https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/...estigation

Quote:Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., reignited the investigation into alleged Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act abuse on Thursday, demanding from the Justice Department a wide array of documentation related to the surveillance of Carter Page and other members of the 2016 Trump campaign.

The latest salvo in a long-running fight for access to documents, the GOP-led, bicameral effort was weakened when the Democrats ensnared control of the House with no intention of continuing the hunt. But Republican leaders see new hope in new Attorney General William Barr.

In a letter addressed to Barr, who took over the DOJ last month, Graham made targeted document requests that he said will help his committee determine whether proper procedure was ignored when the FBI made its case for FISA warrants to wiretap Page and other Trump campaign officials.

"[T]he Committee is concerned that the Woods procedures and a full presentment of material and relevant facts may not have occurred with regard to the applications for FISA warrants for (and the opening of the underlying investigations on) Carter Page and other individuals associated with the presidential campaign of Donald Trump,” Graham wrote.

Enacted in 2001, the Woods Procedures were intended to protect U.S. citizens from improper surveillance by the government, seeking to "ensure accuracy with regard to the facts supporting probable cause."

Graham expressed optimism in Barr during the confirmation process after meeting with him, saying in January, “I'm going to do a deep dive into the FISA issue, I think he'll be part of it."

Graham, along with other Republicans, have been engaged in a push for documents on the FISA process for years, pointing to the use of the so-called Trump dossier, which contained unverified claims about Trump's ties to Russia, by government officials to gain spy authority.

In the summer of 2017, Graham and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, asked DOJ and FBI leaders for all applications by the FBI to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court regarding its investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 elections. That followed a report by The Guardian in January of that year that said the FBI applied for a FISA warrant to monitor four members of Trump's then-campaign team "suspected of irregular contact with Russian officials" that was then turned down by the court.

Last February, the House Intelligence Committee, then led by Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., released a memo asserting the so-called Trump dossier, which contained unverified claims about Trump's ties to Russia, was used by the FBI to help obtain the FISA warrants to spy on Page, but key information, including its author's anti-Trump bias and Democratic benefactors, was left out. Democrats argued in a rebuttal memo that the FISA process was not abused and the GOP allegations were meant to discredit special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

In declassifying the GOP memo that same month, the White House said it "raises serious concerns about the integrity of decisions made at the highest levels of the Department of Justice and the FBI to use the government’s most intrusive surveillance tools against American citizens."

Further compounding concerns by Trump-aligned critics was how FISC didn't hold any hearings on the applications targeting Page, as disclosed by a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by Judicial Watch. However, a bevy of legal experts, some of whom were anti-Trump, argued that it is "the norm" for there not to be any hearings.

Among Graham's demands in his letter to Barr are the disclosure of documents related to the “Woods file” in the Page case, efforts to verify the various claims in the dossier, and the extent of the dossier's role in the FBI's FISA applications to spy on Page.

The author of the dossier, British ex-spy Christopher Steele, also is mentioned. Graham seeks all documents and communications related to Steele's contacts with the media.

The letter additionally targets FBI "302" interview reports with DOJ official Bruce Ohr, who has emerged as being Steele's backchannel to the FBI in supplying the contents of his research, and any other official who received information from outside the government that appeared in the Page FISA applications.

Rounding out Graham's nine-point list is a push for records about any defensive briefings offered and given to 2016 presidential candidates as well as documents shared with the "Gang of Eight" in May 2018 related to the federal Russia investigation.

why now and not two fk'n years ago when that was on a platter....oh yeah, jeff wussy boy sessions

those two and mcconnell are as bad as it gets...

if I could, I'd go nun with a ruler on their paws....oh yeah, that's what DJT is doing....

the gift is there.....they're simply out of their element....and it's intentional

Hopefully this time the Pubs will have a backbone and go after the criminals and socialist in the Democrat party.

(03-09-2019 10:54 PM)hburg Wrote:  Hopefully this time the Pubs will have a backbone and go after the criminals and socialist in the Democrat party.

We can only hope. I've been saying that for two years. *sigh*

(03-09-2019 10:54 PM)hburg Wrote:  Hopefully this time the Pubs will have a backbone and go after the criminals and socialist in the Democrat party.

Haven't so far.

Why does it have to be "re-ignited"? Shouldn't it have been ignited all along? But of course, it wasn't.

Republicans have no shortage of milquetoast wusses in leadership roles. I despise Pelosi, Schumer, and Harry Reid. But I wish republicans had a leader with half their cojones.

(03-10-2019 12:31 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  Why does it have to be "re-ignited"? Shouldn't it have been ignited all along? But of course, it wasn't.

Republicans have no shortage of milquetoast wusses in leadership roles. I despise Pelosi, Schumer, and Harry Reid. But I wish republicans had a leader with half their cojones.

just one.....give me one.....that would be a blessing...

this and the lobbyists' influence is where the game is ginned and why the "swamp" was 'coined'....

DJT knew it going in....so did nuts zongo and others...

w/o term limits, any relevance regarding congress is moot in my book...

The problem with Washington DC is that everybody has a file on everybody else that contains things they don't want in public view. That's why career politicians, regardless of party, don't go after each other other than the made for TV barbs they exchange. The career bureaucrats have more dirt on everybody then even the career politicians do. Hence The Swamp.

(03-10-2019 12:52 AM)banker Wrote:  The problem with Washington DC is that everybody has a file on everybody else that contains things they don't want in public view. That's why career politicians, regardless of party, don't go after each other other than the made for TV barbs they exchange. The career bureaucrats have more dirt on everybody then even the career politicians do. Hence The Swamp.

And yet their witch hunt is falling apart. Should tell us all we need to know.

(03-10-2019 12:52 AM)banker Wrote:  The problem with Washington DC is that everybody has a file on everybody else that contains things they don't want in public view. That's why career politicians, regardless of party, don't go after each other other than the made for TV barbs they exchange. The career bureaucrats have more dirt on everybody then even the career politicians do. Hence The Swamp.

Sadly,

Yup.

It is the most exclusive country club in the world, and they're all getting rich as MuthaF$%^'ers off (some) of us for it. Just look at the current, or recent past roster, pretty self explanatory.

Tell me where these 40 "retired" R reps are working or living in 5 years.

Bet it ain't in Van Dorn Hills apartments!

(03-10-2019 03:23 AM)JMUDunk Wrote:  

(03-10-2019 12:52 AM)banker Wrote:  The problem with Washington DC is that everybody has a file on everybody else that contains things they don't want in public view. That's why career politicians, regardless of party, don't go after each other other than the made for TV barbs they exchange. The career bureaucrats have more dirt on everybody then even the career politicians do. Hence The Swamp.

Sadly,

Yup.

It is the most exclusive country club in the world, and they're all getting rich as MuthaF$%^'ers off (some) of us for it. Just look at the current, or recent past roster, pretty self explanatory.

Tell me where these 40 "retired" R reps are working or living in 5 years.

Bet it ain't in Van Dorn Hills apartments!

Highly paid lobbying gigs, CEO type positions, or private law practice partnerships in or near the beltway.

I think it’s to counter the witch hunt starting in the House.......if the House had remained in Republican control, he wouldn’t go down this road. IMO, the Republicans didn’t when they had total control because they didn’t want to appear vindictive, but now that the Dems are going there......well, here we are.

Honestly, the whole thing should have been investigated from both sides from the get go, but the political class (both sides) often allows themselves to break the law and they look the other way........it’s why we call it the swamp.