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 2023April 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

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

Strategic Lawfare at Work, They Didn’t Resign – Jack Smith Takes Down Two Trump Lawyers Using Compelled Testimony, Creating Witnesses Within Indictment


Posted originally on the CTH on June 9, 2023 | Sundance 

Good news, bad news and granular news..

First, the good news. The judge assigned to the Trump documents case is U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon.  She is the same judge who handled the lawsuit last year after the FBI raided Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.   Judge Cannon was the judge who appointed the “special master” to review the documents the DOJ was claiming were classified, but Team Trump was contending that definition.

Now the bad news. The DOJ is no longer legally arguing that Donald Trump held any classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.  The DOJ is arguing that President Trump held documents vital to U.S. defense security.  It’s a farce but that’s their position.  The classification status of documents is moot, nonexistent, except to create the predicate for the proverbial FBI nose under the tent.

The DOJ-NSD (that’s Lisa Monaco) got a warrant to look for classified documents, but never intended to use classified documents as a case cornerstone because President Trump had full declassification authority.  The DOJ got a search warrant by convincing a judge they were looking for something that wasn’t even a violation of law. That’s why the DOJ would not reveal the probable cause affidavit.  The search was built upon a fraudulent pretense.  “Classified” is a snipe hunt.

You will notice Jack Smith never discussed “classified documents” in his remarks, and the issue of classified documents appears nowhere except in the indictment as a purposeful lawfare description of documents.  The DOJ is not legally charging anything relating to the classification status of the documents.  That’s the Lawfare and media banter to create a talking point.  The term “classified” is all over the indictment, but as a lawfare adjective only; it’s like using the word “stash”.

The special counsel legal framework is centered around documents the DOJ define as vital to “the defense security” of the United States.  EVERYTHING is predicated on 31 counts of an 18 U.S. Code § 793(e) violation.  The DOJ defines what is considered a defense document, and that intentionally has nothing to do with classification.

The granular news.  You might have heard that two of Trump’s lawyers, Jim Trusty and John Rowley, quit today.  The media wants to use their exit as a point to indicate Trump is in legal jeopardy; however, that’s not the case.

As soon as Trusty and Rowley saw their forced testimony was used in the indictment, they had no option except to exit the case.  Despite the lawyers providing no damaging information against Trump, the DOJ used language in the indictment to turn Trump’s lawyers into material witnesses. Weissmann’s Lawfare tactic create a conflict, forcing the two Trump lawyers to depart.

WASHINGTON DC – Two of Donald Trump’s top lawyers abruptly resigned from his defense team on Friday, just hours after news broke that he and a close aide were indicted on charges related to their handling of classified documents.

Jim Trusty and John Rowley, who helmed Trump’s Washington, D.C.-based legal team for months and were seen frequently at the federal courthouse, indicated they would no longer represent Trump in matters being investigated and prosecuted by special counsel Jack Smith, who is probing both the documents matter and efforts by Trump to subvert the 2020 election.

The resignations were shortly followed by an announcement from Trump himself confirming that a close aide, Walt Nauta, had also been indicted by federal prosecutors. Nauta, a Navy veteran, had served as the former president’s personal aide and was a ubiquitous presence during his post White House days.

In their place, Trump indicated that Todd Blanche — an attorney he recently retained to help fight unrelated felony charges brought by Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg in April — would lead his legal team, along with a firm to be named later. Trump and his team have liked Blanche, who is expected to play a more elevated, central role. (more)

Weissmann, Eisen and Smith are using lawfare in the indictment to put the interests of Trump and his aide Walt Nauta against each other.   Obviously, Nauta would not turn on Trump, so the prosecution made Nauta a target for a federal 1001 charge of lying to investigators and will pressure him throughout the case to take a plea in exchange for testimony against Trump.   Nauta is the baseline of the “Conspiracy Elements” which require two or more people.  Again, pure Lawfare.

Obviously, Jim Trusty was unaware last night that his forced testimony would be used in the indictment. WATCH:

Wait, WHAT? – DOJ Inspector General Reveals More than 10,000 Federal Employees Have Access to NSA Database for Surveillance Inquiries


Posted originally on the CTH on April 28, 2023 | Sundance 

Office of Inspector General Michael Horowitz testified yesterday 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.”

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 right now, 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 is 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 – Yesterday, 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.  Yet people are worried about possible ‘vaccination passports’ or ‘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

.

.

https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=true&embedId=twitter-widget-0&features=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&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1651590780752916480&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Ftheconservativetreehouse.com%2Fblog%2F2023%2F04%2F28%2Fwait-what-doj-inspector-general-reveals-more-than-10000-federal-employees-have-access-to-nsa-database-for-surveillance-inquiries%2F&sessionId=4fcd03ff7f2063fb1b12255ce88a6e7ab9a6ea4d&theme=light&widgetsVersion=aaf4084522e3a%3A1674595607486&width=500px