Finally the infamous Memo is released and despite cries from Democrats otherwise, it is a scathing memo that uncovers the weaponization of government by the Obama Administration, Hillary Clinton, Loretta Lynch and top FBI leaders, to discredit candidate Trump as well as influence the 2016 Presidential election.
On October 21, 2016, the DOJ and the FBI asked and received a FISA probable cause order on Carter Page, a U.S. citizen who served as a volunteer advisor to the Trump presidential campaign. As stated in
the memo,
“the FISA application had to be certified by the Director or Deputy Director of the FBI. It then required the approval of the Attorney General, Deputy Attorney General or the Senate confirmed Assistant Attorney General for the national Security Division."
Based on information supplied by these officers, a FISA warrant was obtained and renewed by the FISC three additional times. Renewals require a separate finding of probable cause. Then Director James Comey signed three requests and Deputy Director Andrew McCabe signed one. Then DAG Sally Yates, Dana Boente and Rod Rosenstein each signed one or more FISA application on behalf of the DOJ. However, no other information regarding probable cause was cited. As FISA submissions are classified, the FISC is dependent on the government to supply the court with any and all material and facts. This is supposed to include information favorable to the target of the warrant. However, it was found that the government had four separate opportunities to provide a truthful accounting of the facts, but chose not to do so.
The dossier, compiled by Christopher Steele on behalf of the DNC and Hillary Clinton campaign was the essential evidence cited in the FISA application. It appears as though the original application, nor any of the subsequent applications disclosed the source of the Dossier, even though the origin was known at the time by senior FBI and DOJ officials.
The FISA application noted Steele was working for an unnamed U.S. person, but did not name Fusion GPS principal, Glenn Simpson, the DNC or the fact that Steele was working for and paid by the DNC and the Clinton campaign, or that the FBI paid Steele for the information.
The FISA application mentioned a September 23 , 2016 article by Michael Isikoff, focusing on Carter 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. Steele was then fired from the FBI for leaking information to the media, although he stayed in contact with the DOJ. Later during interviews by the FBI with Ohr, Steele admitted,
“was desperate that Donald Trump not get elected and was passionate about him not being president.”
Although Steele’s bias was recorded and noted by Ohr and filed with the FBI, none of this was mentioned or included in the FISA application. Deputy Director McCabe testified in December 2017, no surveillance warrant would have been sought without the Steele dossier information.
