by Debra Heine
Newly declassified footnotes from Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report on Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) abuse provide additional insight into the FBI’s malfeasance in 2016, and proof that Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee massively misled the public in their “rebuttal” to the Republicans’ FISA abuse memo.
The new information shows that the FBI knew that former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele lied to them about being the source for a Yahoo news article by Michael Isikoff in September 2016 and withheld this fact from the FISA court.
The footnotes also show that the FBI was warned that the now discredited Steele dossier included Russian disinformation, but ignored the warning. One footnote noted “that Steele’s contact with 5 Russian oligarchs in a short period of time was unusual and recommended that a validation review be completed on Steele because of this activity.”
That Steele had such close connections with five Russian oligarchs also raises questions concerning whether the oligarchs were feeding Steele disinformation on behalf of Putin. The three footnotes declassified last week revealed that “the Crossfire Hurricane team had received reporting ‘indicating the potential for Russian disinformation influencing Steele’s election reporting.’”
The footnotes further show that the FBI and Department of Justice heavily relied on information attributed to “Source E”/”Person 1” (Sergei Millian) for probable cause to obtain the FISA warrants. Millian is reportedly Source D in the infamous Steele dossier.
As Twitter’s “Undercover Huber” pointed out, the declassification reveals that Section II, p.10 of the FISA warrant used language taken directly from the anti-Trump dossier: “[Carter] Page…has been identified by source reporting as an intermediary with Russian leadership” in “a well-developed conspiracy of co-operation” to influence the 2016 election.”
Because the FISA was heavily redacted in Feb. 2018, it was hard to debunk Schiff’s claim that the FBI only “narrowly” relied on the dossier for the FISAs warrants.
Until yesterday's release, it was hard to 100% disprove Schiff's memo just from the FISA itself. You could rely on the 2019 IG report, but Schiff can claim he didn't know the IG's findings when he wrote his memo
Not true: Schiff knew he was lying at time, in Jan 2018
— Undercover Huber (@JohnWHuber) April 17, 2020
The latest declassification reveals *for the first time publicly* that Section II, p.10 said that:
"[Carter] Page…has been identified by source reporting as an intermediary with Russian leadership" in "a well-developed conspiracy of co-operation" to influence the 2016 election pic.twitter.com/xYDg4kew1R
— Undercover Huber (@JohnWHuber) April 17, 2020
Even worse, Millian, the FBI’s source, was himself under investigation for his alleged links to Russian intel while they were using his information to obtain the FISA warrant against Carter Page.
That's a major problem for FBI/DOJ:
—FBI/DOJ submitted this FISA, which relies on Person 1 as a key source, on Oct 21 2016
—The FBI had opened a counterintelligence case on Person 1 for their alleged links to Russian intel *before* the FISA, likely between Oct 3-12 2016
— Undercover Huber (@JohnWHuber) April 17, 2020
The Democrats’ rebuttal to the bombshell GOP FISA memo in February of 2018 has aged very poorly.
In their memo, the Intel Democrats—who had access to the classified FISA information at the time—falsely claimed that officials at the FBI and Justice Department “did not abuse the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) process, omit material information, or subvert this vital tool to spy on the Trump campaign.”
The IG report, released in December by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz, identified 17 separate errors and omissions with regard to all four FISA applications.
The Schiff rebuttal also falsely claimed that the DOJ only made “narrow use” of information from Steele’s sources, and that the FBI had an “independent basis” for investigating Page’s motivations.
It also claimed that the DOJ “repeatedly informed the Court about Steele’s background, credibility, and potential bias.” And it maintained that the Justice Department informed the FISA court that Steele had been hired by “politically motivated U.S. persons and entities and that his research appeared intended for use “to discredit” Trump’s campaign.
The rebuttal added that the DOJ only made “narrow use” of information from Steele’s sources and that in later FISA renewals the DOJ provided “additional information obtained through multiple independent sources” that backed up Steele’s reporting. It challenged the Republican assertion that the FBI authorized payment to Steele, saying that it neglected that the payment was canceled.
Contrary to Schiff’s claims, the newly declassified footnotes show that the FBI did not tell the FISA court that Steele was part of an elaborate “Russian disinformation campaign,” just as it did not tell the court that George Papadopoulos had denied collusion during a recorded conversation with an FBI informant.
Despite the Democrats’ valiant attempts to protect their fellow corruptocrats, it appears that the law is closing in.
During an interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham last week, Attorney General William Barr said that “the evidence shows that we’re not dealing with just mistakes or sloppiness. There is something far more troubling here, and we’re going to get to the bottom of it. And if people broke the law, and we can establish that with the evidence, they will be prosecuted.”
According to Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett, Barr “tipped his hand” about U.S. Attorney John Durham’s review of the FBI’s Russia investigation.
“I don’t think he would have said that unless he was briefed about the evidence gathered by John Durham, so potentially, you’re looking at abuse of power, deprivation of rights under color of law, fraud, perjury, and false statements,” he said.
Debra Heine is a regular contributor to American Greatness.
