[American Thinker] President Trump has ordered the declassification of documents related to the questionable FISA warrants on how the FBI got authorization to surveil Trump aide Carter Page. The howls from both the Democrats and the national security community can now be heard from orbit. It just goes to show how badly it needed to be done.
According to Fox News:
President Trump on Monday ordered the declassification of several key documents related to the FBI investigation of Russian actions during the 2016 presidential election, including 21 pages of an application for a renewed surveillance warrant against former campaign aide Carter Page, and text messages from disgraced FBI figures Peter Strzok and Lisa Page.
Following that, we got reportage like this:
Rep. Adam Schiff (Calif.), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said Trump's "selective release of materials he believes are helpful to his defense team and thinks will advance a false narrative" is a "clear abuse of power," and based on his conversations with federal law enforcement officials, the FBI and Justice Department see the release of these unredacted documents as "a red line that must not be crossed as they may compromise sources and methods."
...and this:
David Kris, former chief of the Justice Department's national security division and founder of the Culper Partners consulting firm, said Mr. Trump's action was "especially unprecedented" because he was overruling subordinates who had provided a redacted version of the surveillance application to Congress and because the order pertained to a continuing investigation of which Mr. Trump is a subject.
...and this:
Democrats on Monday contended that the declassification order was another salvo in a partisan battle being waged to protect Mr. Trump and discredit an investigation that has already resulted in guilty pleas or convictions of his former campaign chairman, his former national security adviser and several others involved in his campaign or his business.
"President Trump, in a clear abuse of power, has decided to intervene in a pending law enforcement investigation by ordering the selective release of materials he believes are helpful to his defense team and thinks will advance a false narrative," said Rep. Adam Schiff (D., Calif.), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.
So we're seeing quite an alarm from both the Deep State and the Democrats over declassifying just why the FBI took up the case of spying on Carter Page dating from October 2016; got three FISA court extensions (read this from Thomas Lifson yesterday about why those extensions are so problematic); and yielded absolutely zero charges, let alone convictions, against Page their target ‐ just surveillance, surveillance, surveillance...which just happened to be a convenient thing for an administration all in for unmasking Trump officials during campaign 2016 based on that FISA warrant ‐ which previous reports say was premised on Democratic opposition research contained within the Steele dossier and nothing else. |