strains credulity. And yet that, barring truly shocking new revelations that contradict all that we've learn thus far, is exactly what happened.
In light of this I would go beyond [Scott] Johnson's characterization [in Powerline here]of this as "scandal"--the only suitable word, not to be lightly used, is "crisis." And it's a continuing crisis. The reaction of both Democrats as well as NeverTrump Republicans in the House and Senate has been bad enough, but the lackadaisical, dilatory, response of DoJ in the face of such scandal has simply been shameful.
Vitriolic hatred of President Trump has sprung America into an Afghanistan-like "state of collapse, civil conflict, ethnic and disintegration locked in a self-perpetuating cycle that may be simply beyond outside resolution." An example is California versus America over energy. California has chosen 100% renewable energy by 2045 when it's proven that renewable energy doesn't workon a scalable, affordable basis now or in the coming decades without immensefossil fuel backup and billions in taxpayer subsidies.
Thankfully, the United States embraced fracking, allowing the U.S. to overtake Russia and Saudi Arabia as the world's number-one oil producer. Meanwhile, California dooms its economy to poverty for its citizens with higher energy prices and depressed job growth.
This example illustrates that America's democratic process is under attack, but it's against each other and not from foreign interference. Why? Because if the Democrats take Congress, they will impeach President Trump and don't have a plan to actually govern. This is now Venezuelan-style socialism that only wants power. These people – mostly unserious Democrats – "are vile, disgusting people. There is no lie they won't tell, no person they won't smear to advance their agenda," as evidenced by the Judge Brett Kavanaugh hearings.
They will return America back to the anemic growth it endured under Obama, and our enemies will only grow more emboldened. America will go the way of California-type leaders like Tom Steyer and Gavin Newsom plus the liescoming from the #Resistance and #NeverTrump crowd. Seemingly, this is exactly what the Deep State, the Democrats, establishment Republicans, and President Obama want.
According to Dr. Victor Davis Hanson, the Robert Mueller investigation is a mockery of justice full of Democratic partisans. It was never intended to root out Russian collusion; instead, it is to take down the duly elected president, his family, and anyone associated with his past life. Ask yourself, would this sham collusion narrative be happening if Hillary were in the White House? Of course not. Hanson is correct when he writes:
No President has ever faced impeachment for supposed wrongdoings alleged to have taken place before he took office. With effort to go back years, if not decades, into Trump's business and personal life, we are now in uncharted territory.
We will have a shooting, civil war on our hands if Trump is impeached over an investigation that has never proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump colluded with Russia. The Democratic Party of Truman, Kennedy, FDR, Scoop Jackson, and Governor Pat Brown is gone. Back then, Democrats wanted a thriving middle class, single-family homes, great schools to achieve upward mobility, and world-class infrastructure. Now it's spying on your political enemies through the unelected intelligence fiefdoms of the Deep State that Trump is trying to destroy.
Former senior-level Obama officials Susan Rice, James Clapper, John Brennan, Sally Yates, and Samantha Power all admitted to reviewing or "unmasking" political figures. Obama intel agencies were caught "secretly monitoring Congressional conversations while the Obama administration negotiated the Iran nuclear deal." Brennan and Clapper were both found lying to Congress in 2013 and 2014. And Ms. Attkisson is still fighting the Justice Department in a federal lawsuit over hacking her CBS computer, causing CBS to publicly announce:
Correspondent Sharyl Attkisson's computer was hacked by "an unauthorized, external, unknown party on multiple occasions," confirming Attkisson's previous revelation of the hacking.
Global intelligence firm Stratfor verified this claim in a September 21, 2010 email:
John Brennan [then an Obama Homeland Security adviser] is behind the witch hunts of investigative journalists learning information from inside the beltway sources.
This Deep State behavior grew when the intelligence community "expanded its authority in 2011 so it can monitor innocent U.S. citizens." Then, in January 2016, a top-secret inspector general report "found the NSA violated the very laws designed to prevent abuse." Also in 2016, Obama officials "searched through intelligence on U.S. citizens a record 30,000 times up from 9,500 in 2013" during an election year. Two weeks before the 2016 presidential election, NSA officials before a FISA court hearing overseeing government surveillance "confessed they'd violated privacy safeguards with much greater frequency" than previously admitted. The presiding judge accused the NSA of "institutional lack of candor and a very serious Fourth Amendment issue."
If it weren't for Congressman Devin Nunes, chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence the public would be in the dark "about the unethical and often illegal behavior of the FBI, CIA, National Security Agency and Department of Justice" under the former administration.
Nunes's investigation further uncovered that Clinton's campaign paid for an unverified dossier in 2016 from former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele that was used by Obama's FBI and Justice Department to obtain a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) for illegal surveillance on former Trump campaign aide Carter Page.
What Brennan, Clapper, Rice, and others have done is "monetize access" to classified intelligence for political and private financial gain. Obama intelligence chiefs – and now the Deep State – weaponized intelligence. Past and present high-ranking intelligence officials believe that it was correct to revoke Brennan's security clearances and that others should follow. These Obama-era officials and current Deep State employees are pursuing political agendas via the anti-Trump media, with the U.S. Department of Justice standing back and doing nothing while America is destroying Trump, the office of the president and the freest, greatest country in the history of mankind.
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