Deception by Redaction: More FBI FISA Abuses, This Time Using Fake News in the Washington Post

[Doc7505]

Deception by Redaction: More FBI FISA Abuses, ​

1 AuThis Time Using Fake News in the Washington Post​

FBI Director Christopher Wray just last month told Congress he has instituted reforms in response to FISA surveillance abuses, yet at the same time he appears to have tried to hide the full extent of those abuses under redactions. ​

Deception by Redaction: More FBI FISA Abuses, This Time Using Fake News in the Washington Post

By Paul Sperry, RealClearInvestigationsAugust 1, 2023 The FBI’s efforts to mislead a federal court in order to wiretap an adviser to the Trump campaign were more extensive than previously repor

www.realclearinvestigations.com

1 Aug 2023 ~~ Paul Sperry

The FBI’s efforts to mislead a federal court in order to wiretap an adviser to the Trump campaign were more extensive than previously reported, according to classified documents described to RealClearInvestigations.
The embattled bureau tried to hide its misconduct by redacting information about its actions under the guise that it involved sensitive intelligence information. RCI has learned that at least some of the redacted material, included in a “Classified Appendix” to Special Counsel John Durham’s final report, has nothing to do with protecting “sources and methods” and other “sensitive” investigative techniques.
Instead, it covers up additional improper behavior by the FBI brass, which initiated and signed off on all four of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act applications to spy on former Trump adviser Carter Page and his contacts within the Trump campaign and presidency in 2016 and 2017.
~Snip~
This is not the only instance in which the FBI misrepresented unconfirmed news reports to secure authorization to spy on the Trump campaign. The bureau’s FISA applications also referenced a September 2016 Yahoo News account to substantiate the false claim that Page had met with Kremlin officials in Moscow during the presidential campaign.
~Snip~
FBI veterans who have sworn out affidavits for FISA wiretaps told RCI they have never known the bureau to cite media stories as evidence to corroborate leads or support probable cause to obtain such all-invasive warrants from the spy court.
“Absolutely not,” said former assistant FBI Director Chris Swecker. “I signed scores of FISA orders as they moved up the chain of command from the field office up to headquarters for final approval. None of them included that type of information, which is absolutely malpractice and incompetence, or worse.”
~Snip~

Unusual Handling by Washington Post​

The way the Post corrected its story was highly unusual.
Instead of appending a correction, the paper, which won a Pulitzer Prize for its Trump-Russia reporting, removed all references to Millian as the dossier’s source in online and archived versions of the original article, including all citations cataloged in the Lexis-Nexis database of news articles. It also took down a video that accompanied the story. The paper then reposted a new article with a different headline – “Sergei Millian: High-level access to Trump or unwitting bystander?” – but under the same bylines of Tom Hamburger and Rosalind Helderman, who shared the controversial 2018 Pulitzer (although the Millian article was not part of its entry).
The new version of the story contains an “Editor’s Note” noting the date when the original was published, but oddly, it does not link to it.


Commentary:
Paul Sperry digs a bit deeper than most reporters who just want you reach a certain conclusion. I always learn something when I read his investigative reports. However, as explosive and true his investigative reporting is, he will never get a Pulitzer for this reporting.
Time and time again the FBI as well as the Quisling Media have been caught in this conspiracy of lies.
I seem to recall someone saying that the `Patriot Act` had come out of a drawer in Joe Biden’s desk, all ready for implementation, and was basically the document that was adopted by a bipartisan Congress. Anyone else remember this?

2001: September 11 and the Patriot Act

Joe Biden did not just proudly vote for the Patriot Act, he took credit for many of its provisions.

theintercept.com

From the beginning, the `Patriot Act` was a broadside attack on the Bill of Rights, fundamentally changing how those rights were viewed and “allowed” to be used...and it was done NOT with a Constitutional Amendment, but just a few votes and a swift pen, and We the People had our rights taken away just like that!
“Star Chamber” courts are not something the Constitution mentions, the last time I read it. As a matter of fact, the courts and expectations concerning our justice system point to an open, fair, fast judicial system. Not one of those words describes the debacle we have today.