Thread by @TheLastRefuge2

Most have forgotten...

Back in 2017 when House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes was working to reauthorize the FISA legislation, Nunes wrote a letter to ODNI Dan Coats about this specific issue:

intelligence.house.gov/uploadedfiles/… x.com/TheLastRefuge2…

There is little doubt the NSA database was used by Obama-era officials, from 2012 through April 2016, as a way to spy on their political opposition. Quite simply there is no other intellectually honest explanation for the scale and volume of database abuse that was taking place.

When we reconcile what was taking place and who was involved, then the actions of the exact same principal participants take on a jaw-dropping amount of clarity.

All of the action taken by CIA Director Brennan, FBI Director Comey, ODNI Clapper and Defense Secretary Ashton Carter make sense. Including their effort to get NSA Director Mike Rogers fired.

Russia-Gate, the Steele Dossier and even the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (drawn from the dossier and signed by the above) were needed to create a cover-story and protect themselves from discovery of this four-year weaponization, political surveillance and unlawful spying.

This is why President Obama was willing to push the Russiagate story with his activity in December of 2016 after the election.  Obama wasn’t only dirtying up President Trump, Obama was using Russiagate as a cover for the spying that took place using the NSA database.

Even the appointment of Robert Mueller as special counsel makes sense; Mueller was FBI Director when the use of the NSA database surveillance began. Aaron Zebly was his chief-of-staff.

The beginning decision to use FISA (702) as a domestic surveillance and political spy mechanism appears to have started in/around 2012. Perhaps sometime shortly before the 2012 presidential election and before John Brennan left the White House and moved to CIA. However, there was an earlier version of data assembly that preceded this effort.

Political spying 1.0 was actually the weaponization of the IRS.

This is where the term “Secret Research Project” originated as a description from the Obama team. It involved the U.S. Department of Justice under Eric Holder and the FBI under Robert Mueller. It never made sense why Eric Holder requested over 1 million tax records via CD ROM, until overlaying the timeline of the FISA abuse:

The IRS sent the FBI “21 disks constituting a 1.1-million-page database of information from 501(c)(4) tax exempt organizations to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.” The transaction occurred in October 2010

washingtonexaminer.com/irs-send-massi…

Why disks?

Why send a stack of DISKS to Main Justice and FBI when there’s a pre-existing financial crimes unit within the IRS.

All of the evidence within this sketchy operation came directly to the surface in early spring 2012.

The IRS scandal was never really about the IRS; it was always about the DOJ asking the IRS for the database of information.

That is why it was transparently a conflict when the same DOJ was tasked with investigating the DOJ/IRS scandal.

Additionally, Obama sent his chief-of-staff Jack Lew to become Treasury Secretary; effectively placing an ally to oversee/cover-up any issues. As Treasury Secretary Lew did just that.

theconservativetreehouse.com/2014/12/04/a-t…

It would appear the Obama administration learned a lesson from attempting to gather a large opposition research database operation inside a functioning organization large enough to have some good people that might blow the whistle.

The timeline shows that a few months after realizing the “Secret Research Project” was now worthless (June 2012), the Obama administration focused more deliberately on a smaller network within the intelligence apparatus and began weaponizing the FBI/NSA database. 

If my research hunch is correct, that is what will be visible in footnote #69:

How this all comes together:

Fusion GPS was only not hired in April 2016 simply to research Donald Trump. As shown in the evidence provided by the FISC, the Obama administration was already doing surveillance and spy operations.

The Obama administration already knew everything about the Trump campaign and were monitoring everything by exploiting the NSA database.

However, after the NSA alerts in/around March 9th, 2016, and particularly after the April 18th shutdown of contractor access, the Obama FBI needed Fusion GPS to create a legal albeit ex post facto justification for the pre-existing surveillance and spy operations.

Fusion GPS gave them that justification in the Steele Dossier.

This is the merge of two interests. #1) Clinton's dirty oppo research trick (Trump-Russia); and #2) Cover for Obama's surveillance system.

The White House and the Clinton Campaign both had motive now to stimulate a Trump-Russia conspiracy.

That’s why the FBI small group, which later transitioned into the Mueller team, were so strongly committed to and defending the formation of the Steele Dossier and its dubious content.

The Steele Dossier was a tool needed to get a FISA Title-1 warrant. That warrant became the cover and justification for a pre-existing surveillance operation.

The Steele Dossier (a Clinton construct) becomes the investigative virus the FBI wanted inside the system. For the White House, the subsequent Title-1 surveillance warrant served a different purpose.

To get the virus into official status, the DOJ-NSD used the FISA application as the delivery method and injected it into Carter Page.

The FBI already knew Carter Page; essentially Carter Page was irrelevant, what they needed was the FISA warrant and the Dossier in the system.

The White House wasn't watching closely because they wanted Clinton's dirty trick to succeed. The White House was watching to see if the shield for their spying operation could benefit from it.

Fusion GPS was hired by Hillary Clinton to research Trump; however, the Obama administration was already doing surveillance and spy operations, using FBI contractors. The FBI needed Fusion GPS to give them something, a plausible justification for already existing surveillance and spy operations.

Fusion-GPS gave them the justification they needed for a FISA warrant with the Steele Dossier. Ultimately that’s why the Steele Dossier was so important; without it, the Obama administration was naked with their NSA database abuse.

Investigating ‘Russiagate’, as dirty and unseemly as it was, takes you to a place where politics infected the DOJ/FBI and every participant carries plausible deniability.  However, investigate the 2016 illegal surveillance of Donald Trump’s campaign via the NSA database and all of that activity can never be justified.

If you understand the distinction above, then you start to realize why John Solomon is focusing on Russiagate.  Beware the person who picks up the flag at the front of the parade, for they are likely steering the crowd for a reason.

If DNI @TulsiGabbard focuses on the known FBI surveillance of the GOP candidates in 2016, by focusing on how FBI contractors exploited access to the NSA database to conduct political opposition research, then suddenly the entire story takes on a simpler to understand context.

The Obama administration was spying on people using their access to NSA metadata. It's a very simple narrative to understand.

Declassify the Rosemary Collyer 99-page FISA report and outline the FBI contractors doing the surveillance.

Stop focusing so much attention on Russiagate, it’s the shiny thing fraught with plausible deniability. 

Focus instead on declassifying and releasing the real story of how the NSA database has been used to conduct political surveillance for over a decade.

Obama conducted full spectrum political surveillance and spying operations exploiting the NSA database from 2012 to 2016.

All republican candidates, politicians and political opposition were under surveillance.

THAT is the BIG STORY that will shake up DC.

This also explains why FBI Public Information Officer Mike Kortan was telling @jsolomonReports there was no "there" there on Trump-Russia.

From Kortan's official FBI position, the Trump-Russia story was silly. The FBI looked at it and it was nothing. However, in the background what Kortan did not know was the alternative motive for the Trump-Russia story.

The people in the FBI who were participants in the exploitation of the NSA database for spying operations, were ultimately the same FBI people who promoted the Clinton dirty Trump-Russia story.

Two factions inside the FBI. One official faction, represented by Kortan, and one unofficial faction with a vested interest outside the parameters of official FBI duty.

x.com/realDonaldTrum…