Trump orders feds to declassify FISA warrants, text messages in FBI Russia probe: Samuel Chamberlain
President Trump on Monday ordered the declassification of several key documents related to the FBI's probe of Russian actions during the 2016 presidential election, including 21 pages of an application for a renewed surveillance warrant against former campaign aide Carter Page...
...Trump also ordered the Justice Department to release text messages from a number of the key players in the Russia investigation "without redaction" -- including Ohr, Strzok, Lisa Page, former FBI Director James Comey and former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe...
The wording of the directive for declassification is important: @TheLastRefuge2
The wording of the directive for declassification is important: "At the request of a number of committees of Congress"... This shifts the legal issues with executive declassification from the Office of the President (who might hold a legal conflict), to executive fulfillment of legislative branch oversight... a very important distinction...
...The more interesting (to me) aspect is the last part of the declassification request. This is where the political goldmine will be located... "President Trump has directed the Department of Justice (including the FBI) to publicly release all text messages relating to the Russia investigation, without redaction, of James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, and Bruce Ohr."
...There were thousands of redactions in the original 2017 releases of text messages. Those redactions were done by hidden, unnamed, and unknown FBI officials within the institution. What is behind those redactions is even more explosive than the FISA app...
POTUS Directs DNI, DOJ and FBI To Declassify Documents and Release Unredacted Text Messages: CTH
The immediate question is: will Dan Coats, Jeff Sessions, Rod Rosenstein and Christopher Wray comply?
The odds are DNI Dan Coats will comply with the request, as a function of legislative oversight and executive approval. You might remember it was likely Dan Coats was the source of the release of the previously declassified FISA application against Carter Page. Within the IC structure, Dan Coats is the decision-maker on intelligence releases.
Also, this release, whenever it takes place, would generally indicate the DOJ Inspector General investigative report on FISA abuse has absorbed/used all of the relevant material.
President Trump Orders Extensive Declassification: Jeff Carlson
This declassification order is broader than had been anticipated. A declassification of the sequence of redacted pages from the Page FISA documents, along with the interviews of Ohr, had been assumed. This order goes much further.
Pages 10–12 of the June 2017 Page FISA application relate to the Russian government’s efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Pages 17–34 relate to Page’s coordination with Russian government officials on 2016 U.S. Presidential Election influence activities. A number of these pages are fully redacted.
Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) has noted that exculpatory information pertaining to Page was omitted from the FISA applications. The declassification of these sections will likely illustrate if that did occur.
It’s also possible that more evidence of circular reporting between the FBI and certain reporters may be unveiled.
Trump specifically selected the third and final FISA Renewal dated June 29, 2017, as it is the most comprehensive of the four FISA documents, at 121 pages long. It begins on page 292 and ends on page 412 in the provided link.
The June FISA was signed by FISA Judge Raymond Dearie (page 412), an unknown FBI supervisory special agent (page 380), Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe (page 389), Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein (page 391) and an unknown DOJ attorney (page 392)...
...Attention will now be focused on FBI Director Christopher Wray and Rosenstein throughout the declassification process.
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What if some of the redacted names or organizations belong to the MSM?
ReplyDeleteAn October surprise came early !!
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