Intel Community Blog Founder Admits Nunes Was Right About Spygate From The Beginning
By: Tristan Justice
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The co-founder of the prominent intelligence community blog, Lawfare , admitted that a recent report from the Justice Department inspector general on FBI FISA abuses for Trump campaign surveillance has destroyed their own credibility.
On a Thursday podcast hosted by Stewart Baker, a partner at the Washington office of Steptoe & Johnson LLP, the blog’s founder, Bobby Chesney admitted that the damming report from the DOJ IG documenting FBI abuses and vindicating the infamous Nunes memo on the discredited Steele Dossier alleging Russian collusion has been destructive to his publication’s reputation.
“Is there somebody who since the release of the Horowitz paper, someone in political life or a pontificator looks better or worse as a result of this report and why?” Baker asked the panel of three legal experts who specialize in the intelligence community.
I feel like all of us, who, you might call us the ‘Lawfare crowd’ who were often denounced or criticized at least in the older days as being too quick to credit and too trust the good faith and completeness of the efforts of the FBI in this kind of context. A lot of us look bad right now and we’re sort of watching anxiously to see how the broader OIG investigation sheds light on whether this was a one-off problem or a broader problem but there’s not question that a lot of our positions don’t look as persuasive as a result of how this has turned out.
Chesney’s humbling admission comes after three years of a continued push from Democrats charging the Trump campaign of colluding with the Russian government in a wild conspiracy theory offered legitimacy by the mainstream media. Trump of course, was completely exonerated after a two-year special counsel investigation led by Robert Mueller who found not one person on the Trump campaign, let alone Trump himself was working as a Russian agent.
A new report unveiled earlier this month from the Justice Department inspector general revealed the gross abuses of the FISA process committed by the FBI to guarantee warrants for its spying operations on the Trump campaign referred to as “Crossfire hurricane.” The inspector general found 17 significant omissions and errors from FISA applications requesting permission to continue its deep-state campaign to convict the president of being a Russian asset and overturn the results of the 2016 election.
Among the revelations from the report is the fact that FBI officials knew as early as January 2017 that the sources used from the Steele Dossier which were the basis for their warrant applications had provided junk intelligence and pushed onward with their surveillance operations regardless as if it were credible.
The inspector general’s findings have further vindicated the infamous memo authored by Republican California Congressman Devin Nunes rebuking the Steele Dossier while contradicting the rival memo from House Democrats pushing now-completely debunked narrative. The media derided the Republicans’ findings and vilified Nunes while providing glowing coverage of California Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff who was the lead perpetuator of the Russia hoax in the House.
A great example of the types of disproven analysis published at Lawfare comes from Lawfare’s executive director, Susan Hennessey who also works as a CNN national security and legal analyst. Even after the release of the Mueller report and the DOJ IG report, Hennessey maintained that there was “no Russia hoax” despite her own boss’ admission. She has yet to retract this analysis:
"Mollie, there was no Russia collusion hoax. The IG found a properly predicated investigation. Mueller found a systematic plot by Russia to interfere in the US election, and that the president was aware of and sought to benefit from Russias assistance while lying to the public." ....Susan Hennessey
Molly Heminway's response:
"This person and many of her Lawfare colleagues should be held accountable for perpetrating the Russia collusion hoax with the help of their friends, the implicated officials. Their false claims damaged the country. There needs to be a reckoning."
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We all owe this man a debt of gratitude. It was Nunes who had been studying the Russia-Tump collusion investigation for the better part of 3 years. It was he who discovered and produced evidence that the FBI and Department of Justice had abused the resources of the federal government to spy on Donald Trump, his campaign and his presidency.
Rules of civility apply
admiral rogers flipped on obama and told trump he was being spied on
the next day trump moved his headquarters.
nunes has been on top of the ball that is for sure, but admiral rogers is the real hero. he is now working with barr to take them all down.
Sadly, that's more accountability than many of the Schiff propagandists have taken. Many simply pretend the years they spent enabling Schiff to lie to the American public never happened.
What do you mean pretend? Many still think Schiff speaks nothing but the unbridled truth all of the time. This report means nothing to them.
I read the IG report and no where does it actually debunk the Steele dossier. It does say the dossier was NOT used for the initial FISA warrant but was later improperly used for the warrants renewals. Much of the Steele dossier remains proven while the rest remains unproved but not debunked. The right wing media knows this, they simply haven't an ounce of honesty left in them so they will lie, twist and contort anything to fit their ridiculous conservative victimhood narrative.
Is that really the standard you think this country should base justice on? Accuse, and then it’s up the accused to disprove the accusation?
Of course it does! No one, not even Adam Schiff disputes this.
If you actually read the IG report, how did you miss this, or any of the other passages containing similar details?:
"We found that the FBI did not have information corroborating the specific allegations against Carter Page in Steele’s reporting
when it relied upon his reports in the first FISA application or subsequent renewal applications.”
of the Steele dossier remains prove
No, it's not. If you understood what was actually written, you'd know the only information that "was proven" was publicly available, i.e. published in newspapers. The actual "intelligence" provided by Steele and basis of the FISA warrant's have been debunked. For fucks sake man, the IG documented Steele making up allegations that his own source debunked.
Have some integrity!
onesty left in them so they will lie, twist and contort anything t
You started with a lie (that the dossier was not used in the initial FISA warrant) and went downhill from there. But keep projecting your own actions onto others.
Really? Please do link all the "debunking". Please provide proof the Russians don't have a pee tape. It's not been proved, but it certainly hasn't been debunked.
The "crossfire hurricane" investigation was opened long before the Steele dossier was even seen by the FBI and it was based on "FFG" information.
"As we describe in Chapter Three, the FBI
opened Crossfire Hurricane on July 31, 2016, just days
after its receipt of information from a Friendly Foreign
Government (FFG) reporting that, in May 2016, during
a meeting with the FFG, then Trump campaign foreign
policy advisor George Papadopoulos "suggested the
Trump team had received some kind of suggestion from
Russia that it could assist this process with the
anonymous release of information during the campaign
that would be damaging to Mrs. Clinton (and President
Obama)."
The Steele dossier wasn't given to the FBI till September 19, 2016.
Was it used to request the FISA warrant on Carter Page? Of course, and they completely bungled that part of the investigation, but the idea that the investigation was predicated on the Steele dossier is completely moronic and false.
Start at two minutes - the dossier gets shredded.
Don't wait for Horowitz to dispute anything said, because he doesn't.
Bungled?????? Carter was working for the CIA and they knew it and hid it from the FISA Court!
ah,yes, The last resort of the dishonest, demanding as negative be proven because you got caught making things up.
But let's play your game. Please provide proof you don't rape goats. Until you are able to provide definitive proof that you've never raped a goat, (which would require proof of what you were doing every minute of your life) I guess you'd agree it's fair to call you a goat raper.
Please provide proof the Russians don't have a pee tap
Again, if you'd actually read the IG report, you'd know the source for the pee tape allegation said it was a barroom joke. That's the evidence. A joke.
But by all means, provide any evidence that it exists. Otherwise, the allegation is as valid as calling you a goat raper.
as it used to request the FISA warrant on Carter Page? Of course
Then why did you falsely claim it wasn't?
You are absolutely right. They are like the radical law professor Lawrence Tribe - when the democrats are in power they have all kinds of rights and when the Republicans are in power they have none. Total hypocrisy. It is amazing how blind they are to what the intelligence services did.
they are not blind to anything. they knowingly follow the communist playbook / comic book.
using the power of government to go after political rivals is just par for their course.
that is who today's left has become.
Can you believe this? There are still some who want to defend the dossier! Even those FBI Trump haters admit it was BS. Cohen was never in Prague! There is no Russian embassy in Miami! It was what it was - opposition research paid for and disseminated by the Clinton campaign & Trump hater Christopher Steele.
It does say the dossier was NOT used for the initial FISA warrant but was later improperly used for the warrants renewals.
"In an astonishing admission, the Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz conceded to lawmakers Wednesday that the FBI’s FISA applications used to continue surveillance on the 2016 Trump campaign were based entirely on sources for the widely discredited Steele Dossier funded by the Democrats.
“The FISA applications relied entirely on information from the Steele… from the primary sub-source’s reporting to support the allegation that Page was coordinating with the Russian government on 2016 U.S. presidential election activities. However, the FBI did not share this information from department lawyers, and it was therefore omitted from the last two renewal applications,” Horowitz said."
You are correct. The gop has gone full blown into lies and deflections. They are good little foot soldiers for the Trump/Putin propaganda.
Well, hey! Props for admitting it.
It used to be that being skeptical of government bureaucracy was a sign of wisdom.
To sum up:
Nunes was the brave voice that told the American people of the terrible events starting with the Clinton campaign's political operatives who tried to frame their political opponent, which was followed by the intelligence agencies attempt to do the same and finally the complicity of the msm. Great American institutions were corrupted in that effort. There is one final investigation of these matters still ongoing. We await the results.
aka: sedition
Nowhere in the podcast cited in the article does it support the claim in the headline:
In fact, Bobby Chesney states that Nunes' 'principle argument' was 'completely demolished by Horowitz's report'.
But hey, both you and the author rely on incurious readers who won't actually listen to the podcast themselves.
Another gaslighting article from the gaslighter n' chief.
So I take it that your argument will be what Bobby Chesney "states" in contrast to the absolute fact that the Nunes Memo was 100% accurate?
Will that be the game?
My comment states my 'argument' clearly Vic. Your seed is bullshit and the podcast cited in your seed does NOT support it's claim.
The fact that you double down by continuing to spew the BS about the Nunes Memo being '100% accurate' merely proves that you are incapable of acknowledging the facts in your own seed.
No Vic. I don't play your gaslighting game. I debunk it.
BTFW, I note that you didn't refute the FACTS that I stated about what Chesney ACTUALLY said.
You're letting down your fellow travelers when you acquiesce to facts Vic.
So far your'e batting 0.
Wrong on the Steele Dossier
Wrong on Cohen
Wrong on the Russia collusion hoax
And now wrong on the Nunes Memo
Damn right! The American people are not stupid. They got it!
The Nunes Memo
Investigation Update
On October 21, 2016, DOJ and FBI sought and received a FISA probable cause order ( not under Title VII) authorizing electronic surveillance on Carter Page from the FISC. Page is a U.S. citizen who served as a volunteer advisor to the Trump presidential campaign. Consistent with requirements under FISA, the application had to be first certified by the Director or Deputy Director of the FBI. It then required the approval of the Attorney General, Deputy Attorney General (DAG), or the Senate-confirmed Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division.
The FBI and DOJ obtained one initial FISA warrant targeting Carter Page and three FISA renewals from the FISC. As required by statute (50 U.S.C. §,1805(d)(l)), a FISA order on an American citizen must be renewed by the FISC every 90 days and each renewal requires a separate finding of probable cause. Then-Director James Comey signed three FISA applications in question on behalf of the FBI, and Deputy Director Andrew McCabe signed one. Then-DAG Sally Yates, then-Acting DAG Dana Boente, and DAG Rod Rosenstein each signed one or more FISA applications on behalf of DOJ.
1) The “dossier” compiled by Christopher Steele (Steele dossier) on behalf of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Hillary Clinton campaign formed an essential part of the Carter Page FISA application. Steele was a longtime FBI source who was paid over $160,000 by the DNC and Clinton campaign, via the law firm Perkins Coie and research firm Fusion GPS, to obtain derogatory information on Donald Trump’s ties to Russia.
b) The initial FISA application notes Steele was working for a named U.S. person, but does not name Fusion GPS and principal Glenn Simpson, who was paid by a U.S. law firm (Perkins Coie) representing the DNC (even though it was known by DOJ at the time that political actors were involved with the Steele dossier). The application does not mention Steele was ultimately working on behalf of—and paid by—the DNC and Clinton campaign, or that the FBI had separately authorized payment to Steele for the same information.
2) The Carter Page FISA application also cited extensively a September 23, 2016, Yahoo News article by Michael Isikoff, which focuses on Page’s July 2016 trip to Moscow. This article does not corroborate the Steele dossier because it is derived from information leaked by Steele himself to Yahoo News . The Page FISA application incorrectly assesses that Steele did not directly provide information to Yahoo News . Steele has admitted in British court filings that he met with Yahoo News —and several other outlets—in September 2016 at the direction of Fusion GPS. Perkins Coie was aware of Steele’s initial media contacts because they hosted at least one meeting in Washington D.C. in 2016 with Steele and Fusion GPS where this matter was discussed.
b) Steele’s numerous encounters with the media violated the cardinal rule of source handling—maintaining confidentiality—and demonstrated that Steele had become a less than reliable source for the FBI.
3) Before and after Steele was terminated as a source, he maintained contact with DOJ via then-Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr, a senior DOJ official who worked closely with Deputy Attorneys General Yates and later Rosenstein. Shortly after the election, the FBI began interviewing Ohr, documenting his communications with Steele. For example, in September 2016, Steele admitted to Ohr his feelings against then-candidate Trump when Steele said he “ was desperate that Donald Trump not get elected and was passionate about him not being president. ” This clear evidence of Steele’s bias was recorded by Ohr at the time and subsequently in official FBI files—but not reflected in any of the Page FISA applications.
4) According to the head of the FBI’s counterintelligence division, Assistant Director Bill Priestap, corroboration of the Steele dossier was in its “infancy” at the time of the initial Page FISA application. After Steele was terminated, a source validation report conducted by an independent unit within FBI assessed Steele’s reporting as only minimally corroborated. Yet, in early January 2017, Director Comey briefed President-elect Trump on a summary of the Steele dossier, even though it was—according to his June 2017 testimony—“salacious and unverified.” While the FISA application relied on Steele’s past record of credible reporting on other unrelated matters, it ignored or concealed his anti-Trump financial and ideological motivations. Furthermore, Deputy Director McCabe testified before the Committee in December 2017 that no surveillance warrant would have been sought from the FISC without the Steele dossier information.
Again, you can't refute the FACTS that I posted so you deflect with more fabricated bullshit.
You're consistent, I'll give you that.
If you were able to contest the highlighted statement you might have an argument, but you can't
From the article:
"I feel like all of us, who, you might call us the ‘Lawfare crowd’ who were often denounced or criticized at least in the older days as being too quick to credit and too trust the good faith and completeness of the efforts of the FBI in this kind of context. A lot of us look bad right now and we’re sort of watching anxiously to see how the broader OIG investigation sheds light on whether this was a one-off problem or a broader problem but there’s not question that a lot of our positions don’t look as persuasive as a result of how this has turned out."
Yup they do!
BTW, people with valid arguments don't need to label what others say as Bullshit.
I already HAVE contested it.
That 'highlighted statement' does NOT support the headline and neither does the rest of the content of the cited podcast.
Again, your seed claims that Bobby Chesney 'admits nunes was right' yet in the podcast Bobby Chesney says just the opposite. Unlike you or your fellow travelers, I actually listened to the podcast.
Maybe if you vetted your seeds this wouldn't happen to you so often. BUTT judging from your MO, it looks like you'd rather just dump BULLSHIT here on NT, get your fellow travelers to cheer the BULLSHIT and then whine when it's called out as BULLSHIT.
People who have a valid argument don't post fabricated bullshit.
Make shit up all you want, just don't expect me to play your game of posting personal comments merely to deflect from your inability to defend your seed.
Whether you like it or not, when one of your fellow progressives says:
we’re sort of watching anxiously to see how the broader OIG investigation sheds light on whether this was a one-off problem or a broader problem but there’s not question that a lot of our positions don’t look as persuasive as a result of how this has turned out."
Intentional or not it was an admission. Since you like getting so personal, I have to do the same - admitting when you are wrong is what an adult does. It is a virtue. Something you lack.
Trump WILL spend the last years of his life as a liar crook bigot and moron. Its a done deal.
Didn't you just lecture people on one of your seeds about commenting on the topic?
Well, just keep in mind, he'll spend 5 of those years being your President.
Ever notice the Democrats are obsessed with silencing people who don't agree with them. Fascists are that way, too. So are Communists. In all honesty, they both are pretty much the same. Fascist and Communists want an all powerful government or party and the silencing of anyone who disagrees with them, often by violent means or any means necessary for that matter.
We can be thankful Congressman Nunes and others have been brave enough to weather the backlash from doing the right thing. When Nunes went home to California after clearly exposing how fraudulent the investigation was, he was greeted by some protesters living in The People of the Republic of California and some who appreciated his sacrifices as well. Through it all, he stood tall on the side of Truth and Honor, something that many today have exchanged for money and power by any means.
Here is a video of an accepted source that was included in an article by one of our unaccepted sources because of not meeting the qualifications of being an acceptable source for this site.
There is only one real solution to the issue, but it will never be implemented.
Get rid of the Star Chamber and get rid of the FBI.
Sure, may as well go with the KGB like the gop is doing today. We've already begun the process of becoming the USR with Putin calling your shots.
Go with the KGB? Don't see that in the post, but you know, go with what you don't know. The gang of 535 sure does.
What 'star chamber' is that Steve?
If you're talking about the SCIF, does that mean you have no worries about national security matters being heard in open hearings? Hell, Trey Gowdy stated that the best information was garnered from closed door depositions. So I guess it's OK if the GOP are the ones calling the witnesses.
Of course I'm talking about the FISC. So where would you like to start the discussion about "national security"? How about we start with these:
1. What is a nation-state?
2. Who is the nation-state?
3. Does a nation-state have more rights than an individual? Or an ancillary would be, are rights derived from the individual or the state?
Of course, like any good debate, we would need to start with the definition of terms.