1) If the allegation's true, the perp must be punished.
2) There's no reason to think any alteration affected the probative qualities of any FISA app—given Page's contact with Russian spies and lies on same.
3) There's no evidence Horowitz thinks this undermines the Russia probe.
2) There's no reason to think any alteration affected the probative qualities of any FISA app—given Page's contact with Russian spies and lies on same.
3) There's no evidence Horowitz thinks this undermines the Russia probe.
4) What Trump and his minions will now do is what defense attorneys are on rare occasion called upon (out of desperation) to do: take 500 inculpatory facts and focus on the 10% chance that 1 of those 500 inculpatory facts is not as strong as it first appeared. That's all this is.
5) But my message here is to media: we know from *your reports* that the Russia probe started when *seven allied nations* reported to our intel community Trump-Russia meetings that would provoke (under law) reasonable suspicion in any law enforcement officer. Those are the facts.
6) Moreover, Page's history with Russian spies is stunning. By the time of the FISA app our intel community not only knew Page had given docs to Russian spies but *admitted* doing so and *admitted* knowing they were spies. He later lied about further meetings with Kremlin agents.
7) There's *zero* evidence, as yet, to think *any* alteration to one of the many FISA apps filed on Page—even if it was a criminal alteration—was the deciding factor in getting that app approved, and *every* reason to think that even a substantive change was finally *immaterial*.
8) So what we're talking about is a *possible* alteration of *one* of *many* FISA apps in a way that *could* have been determinative—under circumstances in which *none* of these apps were the basis for the beginning of a Russia probe *no one* has said *any* alteration undermines.
9) So media should treat this as *1% as important* as everything else in the news now—and therefore spend 1% the amount of time on it. But because today's corporate, institutional media isn't built to do that—a fact Trump daily exploits—we will hear about this nonsense endlessly.
10) Last point, and one I offer after years of working as a criminal defense lawyer: if you're swayed in *any way whatsoever* by this trivial addition to the mountain of information on Trump and Russia, it can only be because you were *always* looking for ways to exculpate Trump.
