Thread by @ProfMJCleveland

THREAD I cut a lot from my #FisaAbuse piece @FDRLST today b/c it was clouding up the new news. But since I already drafted it and have the links at a ready, let's recap all of the incidences of, and evidence of, FISA abuse as backdrop for today's piece. thefederalist.com/2019/05/21/oba… 1/

2/ Nunes memo stressed FISA application & three later renewals) failed to disclose DNC/Clinton campaign funded Steele dossier; FISA applications also did not inform court of Steele’s bias & desperation that “Donald Trump not get elected.” Additionally, Nunes faulted DOJ for

3/ relying on a Yahoo News article in FISA application to corroborate Steele’s
supposed intel since Steele source of Yahoo story. Nunes further charged DOJ and FBI abused FISA system by relying on Steele’s claims when corroboration of dossier
was still in its infancy.

4/ Shortly after release of Nunes’ memo, Senators Grassley & Graham issued a criminal referral for Steele which noted “the bulk of the application consists of allegations against Page that were disclosed to the FBI by Mr. Steele and are also outlined in the Steele dossier.”

5/ Grassley-Graham referral added that “the application appears to contain no additional information corroborating the dossier allegations against Mr. Page, although it does cite to a news article that appears to be sourced to Mr. Steele’s dossier.” Taken together, Nunes memo

6/ and Grassley-Graham criminal referral revealed another glaring deficiency in the FISA application: The FISA application relied on unnamed sub-sources
of unknown reliability without corroborating their statements. @AndrewCMcCarthy was the first to highlight this mistake.

7/ nationalreview.com/2018/02/jerrol… Writing, "Steele is not the source of the information. For purposes of the warrant application, he is the purveyor of information from other sources. The actual sources of the information are Steele’s informants — anonymous Russians providing accounts

8/ based on hearsay three- and four-times removed from people said to have observed the events alleged.” McCarthy then explained that “to justify a finding of probable cause, the government must satisfy the court as to the credibility of
the informant who, it is claimed,

9/ witnessed the factual transactions described in the warrant. There is no vicarious credibility: The informant’s reliability cannot be shored up by the impeccable credentials of the investigative agent.” Since Nunes first released his memo revealing abuse of the FISA system,

10/ information has continued to trickle out. As details emerged so too did further evidence of FISA abuse. For instance, in addition to relying on Yahoo News’ to corroborate Steele’s reporting, DOJ/FBI quoted to the FISA court, as evidence of Russia collusion, excerpts from

11/ July 2016 newspaper article that claimed the RNC had softened its platform on Russia due to pressure from the Trump campaign. Beyond obvious problem with relying on press reports in warrant application—reliability of newspaper’s sources is unknown—article was blatantly false

12/ @ByronYork exposed platform change fake news. DOJ/FBI also apparently misled FISA court concerning Page’s earlier contacts with Russian agents—he had in fact cooperated w/ FBI in its investigation, fact left out of FISA application. realclearpolitics.com/2017/11/27/wha…

13/ theepochtimes.com/carter-pages-a…

14/ Additionally, FISA application stated FBI had “suspended its relationship with” Christopher Steele, when in reality, FBI arranged for an agent to receive Steele’s intel through DOJ lawyer-turned-conduit, Bruce Ohr. Further FISA application failed to mention that Bruce’s

15/ wife, Nellie Ohr, also worked for Fusion GPS—the firm employing Steele to gather dirt on Trump—and provided the FBI intel on Russia, including open-source information that appears to have made its way into the FISA application.

16/ Additionally, FISA applications almost certainly excluded statements
given to FBI by Papadopoulos & Joseph Mifsud. (Mifsud is the supposed Kremlin-connected Maltese professor whose “the Russian’s have dirt on Hillary” tip purportedly prompted the launch of the Russia

17/ investigation.) Then there’s fact no one who signed FISA applications appears to have read them. We can now add to all of those damning facts that Steele shared obviously questionable intel w/ State Department’s Kavalec prior to DOJ/FBI swearing to veracity of first FISA

18/18 application. And Kavalec’s notes provide at least four more proofs to the already-conclusive case of FISA abuse. My article today focus on those four proofs. END. And #ENDFISAABUSE