Russiagate on Big "I" Day

So what's everybody talking about? The head FISA judge slapped the FBI wrist. The Peacock, Secret FISA Court issues highly unusual public rebuke of FBI for mistakes, Fox News, FISA court slams FBI over surveillance applications, in rare public order, Hot Air, FISA Court rebukes FBI for inaccurate applications (Update: FBI responds), promises to do better next time, really! National Review, FBI Russia Probe -- FISA Court Issues Public Order Condemning FBI for Abuses and Demanding Reforms, Ace of Spades HQ The FISC Order "It will be interesting to watch CNN almost entirely suppress this story, in favor of complaining about Trump Thanos Snap Memes."  Althouse: "The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court ordered the government Tuesday to explain what the FBI will do to ensure the bureau does not mislead judges again..." Sundance at CTH with the actual letter, and an opinion, FISC Presiding Judge Rosemary Collyer Blasts FBI in Response to Evidence of FISA Fraud – Likely More Unreliable Applications…  with the

The bottom line is without actual legal accountability for the fraud, everything is just a matter of words without consequence. Judge Collyer is angry, but so what… is she going to hold anyone accountable? Thus the frustration outlined by Devin Nunes last weekend.

Judicial opinions, strongly worded letters, court orders, insufferable justifications, and government promises of corrective actions are meaningless when real Americans are harmed by gross abuses of power.

Devin Nunes had it right on Sunday…. shut down the FISA court!

More from sundcance, Nuclear – Devin Nunes Questions FISC Judge Lack of Candor – Again Calls For Dismantling of FISA Court…. Yes, it's a little hard to take their sincerity seriously, if they don't do something meaningful to the FBI personnel who perpetrated the fraud on the court.



John Hinderacker at Power Line, Voters: FBI Leaders Broke Law, Send Them to Jail

52% of likely voters responded that it is likely that senior federal law enforcement officials–the FBI’s leadership–broke the law in an effort to defeat Trump (36% “very likely”), vs. only 39% who think such FBI lawbreaking unlikely. Amazingly, more people seem to be listening to Andy McCarthy and Lee Smith than to the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC, CBS, NBC, ABC, the Associated Press, etc. That’s what truth will do for you. Some of the time, anyway.

A plurality of 43% say that these federal law enforcement officials should go to jail if found guilty, up from 25% earlier this year. A merciful 22% just want them fired. To be fair, though, pretty much all of them already have been.

It’s weird how people sometimes can figure out the truth, no matter how much money is spent to try to cover it up.

Even the Atlantic admits  The FBI Needs to Be Reformed, quick, before Trump uses them against us! Jim Clapper tosses Jim Comey under the bus, Clapper: Comey's "Mistake" Was "Trusting In The Procedures" For FISA Warrants (RCP). Sundance, Maria Bartiromo Discussing Spygate: “People Will Be Prosecuted for Crimes Against a Sitting President”… Promises, promises.



Via Wombat's In The Mailbox: 12.17.19 Power Line: We Now Know – Full Of Schiff, and We now know: Full of Schiff (2)

Both Nunes and Schiff had access to the same classified information for their memos, but Nunes was interested in disseminating the truth while Schiff sought to lie about it in the service of the Russia hoax. As has become all too clear, Schiff lies with the sangfroid of a pathological liar.

After the Department of Justice Inspector General report on FISA abuse that was released last week, we now know to a certainty that Nunes was right and Schiff was wrong. We know that Schiff was lying.

John Sexton at Hot Air, Brit Hume: One Of The Wonders Of Modern Media Is Its Failure To See Through Adam Schiff



WaPoo sadly admits Horowitz report confirms John Solomon’s scoop on FBI ‘spreadsheet’ regarding Steele dossier

Recent weeks have frowned on John Solomon, the former opinion contributor for the Hill whose articles on Ukraine earlier this year advanced Rudolph W. Giuliani’s attempts to stir a Democratic scandal. In congressional testimony, George Kent, a senior State Department official, said this in reference to a Solomon article from March: “It was, if not entirely made up in full cloth, it was primarily non-truths and non-sequiturs.”

No such evaluation can attach to a less prominent Solomon article from July regarding the dossier compiled by former British intelligence official Christopher Steele. “FBI’s spreadsheet puts a stake through the heart of Steele’s dossier,” reads the piece’s headline.

“Over months of work, FBI agents painstakingly researched every claim Steele made about Trump’s possible collusion with Russia, and assembled their findings into a spreadsheet-like document,” reported Solomon, who went on to say that the evaluation wasn’t favorable. “Multiple sources familiar with the FBI spreadsheet tell me the vast majority of Steele’s claims were deemed to be wrong, or could not be corroborated even with the most awesome tools available to the U.S. intelligence community,” Solomon wrote, adding that the “over-under isn’t flattering to Steele.”

Compare that reporting with a passage from the Horowitz report. “To evaluate Steele’s election reporting, intelligence analysts on the Crossfire Hurricane team created a spreadsheet identifying each statement that appeared in the Steele election reports in order to have a record of what the FBI learned during its assessment regarding those statements. The intelligence analysts also attempted to determine the true identities of the sub-source(s) responsible for each statement in Steele’s election reporting, and made assessments of each sub-source’s likely access to the type of information described.”

Scott Johnson at Power Line,  Flynn filleted and he's not happy about it (neither am I).

Judge Sullivan had all but invited Flynn to withdraw his plea. He was accordingly unimpressed by the merits of Flynn’s various post-plea demands for documents and related motions. The opinion notes in several places that General Flynn does not dispute the falsity of the statements that form the basis of the charge against him. See, for example, opinion pages 32-34. Judge Sullivan emphasizes that Flynn had much of the requested information in hand when he chose to plead guilty. Assuming he was deprived of information he now seeks, Judge Sullivan concludes, the remedy would be trial rather than dismissal.

This is a sad chapter of the Russia hoax. I think President Trump was right to ask then FBI Director Comey to go easy on Flynn after he resigned from the administration. Flynn has been shortchanged by the system he dedicated so much of his life to preserving.

Demand a trial, and put Strzok, Page and McCabe on the stand.

Also via Wombat's In The Mailbox: 12.17.19  This Ain’t Hell: Schiff & What He Did and Victory Girls: James Comey’s Awkward Tapdance During Chris Wallace Interview

Some Ukrainian stuff:

Solomon: Latvia raised red flags on Hunter Biden transactions -- right before Joe's intervention
Latvian government says it flagged ‘suspicious’ Hunter Biden payments in 2016 | John Solomon Reports
Senate Republicans Push Ahead With Probe of ‘Ukraine Collusion,’ Despite Warnings It’s a Kremlin Operation
I gotta get going to sing for my supper; maybe I'll get to the Impeachment nonsense when I get back.