Thread by @themarketswork

1) I won't say it started here. Much had already been done.

But this set the stage for much of what was to come.

The July 20, 2015 Sally Yates Memorandum that refused Inspector General Oversight of information collected by the DOJ & FBI under Title III.
themarketswork.com/2018/05/28/byp…

2) The policy of denying IG's Access began in 2010.

From Inspector General Horowitz' Congressional Testimony:

3) On August 5, 2014, DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz and other Inspector Generals sent an “IG Access Letter” to Congress asking for unimpeded access to all records.

Yates formally responded with her 7-20-15 Memorandum denying access:

4) The July 20, 2015 Opinion was widely criticized.

But it did the job it was intended to do.

The Opinion limited IG Horowitz’s oversight from extending to any information collected under Title III.

Including intercepted communications and…National Security Letters.

5) It might have ended there.

Unnoticed by most until IG Horowitz was finally successful in his attempts to have the Yates Memorandum overturned in Dec '16.

6) Except for the heroic actions of one man: Admiral Mike Rogers.
themarketswork.com/2018/04/05/the…

7) We might never have known of the actions taken by Rogers if not for the quiet unsealing of a FISA Court Ruling by newly confirmed Director of National Intelligence Dan Coates.

8) Judge Collyer's April 26, 2017 FISA Court Ruling revealed some grave Section 702 abuses.

Abuses that otherwise might never have come to light. dni.gov/files/document…

9) The violations were many. They had been occurring since at least November 2015.

But as the FISA Court noted, there was no reason to believe they had not been going on for longer.

10) From the Ruling:

"The government orally apprised the Court of significant non-compliance with the NSA’s minimization procedures involving queries of data acquired under Section 702 using U.S. person identifiers."

This was Rogers notifying the FISA Court

11) Cont:

NSA analysts had used U.S.-person identifiers to query the results of Internet “upstream” collection.

NSA analysts had been conducting such queries in violation of that prohibition, with much greater frequency than had previously been disclosed to the Court.

12) Cont:

“NSA estimates that approximately eighty-five percent of those queries, representing [Redacted] queries conducted by approximately [Redacted] targeted offices, were not compliant with the applicable minimization procedures.”

85%....

13) Cont:

The FBI had disclosed raw FISA information, including but not limited to Section 702-acquired information,…to private contractors.

14) Cont:

"Private contractors had access to raw FISA information on FBI storage systems"

"Contractors had access to raw FISA information that went well beyond what was necessary to respond to the FBI’s requests."

15) Cont:

"The Court is concerned about the FBI’s apparent disregard of minimization rules and whether the FBI may be engaging in similar disclosures of raw Section 702 information that have not been reported."

16) Cont:

"This seems to have been the result of deliberate decision-making."

"Access to FBI systems was the subject of an interagency memorandum of understanding."

"No notice of this practice was given to the FISC until 2016."

17) It was Mike Rogers who informed the FISA Court.

Verbally on October 24, 2016. And more formally in writing on October 26, 2016.

But the story does not end there.

18) Remember the name John Carlin.

Carlin was the head of the DOJ's National Security Division.

Carlin announced his resignation exactly one day after he filed the Government’s proposed 2016 Section 702 certifications - on September 26, 2016.

19) Carlin failed to disclose the earlier January 7, 2016 Inspector General Report and associated FISA Abuse to the FISA Court in his 2016 Certification.

Carlin also failed to disclose Rogers’ ongoing Compliance Review.
themarketswork.com/2018/05/21/joh…

20) On October 4, 2016, a standard follow-up hearing on the 2016 Section 702 Certification was held before the FISA Court.

Carlin was present at the hearing.

Again, Carlin made no disclosure of FISA Abuse.

21) On October 15, 2016, Carlin formally left the NSD.

On October 20 2016, Rogers was briefed by the NSA compliance officer on findings from the 702 NSA compliance audit.

On October 21, 2016, Rogers shut down all “About Query” activity.

He reported his findings to the DOJ.

22) On that SAME day, October 21 2016, the DOJ & FBI sought and received a Title I FISA probable cause order authorizing electronic surveillance on Carter Page from the FISA Court.

At this point, the FISA Court was still unaware of the Section 702 violations.

23) On 10-24-16 Rogers verbally informed the FISA Court of his findings.

On 10-26-16 Rogers appeared formally before the FISA Court and presented his written findings.

The FISA Court was unaware of the FISA/Query violations until they were presented to the Court by Rogers.

24) While this was going on:

DNI James Clapper & Defense Secretary Ash Carter submitted a recommendation that Rogers be removed as NSA Head.

25) The move to fire Rogers – which failed – originated sometime in mid-October 2016.

Exactly when Director Rogers was preparing to present his findings to the FISA Court.
washingtonpost.com/world/national…

26) On 11-17-16 Dir Rogers traveled to meet President-Elect Trump in Trump Tower. Rogers did not inform his boss – DNI James Clapper.

That night, the Trump Transition Team announced they were moving all transition activity to Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey...

27) A few days back I re-sent an article I had written in May '18. It detailed the hacking of the DNC Servers and provided a timeline of events.

I then overlayed the DNC timeline with that of Mike Rogers.

28) Per the DNC Lawsuit, Russia FIRST gained access to DNC Network in July 2015.

“In July 2015, Russian Intelligence gained access to Democratic National Committee (DNC) networks and maintained that access until at least June 2016”.
themarketswork.com/2018/05/18/the…

29) Here are a sequence of dates from that article.

I found them interesting. Look closely:

30) Some more:

31) Again, look especially closely. Each date is important:

32) As noted in article:

Timing between Admiral Rogers’ discovery of outside contractors and the sudden problems with the DNC Servers appears far too coincidental.

I don't believe in coincidences.

Exactly what was on those DNC Servers that involved the need for such secrecy.

33) Yesterday, @thelastrefuge2 sent out this tweet:

https://twitter.com/TheLastRefuge2/status/1019020013666217984

34) I couldn't agree more. I've been wondering the same:

https://twitter.com/themarketswork/status/1019021739483787264

35) I suspect there may be more to be heard on this matter.

I sure hope so.

Sunlight would be most welcome.
/End

Note: This is the enhanced, more detailed article-version of earlier thread.
themarketswork.com/2018/07/17/fis…