Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court Act [FISA] Presiding Judge Rosemary Collyer blasted the FBI for supplying her court incomplete or otherwise cherry-picked material to obtain a warrant to wiretap former Trump foreign policy aid Carter Page. FBI Attorney Kevin Clinesmith apparently forgot to tell Collyer that Page was a CIA asset, something Clinesmith deliberately omitted from the email to Judge Collier. When Department of Justice [DOJ] 57-year-old Inspector General Michael Horowitz released his report Dec. 9, it identified the deliberately altered email by Clinesmith plus 17 other errors-and-omissions to the FBI’s FISA court applications. Yet former FBI Director James Comey insists he did nothing wrong, that he and Horowitz are saying the same thing. While Comey claimed vindication over FBI bias against 73-year-old President Donald Trump, Horowitz said he “vindicated no one.”
Since fired by Trump May 9, 2017, Democrats have accused Trump of obstruction of justice, when, in fact, Trump fired Comey for cause, abusing his position as FBI Director. Horowitz was careful to say he found “no evidence” of bias but that, in no way, rules it out. Widely published anti-Trump texts-and-emails between FBI Agent Peter Strzok and his mistress FBI Atty. Lisa Page certainly show there was something afoot. Strzok and Page denied that their antipathy toward Trump affected their jobs, yet they explicitly committed to keeping Trump from becoming president or removing him from office. Collyer’s first public remarks show that Comey abused his office as FBI Director, using the FISA court to spy on a U.S. citizen, no less than a CIA asset. Yet Comey still talks as if he did nothing wrong, rejecting completely the idea that he spied on the Trump campaign.
Collier’s reaction shows that she was kept in the dark by Comey, led to believe that Page was worthy of a warrant for his Russian contacts. Collyer knew nothing about Clinesmith omitting Page’s work for the CIA in Comey’s FISA application. By the time Comey went to Collyer, he already initiated Operation Crossfire Hurricane, opening a counterintelligence investigation based on former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s paid opposition research AKA “the Steele dossier.” Comey received the Steele dossier from the late Sen. John McCain (R-Az.), a known Trump enemy. McCaine knew that the dossier was bogus but thought it was the best way to sabotage Trump chances of election in 2016. Hillary did her utmost in the presidential debates in 2016 to push the spurious idea that Trump was a Russian agent, somehow beholden to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Getting much attention in the mainstream anti-Trump press, Trump published an open letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), putting on record his objections from A-to-Z of Democrats’ impeachment case. Democrats are scheduled to debate-and-vote on two articles of impeachment today. Trump wanted to state for the record the bogus allegations made by Democrats, now bolstered by the Dec. 9 IG report, but, more importantly, Judge Collyer raising objections to the FBI’s abuse of the FISA court. Comey jumped at the chance to exonerate himself from any wrongdoing, knowing that Horowitz “vindicated no one.” Doctoring the FBI’s FISA court application for Page, Clinesmith took his orders from some one. Since Comey was FBI Director, it’s inconceivable that Clinesmith would dummy-up a document without orders from the top, maybe Comey or someone else.
Collyer got blunt with the FBI over its sloppiness. “The frequency with which representations made by FBI personnel turned out to be unsupported or contradicted by information in their possession, and with which the withheld information detrimental to their case, calls into question whether information contained in the other FBI applications is reliable,” Collyer wrote. That news meant nothing to Democrats debating articles of impeachment, knowing the FBI breached every ethical principle trying to sabotage Trump’s campaign and presidency. Democrats hearing Collyer should immediately suspend impeachment proceedings, pending a review of all FBI applications for the FISA court. Collyer gave the FBI until Jan. 10, 2020 to show what corrective measures they’ve taken to assure that FISA court abuses will no longer take place. Collyer can’t comment on who ordered Comey to investigate Trump.
Debating and voting on two articles of impeachment today in the Senate Judiciary Committee, Trump wants Democrats to immediately halt the proceedings. Trump said Collyer’s “statement by the Court was long and tough. Means my case was a SCAM,” Trump tweeted. No matter what FBI abuse comes out, Democrats have committed themselves to upending Trump’s 2020 presidential run. Claiming it’s about the Constitution, Democrats know they carry baggage into the 2020 presidential election. FBI Director Christopher Wray said the IG report is “unacceptable and unrepresentative of the FBI as an institution.” Collyer wants to know “what the FBI has done, and plans to do, to ensure that the statement of facts in each FBI application to the FISA court reflects information possessed by the FBI that is material to any issue presented by the application,” said Wray.
