The following was written by Convention of States Presidet Mark Meckler and originally published on his Patheos blog.
I’ve just reviewed the released declassified memo from the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Majority Staff, and I’m stunned.
First, the memo confirms that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), responsible for reviewing and approving requests for surveillance, was — at the very least — misled by intentional omission in the requests for surveillance of Carter Page (and by extension probably others in Trump’s circle). The Steele dossier formed the basis for the FISA applications, and it was never disclosed to the court that that information was bought and paid for by the Democratic National Convention and the Hillary Clinton campaign. Importantly, Steele was being paid by the FBI for this information, a fact that was not disclosed to the FISA court. Neither did they disclose Steele’s extreme and personal anti-Trump bias.
This goes to the very heart of our justice system. I’m a lawyer and I know this: when officers of the court and other federal officials omit material facts in a warrant application, that’s fraud against the court. Failing to include exculpatory evidence perverts justice. The lawyers involved should be disbarred, and any federal officials involved (including the lawyers) should be charged with any and all appropriate crimes, immediately. Emphasis on immediately.
According to the memo, this includes then-Director James Comey, who signed three FISA applications on behalf of the FBI, and Deputy Director Andrew McCable who signed one. I guess we now know exactly why McCabe stepped down after reading the memo. The memo reveals, “Then-DAG Sally Yates, then-Acting DAG Dana Boente, and DAG Rod Rosenstein each signed one or more FISA applications on behalf of DOJ.”
You might recall that Sally Yates was the leader of the open “resistance” to President Trump at the DOJ when he issued his executive order on the travel ban. That is, until she was unceremoniously — and appropriately — fired by the President. Other than Boente, this cast of characters is well known to the press and public (at least those who have been paying attention to anything but the mainstream media).
Their conduct is not that of unbiased officials who happen to be imbued with an immense amount of power granted the federal government. This is the behavior of the secret police of Marxist thugocracies. It is impossible to even imagine a more extreme perversion of our system and a greater breach of trust. These officials used our system to illegally invade the privacy of individuals, to destroy the candidacy of individual running for the highest office in the land, and to attempt to take down that President after he was elected. And I’m sure more officials are involved than we currently know.
It is not hyperbole to say this is the greatest political scandal in American history. Will our system survive this level of breach of trust? Can trust in institutions like the DOJ and the FBI ever be restored? We’ll know soon by watching what happens next. If the individuals involved are prosecuted with the full vigor of the law, we may at some point see the public begin to trust these important institutions. Anything short of that, and the DOJ, the FBI and even the FISA process itself will forever be viewed as merely the personal spying tools of the politically powerful… the new American Secret Police which the public will rightly loathe and fear. This is a moment of truth for the American system of justice and governance. Those in the agency who knew what was going on and whose objections were ignored need to come forward. Those who disgusted by the behavior of the senior ranking officials need to speak up.
Also, it’s time for the Mueller investigation to end: the entire investigation was opened by fraud upon the FISA Courts. An investigation founded on fraudulently obtained warrants is illegal to the core.
Finally, a footnote. Much of what is in the memo was already known or at least publicly surmised by “confidential sources.” The fact that Democrats on the committee and in the media are screaming so loudly about the release and the “attack” on the DOJ and the FBI, provides even more evidence that the entire scheme was a plot by the Democratic party, Democratic operatives, and those aligned against President Trump. It is time for charges, prosecution, and very public trials of the individuals involved. Only such a public display has any chance of beginning to restore the public’s trust in the integrity of the system.
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