Re-upping this from my earlier thread, now that we have Oct. 21st as the date of the warrant.
That was a month after all these senior campaign officials insisted that Page had no connection whatsoever to the campaign.
How could a FISA warrant on Page have been targeting Trump?
That was a month after all these senior campaign officials insisted that Page had no connection whatsoever to the campaign.
How could a FISA warrant on Page have been targeting Trump?
If the FBI was trying to use the Steele Dossier to wrongfully obtain surveillance on Trump, then why did they target the one guy named in the Dossier who, according to the Trump campaign, had no actual connection to the campaign at all?
Why would they not use it to obtain surveillance on Michael Cohen, Trump's personal attorney? The Steele Dossier makes just as serious allegations about him.
(But damn, imagine if they had done that, they would've gotten info on all the porn actresses Trump was paying off.)
(But damn, imagine if they had done that, they would've gotten info on all the porn actresses Trump was paying off.)
Based on the evidence the FBI had, a possible explanation is that Carter Page was in fact a Russian agent -- and the Trump campaign was his unknowing target. If the FBI had reason to think Russia used Page to try to infiltrate the Trump campaign, they had to investigate that.
Carter Page was already known to have been the target of Russian recruitment efforts. A few months earlier they'd finished prosecuting three Russian spies who, in intercepted communications in 2013, had talked about how remarkably thirsty Carter Page had been to work with them.
I'm still looking for some hint of the harm or prejudice to Trump that we're supposed to be upset about here, and I'm not seeing it.
The GOP is counting on being able to just say "violation" without ever explaining *what* the violation is supposed to be.
The GOP is counting on being able to just say "violation" without ever explaining *what* the violation is supposed to be.
Besides, the Trump campaign was adamant that Carter Page had no connection to the campaign, and that there were no communications between the campaign and Page.
So based on the campaign's representation, surveillance on Page could only really do one thing: exonerate Trump.
So based on the campaign's representation, surveillance on Page could only really do one thing: exonerate Trump.
Surveillance could reveal Page as a slightly kooky but harmless Russophile hired by a disorganized campaign in a rush to prove they had foreign policy advisers, or maybe they'd intercept Page communicating with Russians about his botched attempt to infiltrate the campaign.
The GOP's argument here is that the FISA warrant was wrong because the Dossier was "political origins" and therefore (for unarticulated reasons) it was a "violation" to use it in any context, even against someone not part of the Trump campaign. But why? How? They never explain.
What if the FBI had used info in the Steele Dossier to obtain surveillance against, say, Sechin? Or Ivanov? Or the hackers who targeted the DNC? Page is an American, which matters in the FISA context, but it's FBI's motive the GOP objects to, and that would be the same for all.
Still waiting for GOP or WH to actually specify what Bad Thing is shown in Nunes' memo. Here's the White House's recent comment.
If your response to a supposed scandal is, "I have concerns of some sort but I can't identify what they are specifically," then it's not a scandal.
If your response to a supposed scandal is, "I have concerns of some sort but I can't identify what they are specifically," then it's not a scandal.
Hold up, we have a winner! It's entirely batshit, but at least there's finally a specific claim of wrongdoing: "FBI abuse of FISA warrants and targeting a sitting President is not just evidence of incompetence but clear and convincing evidence of treason."
On second thought, I'm not sure this counts as identifying what the Bad Thing is. It's too disconnected from reality: "The FBI knowingly took false information from the DNC and the Hillary Clinton campaign and then used it to smear Donald Trump in order to hurt his campaign."
1) It didn't target Trump. It targeted someone Trump's campaign disavowed any connection to.
2) The memo does not claim that the FBI knowingly used false info.
3) It was never used to smear Trump or hurt his campaign. No one even knew about it until he was president.
2) The memo does not claim that the FBI knowingly used false info.
3) It was never used to smear Trump or hurt his campaign. No one even knew about it until he was president.
