{"id":35645,"date":"2019-03-15T12:43:53","date_gmt":"2019-03-15T16:43:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=35645"},"modified":"2019-03-15T12:43:53","modified_gmt":"2019-03-15T16:43:53","slug":"why-i-have-concerns-about-our-justice-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=35645","title":{"rendered":"Why I Have Concerns About Our Justice System"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>John Solomon at<a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/opinion\/white-house\/434054-the-damning-proof-of-innocence-that-fbi-likely-withheld-in-russian-probe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> The Hill<\/a> posted an article yesterday about some of the information in the Russian investigation that should be made public.<\/p>\n<p>The article reports:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><strong>If <span class=\"rollover-people\" data-behavior=\"rolloverpeople\"><a class=\"rollover-people-link\" href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/people\/donald-trump\" data-nid=\"261287\">President Trump<\/a><\/span> declassifies evidence in the Russia investigation, Carter Page\u2019s summer bike ride to a Virginia farm and <span class=\"rollover-people\" data-behavior=\"rolloverpeople\"><a class=\"rollover-people-link\" href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/people\/george-papadopoulos\" data-nid=\"366054\">George Papadopoulos<\/a><\/span>\u2019s hasty academic jaunt to London may emerge as linchpin proof of FBI surveillance abuses during the 2016 election.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><strong>The two trips have received scant attention. But growing evidence suggests both Trump campaign advisers made exculpatory statements \u2014 at the very start of the FBI\u2019s investigation \u2014 that undercut the Trump-Russia collusion theory peddled to agents by Democratic sources.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><strong>The FBI plowed ahead anyway with an unprecedented intrusion into a presidential campaign, while keeping evidence of the two men\u2019s innocence from the courts.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><strong>Page and Papadopoulos, who barely knew each other, met separately in August and September 2016 with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/cambridge-university-perch-gave-fbi-source-access-to-top-intelligence-figures--and-a-cover-as-he-reached-out-to-trump-associates\/2018\/06\/05\/c6764dc2-641e-11e8-99d2-0d678ec08c2f_story.html?utm_term=.a52a4638a3da\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Stefan Halper<\/a>, the American-born Cambridge University professor who, the FBI told Congress, worked as an undercover informer in the Russia case.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><strong>Papadopoulos was the young aide that the FBI used to justify opening a probe into the Trump campaign on July 31, 2016, after he allegedly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/12\/30\/us\/politics\/how-fbi-russia-investigation-began-george-papadopoulos.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">told a foreign diplomat<\/a> that he knew Russia possessed incriminating emails about <span class=\"rollover-people\" data-behavior=\"rolloverpeople\"><a class=\"rollover-people-link\" href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/people\/hillary-clinton\" data-nid=\"188224\">Hillary Clinton<\/a><\/span>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><strong>Page, a volunteer campaign adviser, was the American the FBI then targeted on Oct. 21, 2016, for secret surveillance while investigating Democratic Party-funded allegations that he secretly might have coordinated Russia\u2019s election efforts with the Trump campaign during <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/adviser-told-trump-campaign-of-moscow-trip-1510031679\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a trip to Moscow<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><strong>To appreciate the significance of the two men\u2019s interactions with Halper, one must understand the rules governing the FBI when it seeks a <a href=\"https:\/\/fas.org\/irp\/agency\/doj\/fisa\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act<\/a> (FISA) warrant such as the one secured against Page.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><strong>First, the FBI must present evidence to FISA judges that it has verified and that comes from intelligence sources deemed reliable. Second, it must disclose any information that calls into question the credibility of its sources. Finally, it must disclose any evidence suggesting the innocence of its investigative targets.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><strong>Thanks to prior <a href=\"https:\/\/www.upi.com\/Justice-Dept-releases-FISA-documents-on-Carter-Page\/4151532214045\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">releases of information<\/a>, we know the FBI fell short on the first two counts. Multiple FBI officials have testified that the Christopher Steele dossier <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/opinion\/white-house\/420408-comeys-confession-dossier-not-verified-before-or-after-fisa-warrant\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">had not been verified<\/a> when its allegations were submitted as primary evidence supporting the FISA warrant against Page.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><strong>Likewise, we know the FBI failed to tell the courts that Steele admitted to a federal official that he was <a href=\"https:\/\/insider.foxnews.com\/2018\/02\/02\/fisa-memo-christopher-steele-admitted-he-was-desperate-trump-not-get-elected\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">desperate to defeat Trump<\/a> in the 2016 election and was being paid by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/world\/national-security\/clinton-campaign-dnc-paid-for-research-that-led-to-russia-dossier\/2017\/10\/24\/226fabf0-b8e4-11e7-a908-a3470754bbb9_story.html?utm_term=.72bf4787df1b\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Clinton\u2019s campaign and the Democratic National Committee<\/a>\u00a0(DNC) to gather dirt on the GOP candidate. Both pieces of information are the sort of credibility-defining details that should be disclosed about a source.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>To put it succinctly, the whole investigation into Russian collusion was based on false premises and was a distraction to avoid looking at the abuses of the Justice Department during the Obama administration. It&#8217;s time we put Russia aside and ask why Lois Lerner, Loretta Lynch, Eric Holder, John Brennan, James Comey, James Clapper, et al, are not under investigation. Using government bureaucrats to spy on an opposition party candidate is a new low in America. Those responsible need to be held accountable so that it will not happen again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>John Solomon at The Hill posted an article yesterday about some of the information in the Russian investigation that should be made public. The article reports: If President Trump declassifies evidence in the Russia investigation, Carter Page\u2019s summer bike ride &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=35645\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[11438,10802,10954,10685,11715,8180,10095,4961,11768,5796,8436,135,11379,11726,5409,9533,11114],"class_list":["post-35645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-carter-page","tag-christopher-steele","tag-collusion","tag-foreign-intelligence-surveillance-act","tag-george-papadopoulos","tag-james-clapper","tag-james-comey","tag-john-brennan","tag-john-solomon","tag-lois-lerner","tag-loretta-lynch","tag-obama-administration","tag-russia-investigation","tag-stefan-halper","tag-surveillance","tag-the-hill","tag-trump-campaign"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35645"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35646,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35645\/revisions\/35646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}