Category FISA 702 Reauthorization

May 5 2024

Peak Mueller – DOJ Concealing Legal Predicate to Investigate Congressional Staff in 2017


Posted originally on the CTH on May 5, 2024 | Sundance 

Jason Foster has filed an interesting “motion to intervene” in a court filing against the DOJ effort to keep the legal rationale for a 2017 subpoena hidden. tldr version HERE

Mr Jason Foster was one of Chuck Grassley’s congressional lawyers on the Senate Judiciary Committee and a key Grassley research staffer when the background of the DOJ/FBI spygate operation against Donald Trump was at its apex.

In a COURT FILING Jason Foster notes in September 2017 the DOJ requested and received a court order which it leveraged against Google and Big Tech to gain access to the phone and electronic data of House and Senate staff members. The DOJ then filed Non Disclosure Orders (NDOs) blocking the notification of the target(s), in this example Mr Foster himself.   Foster wants to know what justification the DOJ gave the judge to get the warrants and subpoena.

I find this motion/filing exceptionally interesting because the originating DOJ action was in September ’17, when the Mueller cover-up was in full bloom, the Mueller team essentially controlled all of Main Justice (per Rosenstein testimony) and the effort of the DOJ was to keep a bag over the FBI/DOJ activity in the 2016 election.

As Jeff Carlson notes, the “DOJ has kept sealed their “legal rationale” for targeting the communications of congressional staff attorneys for GOP oversight committees.”

Foster notes this DOJ subpoena appears related to the leak of the “Top Secret” FISA application used against Carter Page.  The media received that leak in March 2107, and the FBI (Washington Field Office) was investigating how the TS-SCI classified leak originated.  At the same time, the DOJ (“Mueller team”), now in September 2017, had a vested interest monitoring ‘who knew what’ not only about the leak (James Wolfe and Mark Warner), but also about the motives of the special counsel coverup operation.

In the filing, Empower Oversight writes:

“At the time DOJ began collecting their communications records, Mr. Foster and his fellow colleagues on both sides of the aisle were communicating with confidential sources and whistleblowers whose willingness to share information with Congress is essential to its oversight function. The Legislative Branch has a constitutional interest in protecting the identity of those confidential sources and whistleblower just as journalists do under the First Amendment. Yet due to the secrecy demanded by DOJ, and granted ex parte by the Court, the nondisclosure orders deprived Congress of an opportunity to object at the time or even to know until years later that telecommunications providers had complied. Providers like Google, and perhaps even the Court, yielded to DOJ demands for secrecy without knowing the full context and constitutional implications of the subpoenas.” (more)

The Mark Warner and James Wolfe leak of the FISA application to media was one of the biggest untold stories of the 2017 Trump targeting and DC coverup operation.  Factually, the media had the full and unredacted FISA application from March 17, 2017, throughout all of their pretense reporting as if they didn’t know the details.

The greatest likelihood is that Mueller’s team headed by Andrew Weissmann wanted to keep tabs on who in Washington DC was circling the truth.  The subpoena against Jason Foster and other House and Senate committee lawyers and staff would help the DOJ keep tabs on who knew the details at a very key time in the coverup operation.

Within Main Justice DOJ at the time Andrew Weissmann (Mueller team) would want to know what Chuck Grassley and Devin Nunes had uncovered and who would potentially be assisting them.

The DOJ search warrants in Sept 2017 (the warrants of interest to Jason Foster) likely do not relate directly to the James Wolfe investigation, despite the timeline being very similar.  U.S. Attorney Jessie Liu from the USAO in Washington DC was conducting the Wolfe investigation and the Washington Field Office (WFO), FBI Agent Brian Dugan was the lead investigative unit.  These subpoenas were something else.

Apr 22 2024

Good Grief, Worse than Warner – Unhinged Senator Lindsey Graham Loses His Marbles Over FISA-702


Posted originally on the CTH on April 21, 2024 | Sundance

This combative gaslighting from the US Senate about what FISA-702 does is off the proverbial charts.  In this interview, Senator Lindsey Graham starts foaming at the mouth yelling about something that doesn’t even exist.  This is nuts.

FISA-702 ONLY pertains to the private conversations of AMERICANS, not – I repeat – not any intercept or communication method that has to do with a foreigner or foreign adversary.

The only time FISA-702 applies is when an American person is captured in an intercept that has targeted a foreign person. Surveillance of foreign actors, foreign persons and intercepting communication of foreign entities does not require any FISA authority at all.  Foreign actors do not have constitutional protection.

FISA-702 only applies when the intercept of a foreign person is connected to communication with an American person. In that specific scenario FISA-702 gives the U.S. government the authority to query the database of the American person.

However, the database search queries of Americans, people who have no contact with any foreign person, is the privacy aspect that has been abused by the intelligence apparatus. Senator Lindsey Graham comes unglued as he starts gaslighting on this issue.  WATCH (prompted):

https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZHq3jXFip_Q%3Fstart%3D310%26feature%3Doembed

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The Deep State supporters are so committed to keeping the unconstitutional surveillance system of the American people in place, they will lie and makeup any fictitious scenario imaginable to retain it.  This is nonsense.

Apr 22 2024

Speaker Mike Johnson Believes “History Will Judge Well” Extending Warrantless Searches and Giving Ukraine Unlimited Funds


Posted originally on the CTH on April 21, 2024 | Sundance 

I’ve said this so frequently it almost becomes obscene to keep repeating it.  Many of the most professional political class in Washington DC just flat out believe the echo-chambering bubble created by the intelligence apparatus inside the beltway. The Republican political leadership, in this case Speaker Mike Johnson, genuinely believes they are doing what the American people want them to do.

I can say this with certitude, because I have looked at their eyes when challenging their assumptions and mindset, and I can tell they truly do not think they are lying.  They are so detached from comprehending anything adverse to their worldview, they genuinely believe what they are saying is factually accurate and true.  It’s not; all of it is total nonsense, but the pressure from the intelligence apparatus is so strong and encompassing, these politicians cannot fathom it’s wrong.

To be sure, there are some like Mitch McConnell, Chuck Schumer, John Cornnyn, John Thune etc. the UniParty leadership, that know the IC narrative is completely false; they know what they are doing is corrupt and wrong, but they dare not challenge the administrative state apparatus that controls them. However, in the case of Johnson and others like Scalise, he really doesn’t know. He’s a believer in this fraud.  WATCH (1 minute):

https://youtube.com/watch?v=NH-_nuNGzjI%3Ffeature%3Doembed

The 30 Republican Senators who voted to authorize FISA surveillance and simultaneously authorize funding an insufferable and unwinnable conflict in Ukraine are:

John Barrasso of Wyoming, John Boozman of Arkansas, Katie Britt of Alabama, Ted Budd of North Carolina, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, John Cornyn of Texas, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Mike Crapo of Idaho, Joni Ernst of Iowa, Deb Fischer of Nebraska, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi, John Kennedy of Louisiana, James Lankford of Oklahoma, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Jerry Moran of Kansas, Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Pete Ricketts of Nebraska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Mike Rounds of South Dakota, Marco Rubio of Florida, Dan Sullivan of Alaska, John Thune of South Dakota, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Roger Wicker of Mississippi and Todd Young of Indiana.

The ROLL CALL VOTE IS HERE.  Please remember these names.

These are the same Senators who said nothing while the weaponized system of government organized a corrupt intelligence operation against candidate Donald Trump in 2016.  These are the same Senators who are looking for any reason to support the removal of Donald Trump from the GOP ticket.  These are the same Republican senators who refuse to contemplate representative government.   They live in a bubble of deceit, and they despise the American electorate.

This is the same GOPe crew who: hated the Tea Party, supported the IRS targeting of conservative groups, supported the IC targeting of candidate Trump, supported the Senate Intelligence Committee participating with the IC to attack Trump, and who oppose any effort to diminish the power of the upper chamber from U.S. politics.

There is no way to talk these Republican senators into different approaches or convince them to stop participating in the weaponization of government.  These Republicans support government first; the American electorate are much lower in their eyes.  They have convinced themselves they are righteous in all aspects.

There is no volume of unquestionable evidence you can put in front of them that will change their opinion or change their behavior.  Talking to them about the flaws in their mindset is akin to discussing the risks of the COVID-19 vaccine with a person in line to get their 5th booster shot.  It’s a really difficult reality to accept, but this is just the way it is.

They do not answer emails; they refuse to take phone calls; they ignore constituents on issues of the Deep State; their sense of individual identity is dependent on retention of a collective premise that is fundamentally fraudulent.

I’m not sure what can be done, other than replacing them, and their very existence is a case study in why the bankers of 1913 constructed the 17th amendment.

I am asked all the time what can be done to correct this messed up system of government that has become the USA.  My only answer continues to be, “repeal the 17th amendment.”   There is not a singular issue that would so comprehensively deconstruct every single aspect of government corruption as would happen with a one paragraph repeal of the 17th amendment.

Apr 11 2024

President Trump Opposes FISA 702 Reauthorization – Surveillance Authority Expires April 19th


Posted originally on the CTH on April 10, 2024 | Sundance

Let me be very clear about something.  FISA-702 authorization expires April 19th.  Almost every single person of influence in DC knows the Intelligence Community will not stop exploiting the NSA database, regardless of the expiration.

Meaning, with or without authority, the Gang-of-Eight, Office of the Presidency (Executive branch), Legislative Branch, and every institution within the DC system, all collectively accept the FBI, DOJ, NSD, DNI and DHS will still use the database.

From that perspective, reauthorization of 702 only seeks to make lawful what the IC will do unlawfully without it.

Please think about that last sentence carefully as you consider who runs our system of government.

[SOURCE]

Thankfully, President Trump understands how the FISA system is used as the main tool of the IC to retain power.  Specifically, without legal use of 702 authority – and if the IC was held to account for the violations therein – all of the power could shift dramatically in the DC system.

However, key people in congress make money from reauthorizing 702.  Think about how those 10,000 workstations are used, and for what purposes over 1.1 million “illegal database searches” could be exploited in Biden’s first year.

Office of Inspector General Michael Horowitz testified April 27, 2023, that more than 3.4 million search queries into the NSA database took place between Dec. 1st, 2020 and Nov. 30th, 2021, by government officials and/or contractors working on behalf of the federal government. These search queries were based on authorizations related to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

[OIG Testimony HERE]

Approximately 30% of those 3.4 million search queries were outside the rules and regulations that govern warrantless searches, what the politically correct government calls “non-compliant searches.”  That means more than 1 million searches of private documents and communication of Americans were illegal and outside the rules.

Additionally, IG Horowitz also admitted that somewhere north of 10,000 federal employees have access to conduct these searches of the NSA database; a database which contains the electronic data of every single American, including emails, text messages, social media posts, instant messages, direct messages, phone calls, geolocation identifiers, purchases by electronic funds, banking records and any keystroke any American person puts into any electronic device for any reason.

If we were in a functioning system of government everything would be stopped and no conversation would be taking place that was not about this issue. This is the total and complete surveillance state being talked about as if we were discussing what’s for dinner.

This was beyond jaw-dropping.

Context: In 2018 CTH revealed through research of their own documents that FBI and DOJ/FBI contractors had done more than 1,000 illegal searches using the NSA database, targeting Republican primary candidates from November 2015 through May 2016. These stunning admissions were from the DOJ’s own reporting to the FISA court.

Few were paying attention.

Although the number of the illegal search queries were redacted, we know the number is four digits from the size of the redacted text. More than 1,000 and less than 9,999.

FAST FORWARD TO 2023 – April 27, 2023,

IG Horowitz outlined that more than 1.1 million illegal searches of this database were conducted in 2021 during the first year of the Joe Biden administration.

Additionally, and perhaps more consequentially, to give scope to how the process of total domestic surveillance has expanded, Horowitz now admits in 2021 the number of federal government employees with access to this total metadata collection system now exceeds 10,000 people.

STOP THE PRESSES!

Yes, congress is talking about this ‘as if’ there is some level of importance.  However, the basic questions are not being asked, or have perhaps just become so accepted that legislators have become oblivious to the insanity of it.   Beyond the blood boiling questions about searching the NSA database, questions like:

In order for these search queries to take place, there has to be a housing facility to capture it.

Where is all of this electronic data being stored?

Why is all of this electronic data being stored?

Who is in control of this all-encompassing electronic data collection?

Forget the searches for a moment, what act of congress authorized the capture of this private data collection?  Essentially electronic intercepts of communication systems that flow throughout our life.

The background context here is congress debating the renewal of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and the power of the DOJ and FBI to intercept American citizen communication and electronic data via the “702” authorizations, that permit the NSA database to be searched and queried.

If the inspector general is now admitting the FISA laws have been so comprehensively corrupted such that 3.4 million searches by more than 10,000 federal employees and government contractors now have access, there is no way that any reasonably intelligent person should support such reauthorization.  Even contemplating this request is absurd, beyond absurd.

The United States government is admitting to the public that a total and comprehensive surveillance state is currently in place, and 10,000 federal government agents have the authorization to monitor everything we do.

This is the admitted and current status of RIGHT NOW.  And we are worried about ‘digital currencies’ or ‘social credit scores’ sometime in the future?

Have we totally lost connection to the reality of our current condition?

Can you see the insanity of it?…  Or should we just ask, “what’s for dinner?”

Gaetz: It seems every time you write a report then the DOJ comes in and tells us they’ve now fixed everything

Apr 11 2024

Inside Baseball Stuff on FISA 702 Reauthorization – The Stuff You Never See Explained


Posted originally on the CTH on April 10, 2024 | Sundance

April 10, 2024 | Sundance | 161 Comments

Before getting into bigger picture analysis and intellectual discussion about FISA and the 702 reauthorizations, let me just reveal some inside DC crap that drives me nuts and at the same time will help y’all understand the nonsense.

First, the Intelligence Community (IC) tells congress, particularly the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, that all hell will break loose if they don’t reauthorize full electronic surveillance of Americans.  Congress is petrified of the IC.

Speaker Johnson and all of the key participants are totally siloed from understanding that 702 has nothing to do with incidental collection of American data whilst the honorable IC were doing foreign intercepts.   Johnson and most Republicans believe the IC nonsense. They really do.

The politicians and their key staff cannot fathom how the FBI, DOJ, NSD, DHS and contractors use this database to conduct political and “other” (think corporate espionage for sale) surveillance.  They really do think the IC is full of honorable rank-and-file.  They are inside a DC bubble.

Second, the IC argument is now something akin to we have let thousands of terrorists into the country through the southern border crisis.  They say:  “My god, we need to monitor the terrorists, and if you take away 702 the foreign terror cells will activate and start killing us all.  Do you want that blood on your hands?”   You cannot take away surveillance tools.

Third, FISA 702 reauthorization is used as a bargaining chip by people who don’t want to get caught up in the surveillance.

The DC conversations are something like, “Ok, we’ll reauthorize it, but you cannot use it against us – and all the sex parties and perverted stuff we do when no one is around, you must promise to keep our secrets hidden“…  Yes, this is why the IC agree to accept a reauthorization that exempts Congress.   The IC keep the blackmail – just promise not to use it.

We The People do not have any friends in DC on this issue.  The Democrats will reauthorize 702 to continue exploiting surveillance authority – don’t forget over 10,000 log-in portals with access to the NSA database exist, including the workstation at Perkins Coie that ties into the NSA database {GO DEEP}.

President Trump finally opposes the FISA system – writ large – and THAT is progress.

More soon….

House Speaker Mike Johnson