Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

FISA Judge...Moron or Partisan?

I'm not sure everybody grasps the failure of the FISA court Judge who approved the warrant to surveil Carter Page.

Being a FISA judge is a cushy well paying job that doesn't really require much due diligence. Somewhere around 98% is the approval rate of all warrants petitioned for by the Department of Justice (DOJ). That constitutes an almost virtual rubber stamp.

What I am hearing is that the poor FISA judge was "Hoodwinked" by unscrupulous DOJ Lawyers, Bad Cops at the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Spooks from the National Security Agency. The "Dumb Judge Hypothesis" just doesn't hold water!

I'm hearing from Klein's book, All out War, the President's lawyer, and FOX TV that this was not the first time the DOJ petitioned for a warrant to surveil President Trump. In the first two attempts the Judge said "No!" IMAGINE THAT... a FISA judge turning down a request. Not only did he turn down the request but he consulted with other FISA judges in making sure he got the decision right. Now, put the basic arithmetic together. For once in a blue moon a FISA warrant is turned down not once but twice. The Judge consulted with his peers. There are only eleven FISA judges in the whole United States. These Judges have teleconferencing capabilities behind their chambers and use them regularly. How in heavens name can any intelligent person conclude that on the third try with a new judge on the bench, that a stupid or misguided jurist was misled in approving the petition?

On page 22 of All out War, Klein quotes a source who was a retired FISA judge. (How hard, in a field of eleven, would it be to narrow down a newly retired FISA Judge with knowledge of the case?) The source said that... "The request for surveillance specifically named Trump and three of his properties-- Trump Towers, the Trump golf club in New Jersey, and Mar-a-Lago." Are we expected to believe, that after two red flags were raised earlier, this judge was hoodwinked into believing that Carter Page was the real focus? Give me a break! This close knit circle of FISA Judges knew what was going on and what was at stake.

On page 59 we see a new judge presiding over a third try to get the warrant. "...the lawyers took their places in the same courtroom as before--......----but this time they faced a different circuit court judge... However, this time the government came armed with a well drafted application in which attorneys from the NSA presented the court with the results of extensive electronic surveillance."

"Operating under section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act the NSA monitored the emails and phone conversations between foreigners and Americans. Section 702 allowed the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence to authorize spy agencies to "sweep up" the telephone and internet data of US Citizens who were in communication with foreign targets, however the names of these Americans were supposed to be minimized to protect their identity.... The NSA regularly violated these privacy protections and without asking for permission from the FISA court had unmasked the names of several of Trump associates, including Carter Page, a foreign policy advisor and presented the information to the new FISA Judge."

We know now from the Four Page Memo, that there was a whole lot more in the petition than the results of NSA eves dropping. Apparently there wasn't much factual dirt that had been gleaned from the surveillance. The "Well Drafted Application" had to be buttressed with "Manufactured Dirt" using sanitized excerpts from the Steele Dossier which was passed off as a genuine intelligence product. One can see the whole charade being choreographed... first the NSA part and then the dossier, pitched by lawyers who knew better.

"...Moreover the unmasking of American names without FISA approval is a crime....legally speaking these names should not have been used as the basis for an FBI investigation. The unmasking also violated the 4th Amendment to the Constitution, which protects American Citizens from intrusion in their private lives."

"But somehow the judge did not catch onto these defects in the government's application and he granted the warrant."

Saying the Judge granted the application without realizing the defects is malarky. She was alerted to the defects in advance and the argument that she was "hoodwinked" is not believable. What is believable is that after Loretta Lynch told Valarie Jarrett the first two attempts had not worked, Jarrett decided to let matters settle down and go back later when a more sympathetic (stupid?)Judge could hear the case. So to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.... the appointing authority, comes the question. Was the Judge who approved the warrant, a total moron or a sympathetic partisan?