The extent of John Durham's face plant seems to know no end.

[berg80]

Since you admit that the steele dossier was a part of the hillary clinton campaign, how do you feel about the FBI using it to apply for FISA warrants to spy on the Trump campaign?

Pretty sickening for anybody who believes in a democratic republic, wouldn't you say?

I'm good with it.

Now that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) application for an order to surveil former Trump campaign advisor Carter Page has been released in heavily redacted form, the attacks on the FBI’s application have been predictably loud yet incorrect. They miss the critical question related to such an application: Was there probable cause to believe that Page was an agent of a foreign power?

Even putting aside the large portions of redacted material (which likely further support the application but are redacted because of the highly sensitive nature of the information), the unredacted portions easily meet this probable cause standard and support the FISA court’s multiple orders.

One source upon which many of these critiques rely (including those of President Donald Trump) is Andrew C. McCarthy, who, like the three authors, is a former federal prosecutor. On Fox News and in the National Review, McCarthy makes three primary arguments: (1) the so-called Steele dossier was “the driving force behind the Trump-Russia investigation”; (2) the FISA court was not told that the Clinton campaign was behind Steele’s work; and (3) the FBI did not “verify” the factual allegations contained in the dossier.

FBI Would’ve Been Derelict Not to Use Steele Dossier for the Carter Page FISA Warrant

Commentators like National Review’s Andrew McCarthy try to discredit the Mueller investigation by sliming the process to spy on a former Trump advisor. Here’s why they’re wrong.

www.brennancenter.org

How do you feel about trump encouraging the intel agencies of a foreign adversary to commit a crime by hacking Clinton's server/computer in search of emails for his benefit? Pretty sickening for anybody who believes in a democratic republic, wouldn't you say?

 

[berg80]

the IC assessment said otherwise

You're lying.

 

[berg80]

and then after Trump won, Obama ordered they go back to re-write the IC assessment to say what he wanted it to say,

You're lying.

 

[berg80]

It means that it was carefully tailored to be what the campaign that hired them wanted it to be.

So while it does not prove that it is fake, it certainly proves that it is not a credible source.

But don't take my word for it. Here's what the FISA Courts said:

“The FBI’s handling of the Carter Page applications, as portrayed in the [Office of the inspector general] report, was antithetical to the heightened duty of candor described above. The frequency with which representations made by FBI personnel turned out to be unsupported or contradicted by information in their possession, and with which they withheld information detrimental to their case, calls into question whether information contained in other FBI applications is reliable,” federal Judge Rosemary Collyer wrote in an order from the court published Tuesday.

The facts also do not support McCarthy’s second point (one that Congressman Devin Nunes misleadingly emphasized in his infamous memo about the warrant): that the FISA court was not informed about the Clinton campaign’s financial support for Christopher Steele’s work. In fact, the original application included more than a one-page footnote extensively informing the court about the fact that Steele was hired essentially to dig up dirt on Donald Trump, which more than adequately informs a court of his potential bias. Whether the Clinton campaign was the source of the payments — which Steele has testified before Congress that he did not know, because he was retained by Fusion GPS — is irrelevant to the substance of the disclosure of potential bias. Nothing more is required or necessary in a warrant application than revealing the fact of a source’s potential for bias.

 

[berg80]

It means that it was carefully tailored to be what the campaign that hired them wanted it to be.

Ignorance has once again clouded your beliefs. Tell me, when was it that the Clinton campaign became aware of who was doing the oppo research, what his methods were, who his sources were, and what the contents of his dossier said?