“Hoax From The Beginning”: Carter Page FISA Application Exposes Flimsy Underpinnings Of FBI “Witch Hunt”
by Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge.com
Sun, 07/22/2018
The late Saturday release of the FBI’s heavily redacted FISA warrant application for Carter Page reveals that the Obama administration, eager to make a case to spy on a US citizen (and arguably the Trump campaign) cobbled together a combination of facts and innuendo from Page’s business dealings in Russia, several press reports of varying reliability, and of course, the infamous Clinton-funded “Steele Dossier,” which the FBI went to great lengths to justify despite being largely unable to verify its claims.
Perhaps the most concerning takeaway, however, is the stark disconnect between the FBI’s multiple allegations against Page versus the fact that he hasn’t been charged with a single crime after nearly two years of DOJ/FBI investigations.
Once issued, the FISA warrant and its subsequent renewals allowed the Obama administration to spy on the Trump campaign using a wide investigatory net, so the October, 2016 application painted Page in the most criminal light possible, as intended, in order to convince the FISA judge to grant the warrant. It flat out accuses Page of being a Russian spy who was recruited by the Kremlin, which sought to “undermine and influence the outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential election in violation of U.S. criminal law,” the application reads.
In order to reinforce their argument, the FBI used circular arguments which presented dossier claims as facts, such as “The FBI learned that Page met with at least two Russian officials” – when in fact that was simply another unverified claim from the dossier.
Another approach used to beef up the FISA application’s curb appeal was circular evidence, via the inclusion of a letter from Democratic Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (NV) to former FBI Director James Comey, citing information Reid got from John Brennan, which was in turn from the Clinton-funded dossier.
In fact, aside from the Clinton-funded Steele dossier (“Source #1”), the FISA application cited no other evidentiary sources.
The application also reveals that FBI agent Peter Strzok lied when he said he had nothing to do with the FISA application, when in fact the disgraced FBI agent used Carter Page’s September 2016 letter to Comey defending himself against a Yahoo! News article written by Michael Isikoff (who used information obtained directly from Steele) as a pretext to open the investigation on Page.
The Rest…HERE
