Nunes: FBI may have violated criminal statutes in FISA application to spy on Trump adviser Carter Page
The FBI may have violated criminal statutes, as well as its own strict internal procedures, by using unverified information during the 2016 election to obtain a surveillance warrant on onetime Trump campaign aide Carter Page, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee charged Thursday in a letter obtained by Fox News.
House Intelligence Committee (HPSCI) Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., wrote in his letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions that “in this instance, it’s clear that basic operating guidance was violated.”
Nunes cited the Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (DIOG), which was created by the bureau and approved by the Justice Department, to say he believed the FBI violated procedures requiring verified and documented evidence in applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
An Oct. 2011 version of the operations guide states that the “accuracy of information contained within FISA applications is of utmost importance... Only documented and verified information may be used to support FBI applications to the court.”
The guidance also states that information in a FISA application must be “thoroughly vetted and confirmed.”
A memo released by the intelligence committee last month stated that the FBI and DOJ sought surveillance warrants to spy on Page by using an infamous, Democrat-funded anti-Trump dossier that included salacious and unverified allegations about Trump's connections to Russia.
“Former and current DOJ and FBI leadership have confirmed to the committee that unverified information from the Steele dossier comprised an essential part of the FISA applications related to Carter Page,” Nunes wrote Thursday.
Nunes listed five criminal statues that were possibly violated, including conspiracy, obstruction of justice, contempt of court. It also cites statues that make it a crime to willfully deprive a person of a right protected by the Constitution and another preventing unauthorized electronic surveillance.
In the letter, Nunes asks Sessions whether these protocols requiring verified information have changed, and if not, what steps the DOJ or FBI taken to hold officials behind the Page application accountable.
The letter is carbon copied to FBI Director Christopher Wray and DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz.
“In his latest letter to an Attorney General recused on the matter, Chairman Nunes continues his effort to attack and malign the honorable men and women of the FBI and the Department of Justice,” the committee's ranking member, California Democrat Adam Schiff, responded. “The Republican memo having been discredited, this new attempt to roil the Department is little more than another transparent effort to defend President Trump by trying to discredit and distract from the Special Counsel and Congressional investigations.”
“The Inspector General will handle the matter appropriately,” DOJ spokesman Ian Prior told Fox News.
“The extraordinarily productive results of HPSCI's ongoing investigation and associated legal analyses offers a positive role model for both the U.S. Intelligence Community and the Justice Department as that part of the executive branch begins work toward urgent reputational repair and basic standards of integrity within their federal agencies after the unprecedented FISA abuses of 2016,” Page told Fox News. “Just as Chairman Nunes effectively fought back against frivolously partisan political attacks and cleared his name through competent Congressional oversight bodies following false allegations regarding possible conflicts of interest last year, I hope that the Justice Department's ethics officials give the Attorney General’s stellar record and benign relationship with the President an unbiased look as well.”
The FBI had no comment.
Sessions acknowledged this week that Horowitz is probing the circumstances of the surveillance of Page.
SESSIONS: DOJ IG TO PROBE FISA ABUSE ALLEGATIONS
“We believe the Department of Justice must adhere to the high standards in the FISA court,” Sessions said during a news conference Tuesday. “Yes it will be investigated. And I think that's just the appropriate thing the inspector general will take that as one of the matters he'll deal with.”
That admission, though, put Sessions back in President Trump’s crosshairs Wednesday, with the president referring to Horowitz as an “Obama guy” and calling Sessions’ decision “disgraceful.”
House Intelligence Committee Republicans and Democrats have argued over whether the dossier was a primary or secondary element of the surveillance application.
Democrats released a rebuttal memo on Sunday, saying the dossier was corroborated by multiple sources.
But in his June 2017 testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee, then-FBI Director Jim Comey said he still considered the dossier “unverified” and “salacious” three months after the October 2016 surveillance warrant was granted.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/03/01/nunes-fbi-may-have-violated-criminal-statutes-in-fisa-application-to-spy-on-trump-adviser.html
Catherine Herridge is an award-winning Chief Intelligence correspondent for FOX News Channel (FNC) based in Washington, D.C. She covers intelligence, the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security. Herridge joined FNC in 1996 as a London-based correspondent.
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Sadly for the left wing loons, this investigation is just getting started, and will still be going on during and after the midterms. Mueller's witch hunt will have concluded with no charges issued by midsummer at the latest. .
WTF R U Talking about ??????????
Multiple Indictments !
Multiple Guilty Pleas !
WTF R U Talking About ??????
Oh, N by the way, when I mentioned many were here were far smarter than I, Skirting the CoC [ph]
I could care less about the underlings. I was referring to Trump and his team, including his family.
You have a very very loose definition of the word "team".
Flynn wasn't on his "team"?
Gates wasn't on his "team"?
Bannon wasn't on his "team"?
Kershner wasn't on his "team"?
No problem, they just need to learn the Obama administration shuffle ..... that is ..... pleading the 5th.
Who's Kershner?
From who and about what ?
No statute exists regarding 'collusion'. Conspiracy, on the other hand, is a dandy crime, especially in the federal sense. Rick Gates can tell you all about it.
923. 18 U.S.C. § 371—Conspiracy to Defraud the United States
The good news (for him) is that he'll be able to tell you all about it as a free man. In fact, most of the early-birds who are pleading guilty to lesser charges, such as making false statements to the FBI, will see little or no prison time. However, now that Mueller is quickly approaching the top of the food chain, I doubt if any more plea 'considerations' will be given. He has been quite methodical, not to mention quite successful, in his indictment sequence.
In the end, Donald Trump is going to be able to set at least one decent example for American citizens: You can't mistreat and swindle people for your entire life, and expect to get away with it. John Gotti and Bernie Madoff learned that one the hard way.
Kershner = Kushner when I am typing on my phone without time to check spelling. But of course you already know that didn't you comrade?
“Let me tell you, every FISA warrant based on facts submitted to that court have to be accurate,” “That will be investigated and looked at, and we are not going to participate at the Department of Justice in providing anything less than the proper disclosure to the court before they issue a FISA warrant. ” .....Jeff Sessions
Devin Nunes is probably the least credible member of Congress.
Why would any one with a brain credit anything he says?
From the horses mouth:
Schiff is on the FBI special investigative team? If he isn't, he would have no idea whether there is any evidence of not. Not only that, the meeting with Trump Jr. and the Russians in Trump Tower is the textbook definition of "collusion".
There's no crime of "collusion" per se but there are a variety of criminal statutes involving conspiracy, like the "textbook" criminal conspiracy to obstruct justice which Trump and Hicks engaged in and which Mark Corallo revealed some time ago.
Let's not forget money laundering which will hit very close to home for the Trumps and Kushners.
Then why did he make the false statement that there was such evidence?
Megan McCain called him right out - in front of a hate-filled liberal audience!
Then the case is over!
I missed it - when did Mueller make those charges?
Sorry comrade, in this country Mueller will keep digging until all facts involving the case have been revealed, and guilt is provable beyond a shadow of doubt.
Say's you!
Shifty Schiff is the least credible AND he got slammed by Megan McCain and Conzy Rice on the ridiculous "View" yesterday!
Wow, go to great lengths to protect their own, don't they? And Nunes again. Must be looking for a payday, a pat on the head or a cabinet position. LOL Another one with trump's brand on his right cheek. Maybe trump should have made HIM AG, by now he'd have been proclaimed innocent and everyone involved that tried to wrong trump should be tried for treason.
And amazingly enough, Fux "news" just happened to get their greedy little hands on a copy of the letter. Just amazing. Isn't that amazing?
Just in time to take attention away from trump and the NRA and any chance of any form of gun regs.
I think the sad news for the left wingers is that an investigation will actually be going ahead about obtaining a FISA warrant under false pretenses. That's a crime. I can't wait for this trail of Obama's and Hillary's breadcrumbs to commence.
The breadcrumbs lead both ways. Obama finally screwed up
Might want to get up to speed here. The Nunes memo has been thoroughly debunked even by most republicans.
LOL I think in both cases, your "breadcrumbs" are rumors, gossip and fake news held together by madness, but not a lot of fact.
And anyway, it's supposed to be "Whatabout Clinton and Obama?"
Yup, every news story is a diversion.
Keep clutching onto your collusion story
So didn't Trump just make it easier for the mentally ill to buy guns? Be careful what you wish for Mr. president. We sane, responsible gun owners wouldn't think of putting our second amendment rights above everybody's first amendment rights. Those with a tenuous grasp of reality, on the other hand...........
The presence of the 2nd amendment preserves ALL our other God given rights under our constitution.
LOL
I will. You keep clutching "trump din' do no wrong" and "the Mueller investigation is over," OK?
So far I'm right and your'e wrong!
Ok?
Exactly what rights did your god give us?
Your English needs work comrade.
I'm counting the days until rightwing fascists and dominionists find themselves dealing with that part of the Constitution.
Every single human right that exists that man made governments have Not constricted. All natural and human rights were God given.
Right wing extremists and dominionists combined are well less than 1% of the population of the USA so why the fixation with them besides trying to project them on to all Tea Party conservatives and all evangelical Christians? Btw, fascism is strictly a left wing anti capitalist, democracy hating, socialist ideology.
People believing that bullshit statement fall into the demographics mentioned previously in the comment.
Another Nunes nothingburger
Wow, that's so profound!
It's the truth, sorry if you can't handle it
Nunes allegations seem far more valid than the claims of Trump/collusion. The DOJ IG is about to release a report that names Andy McCabe as leaker-in-chief.
Can "you handle" that?
Nunes is a Quisling. He is protecting himself from truth.
Just my opinion based on research into Carter Page and the 'Russia connection' - that the FISA warrant was a fishing expedition based on speculation after the fact .. the warrant was not to trip Page up as 'being a foreign agent' but as a snare to catch who 'might possibly' make contact with Page.
Page has been on the FBI's radar since 2013, is always talking about himself - does not hesitate to speak openly about his activities (some have even said he gives too much information) so if there was 'something' to hide, he is not the individual that will keep a secret. ...................... Do I think this whole debacle derails or should derail the counterintelligence probe of Mueller's .. probably not to a possible no ... yet I do believe the seeking of said FISA warrant was an abuse of FBI 'powers'... the only 'thing/individual' providing incriminating 'evidence' against Page was Steele and the Steele Dossier... I have read that there were 39 other pieces of evidence used to obtain the warrant - be interesting to see what that 'information' was..
As I said above all just opinion .. the GOP memo was good for one thing .. it kept me busy doing research on Page for several days....
Happy Friday...
LOL. How was that an abuse in any universe? The FBI already knew that Page was a target of Russian recruitment efforts and they already knew that Russian agents were in contact with Page, Papadopoulos and other Trump campaign officials and were trying to skew the election for Trump by committing crimes in the US.
It would have been grossly irresponsible of the FBI not to monitor Page's communications with those Russian agents.
LOL indeed ..
Timing is everything. Had the FBI been concerned about Page and his foreign connection he would have been under FISA surveillance long before October of 2016 .. as it stands, parts of the Steele dossier was printed in September (Yahoo news I believe) that made accusations against Page for a meeting that may or may not have taken place in July of 2016. Pages speech in Russia was NO secret and was well documented, before the Steele dossier made its accusations.
There was NO fear/concern of Page being an agent of a foreign country .. they knew in 2013 there was Russian 'agents' contacting Page - that is where the story ends until October 2016 .. if Page was suspected of anything (having had the 'clandestine meeting' with agents in July 2016) why was he not arrest around the same time as Papadopolous? (cuz the Steele dossier was needed/the reason for the FISA warrant?) Come to think of it, why has Page never been arrested?
One does not need be a Trump supporter / nor anti Mueller counterintelligence investigation to see that the events surrounding Page and the FISA warrant were BS. It was obtained after the fact when Page NO longer had connections to the campaign ... deep sea fishing at its finest! : )
Happy Saturday ...
Ah, BINGO!
The Nunes interview by Mark Levin on Fox News last night was quite damaging to the democrats.
Ummm, no, Nunes is a piece of shit who's going to jail. Morning HA, donut?
No thanks. Nunes is going to get Hillary locked up.
The moronic teabags will probably primary him this year and trump will endorse his opponent.
It's more likely we get a Special Counsel to investigate FBI FISA abuse & leaks. I'm guessing as soon as the inspector General submits his report, which will be within 2 weeks.