Home » A lawyer’s and a judge’s reaction to the Nunes memo

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A lawyer’s and a judge’s reaction to the Nunes memo — 14 Comments

  1. …it’s been reported (by anonymous sources) that in its FISA application re Page, the FBI made some sort of reference to political funding of the Steele dossier.

    So this is our vaunted, super-secret FISA court in action!?? When told that some of the information in the surveillance application was generated by politically-motivated funding, the judge does not think to ask, “Really? What political entity funded this and why? I want to know ALL about this.”

    I see only 3 possible expanations here:
    1) The FISA judge is an idiot and/or too lazy to examine the application carefully;
    2) The FISA judge is politically motivated himself, or
    3) The statement about the source of the funding was buried within the application in an amazingly clever way.

    Any ideas on which of these (or some other) explains the judge’s failure to ask an obvious question?

  2. Might this be why Judge Rudolph Contreras recused himself immediately after taking General Flynn’s guilty plea?

  3. Trey Gowdy, who has actually seen the FISA applications, on Face the Nation this past Sunday:

    “I mean, look at just the disclosure of who paid for it. They could have easily said it was the DNC and–and Hillary Clinton. That would have been really easy. I read the footnote. I– I know exactly what the footnote says. It took longer to explain it the way they did, than if they just come right out and said, ‘Hillary Clinton for America and DNC paid for it.’ But they didn’t do that.”

    It would really be helpful if we could see that footnote.

  4. Two possibilities:

    1)The FBI put one over on the FISA court in obtaining the warrant.

    2)The FISA court colluded with the FBI in obtaining the warrant.

    We won’t know if it’s one or the other until we see the court transcripts and the application for the warrant.

  5. Long ago in a different world, I worked for a Naval Officer who quite regularly reminded his troops that we all worked for the civilians outside the base. Since many of these civilians regularly spit on us and called us names, we weren’t happy that we worked for them. Our Skipper kept us in line by helping us concentrate on getting our jobs done, not hating and wanting to retaliate against the civilians that showed us little respect. Hmm, seems there is a lesson there.

    Today government bureaucracies don’t have leaders who regularly remind them of who they work for. Every government office in D.C. should have a sign proclaiming: “We work for the citizens of the USA and are held accountable by their representatives.” Then the leadership should follow that motto.

  6. I’ll reiterate my comment and questions from 2/2/2018:

    February 2nd, 2018 at 4:12 pm

    I keep thinking about Judge Rudolph Contreras (who sits on the DC Circuit Court as well as the FISA Court), who recused himself in the Flynn case back on 12/7/2017 (only after General Flynn made his plea deal). I’m wondering whether he was the same FISA Court Judge who approved the FISA warrant (and the several renewals of that warrant) on Carter Page. Does anyone know?

    I ran a Google search, “Who is the FISA Court judge who issued the FISA warrants on Carter Page?” and got no helpful results (try it for yourself). The reason I ask is this: I’ve seen a lot of judges over the past 35+ years and have never yet known of (or even heard of) one who tolerates being lied to or misled. If the FISA Court was in fact lied to (either actively or by omission), why hasn’t someone been held in contempt? What’s actually going on at the FISA Court? What facts or circumstances led to Judge Contreras’ decision to recuse himself in the Flynn case? I guess we’ll never know, but damn, this whole thing is giving off a bad Star Chamber-y odor, no?

  7. “WASHINGTON (AP) – Top intelligence and law enforcement officials warn that last week’s release of a congressional memo alleging FBI surveillance abuse could have wide-ranging repercussions: Spy agencies could start sharing less information with Congress, weakening oversight.”

    Contempt of Congress followed by Trump firing them. Repeat and rinse as needed until the rot is expunged.

  8. There is no innocent explanation for not disclosing explicitly who funded the dossier- no innocent explanation at all. The only reason one would omit that explicit detail is because one thinks it will make it less likely the judge will approve the warrant.

  9. Now that the US has elected Trum, can they make him do as they wish?

    That’s not how it works. That’s bad and good for patriots and Republicans.

    Good, in the sense that the Left can’t get to him easily with the usual tricks. Bad in the sense that while many of us, me included, would have told him to purge DC of all Demoncrats, no matter how useful, Trum decided to do otherwise. Perhaps Bannon played a role in that as well.

    Now you get what you get. The MSM doesn’t hold Trum accountable. The public does not. And neither does the FBI heads Trum thought he could bribe or pull over to his side as loyal bureaucrats.

    Only the Deep State holds America’s power accountable. Only the Deep State can fight the factions in the Deep State. The DS chose Trum to do so and the leaks proceed as planned. Selected, not elected.

  10. “We’re the Priesthood of Intelligence. No one gets to contradict us, critique us, or even us orders.

    Who knows, maybe that’s been their goal all along. Or maybe they were just operating 99% under that mindset and now, peeved by someone challenging their 99% lack of accountability, are threatening to unconstitutionally arrogate to themselves the status of being fourth, fifth, and sixth co-equal branches of government, that are really better than the other three branches, because they’re entirely untainted by that “democratic election” and “consent of the governed” and “public accountability” baggage.”

    Gee, Ace, tell us how you really feel!
    A salutary example would be Reagan and the Air Traffic controllers.
    If they don’t play by the rules, fire them all.
    The States can take care of their own legal matters and investigations, and be deputized for any Federal offenses (without the FBI and DOJ padding the rolls with cases, maybe there would be fewer to investigate).
    Besides, EPA & DOE (among others) have their own SWAT teams.
    Who needs the FBI anymore?

    (Only half-facetiously submitted, because the other half is very, very angry.)

  11. Geoffrey Britain Says:
    February 6th, 2018 at 7:45 pm
    … could have wide-ranging repercussions:
    * * *
    King Croesus of Lydia had some concerns about his intent to make war on the Persians.
    The oracles to whom he sent his questions included those at Delphi and Thebes. Both oracles gave the same response, that if Croesus made war on the Persians, he would destroy a mighty empire.
    However, it was his empire, not that of the Persians, that was defeated, fulfilling the prophecy but not his interpretation of it.

  12. J.J. Says:
    February 6th, 2018 at 6:17 pm
    … Every government office in D.C. should have a sign proclaiming: “We work for the citizens of the USA and are held accountable by their representatives.” Then the leadership should follow that motto.
    * * *
    https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4357880-Mulvaney-Memo.html

    “From: Mulvaney, Mick (CFPB)
    Date: January 23, 2018 at 12:59:57 PM CST
    To: _DL_CFPB_AllHands
    Subject: To Everybody from the Acting Director

    We are government employees. We don’t just work for the government, we work for the people. And
    that means everyone:
    those who use credit cards, and those who provide those cards; those who take
    loans, and those who make them; those who buy cars, and those who sell them. All of those people
    are part of what makes this country great. And all of them deserve to be treated fairly by their
    government. There is a reason that Lady Justice wears a blindfold and carries a balance, along with her
    sword.
    It is not appropriate for any government entity to “push the envelope” when it comes into conflict with
    our citizens. The damage that we can do to people could linger for years and cost them their jobs, their
    savings, and their homes. If the CFPB loses a court case because we “pushed too hard,” we simply move
    on to the next matter. But where do those that we have charged go to get their time, their money, or
    their good names back? If a company closes its doors under the weight of a multi-year Civil Investigative
    Demand, you and I will still have jobs at CFPB. But what about the workers who are laid off as a
    result? Where do they go the next morning?

    Let me be clear: there will absolutely be times when circumstances dictate that we take dramatic action
    to protect consumers. And at those appropriate times, I expect us to be vigorous in our enforcement of
    the law. But bringing the full weight of the federal government down on the necks of the people we
    serve should be something that we do only reluctantly, and only when all other attempts at resolution
    have failed. It should be the most final of last resorts
    .”

    MAGA

  13. Another zinger from Ace today, quoting a post that has even more interesting things than show up in this excerpt:
    http://ace.mu.nu/archives/373722.php

    “On Friday, a former FBI agent wrote an eye-catching opinion piece in the New York Times, claiming that he had retired from the Bureau because it had received unfair “political attacks” from Republicans in Congress.

    Other than its entirely disingenuous premise (alleging Republicans are attacking the FBI as a whole, rather than investigating alleged misdeads [sic, but I kinda like it] under leaders James Comey and Andrew McCabe), the piece leaves out important information.

    Nowhere in the opinion article does Campbell reveal the fact that he was James Come’’s special assistant.
    Campbell presents himself as someone who is unattached to the current political situation, leaving out the fact that he has a huge vested interest in defending Comey. [apparently, he’s already “redacted” his media profiles to eliminate that information]

    But it gets worse. Following the op-ed, John Cardillo, a host for The Rebel and former law enforcement officer, claimed that Campbell also left out the fact that he had already accepted an offer to become a CNN analyst.”

  14. AesopFan, thanks for the memo from Mulvaney. Good stuff. I hope it begins to catch on with other bureaucrats. Such leaders are rare, unfortunately.

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