Dear Chairman Schiff:
As you are aware, on December 9, 2019, U.S. Department of Justice Inspector General (IG) Michael Horowitz published the results of his investigation of the FISA warrant and renewals obtained by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) to spy on Trump campaign associate Carter Page. The IG’s findings of pervasive, major abuses by the FBI dramatically contradict the assertions of your memo released on February 24, 2018, in which you claimed, “FBI and DOJ officials did not ‘abuse’ the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) process, omit material information, or subvert this vital tool to spy on the Trump Campaign.”
After publishing false conclusions of such enormity on a topic directly within this committee’s oversight responsibilities, it is clear you are in need of rehabilitation, and I hope this letter will serve as the first step in that vital process.
Outlining every false claim from your memo would require an extremely long letter, so I will limit my summary to a few highlights. In your memo you made the following assertions:
- FBI and DOJ officials did not omit material information from the FISA warrant.
- The DOJ “made only narrow use of information from [Christopher] Steele’s sources about Page’s specific activities in 2016.”
- In subsequent FISA renewals, DOJ provided additional information that corroborated Steele’s reporting.
- The Page FISA warrant allowed the FBI to collect “valuable intelligence.”
- “Far from “omitting’ material facts about Steele, as the Majority claims. DOJ repeatedly informed the Court about Steele’s background, credibility, and potential bias.”
- The FI31 conducted a “rigorous process” to vet Steele’s allegations, and the Page FISA application explained the FBI’s reasonable basis for finding Steele credible.
- Steele’s prior reporting was used in criminal proceedings.
The IG report has exposed all these declarations as false. Despite your denial of any problems with the FISA warrant, the 16 found:
- Information provided by Christopher Steele played a “central and essential role” in the decision to seek a FISA warrant on Carter Page.
- There were seventeen “significant errors or omissions” in the FISA application and renewals, and the IG did not get satisfactory explanations for them.
- The Crossfire Hurricane team failed to inform the DOJ of “significant information”, and “much of that information was inconsistent with, or undercut” assertions in the FISA applications.
- The FBI relied solely on Steele information for its assertions about Page’s alleged coordination with Russians to hack the 2016 elections.
- The applications omitted information provided to the FBI about Page’s operational contact with another U.S. government agency and the agency’s positive assessment of him. In fact, an FBI official altered an email stating that Page was a source for another government agency in order to have it read the opposite—that he was “not a source.”
- FBI Director James Conley and Deputy Director Andy McCabe sought to include Steele’s reporting in the Intelligence Community Assessment even though the CIA dismissed the Steele information as `Internet rumor.”
- In FBI interviews, Steele’s own sources contradicted information from Steele that was used in the FISA applications.
- The significance of Steele’s prior reporting was ‘-overstated.”
- None of the Steele reporting on Caner Page used in the FISA applications could be corroborated, and some of it contradicted other information in the FBI’s possession.
- The FBI omitted information about Steele’s bias provided by DOJ official Bruce Ohr.
- The applications omitted exculpatory statements by Page and others.
- The FBI failed to reveal in the applications that the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary’ Clinton campaign were receiving and/or funding Steele’s work through Fusion UPS.
Overall, the Inspector General found, “That so many basic and fundamental errors were made by three separate, hand-picked teams on one of the most sensitive FBI investigations that was briefed to the highest levels within the FBI, and that FBI officials expected would eventually be subjected to close scrutiny, raised significant questions regarding the FBI chain of command’s management and supervision of the FISA process… In our view, this was a failure of not only the operational team, but also of the managers and supervisors, including senior officials, in the chain of command.” Indeed, the problems are so severe that the Inspector General has initiated an audit to further investigate FBI’s compliance with Woods Procedures in FISA applications.
As you know, your misguided validation of the FISA warrant was part of a years-long pattern in which you touted Christopher Steele’s credentials and reliability. For example, during this committee’s March 20, 2017 open hearing, you claimed Steele “is reportedly held in high regard by U.S. Intelligence.” and proceeded to read into the congressional record numerous conspiracy theories proffered by Steele, all of which are false. These included:
- Carter Page had a secret meeting with Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin.
- Sechin offered Page a brokerage fee involving the sale of 19 percent of Rosneft.
- Russians offered the Trump campaign dirt on Hillary Clinton in exchange for the Trump administration adopting policies favorable to Russia
- Paul Manafort chose Page to act as a go-between for the Trump campaign and Russia.
As is clear from the 16 report, Carter Page was the victim of a smear campaign that was funded by the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign and was implemented by Christopher Steele and Fusion GPS. The FBI used these false allegations to obtain a warrant to spy on Page, a gross violation of an American citizen’s civil liberties. Your direct participation in the smear campaign against Page is extremely concerning. considering you are chairman of the committee responsible for uncovering precisely these sorts of abuses by the Intelligence Community. Instead of joining committee Republicans in exposing these abuses, however, you excused them. And by supporting the agencies’ stonewalling of our attempts to gather information on this affair, you helped cover up this misconduct.
I am particularly concerned by the press release you issued after the release of the IG report. I applaud you for acknowledging that the report identified “issues and errors” and “potential misconduct” connected to the FISA warrant. This acknowledgement, though dramatically downplaying the scale of the abuse the IG uncovered, could be a valuable first step – a baby step, but a step nonetheless – in your rehabilitation. Nevertheless, in your statement you expressed full faith in FBI Director Christopher Wray’s promise to address the problem: demanded that the implementation of reforms be confined to “career officials, away from the political arena;” and denounced Attorney General Bill Barr and U.S. Attorney John Durham for expressing concerns about these matters.
This makes it clear your rehabilitation will be a long, arduous process. As previously noted, this committee is responsible for overseeing the Intelligence Community and exposing abuses. Yet when the IG identified gross abuses in our jurisdiction, you expressed full faith in the agencies we’re supposed to be vigilantly monitoring. and you rejected any oversight whatsoever of their supposed clean-up efforts. If agencies with a documented, severe abuse problem should be trusted to police themselves, then it’s fair to ask why this committee even exists and what we’re supposed to be doing, if anything, aside from being exploited by you as a launching pad to impeach the president for issues that have no intelligence component at all.
As part of your rehabilitation, it’s crucial that you admit you have a problem – you are hijacking the Intelligence Committee for political purposes while excusing and covering up intelligence agency abuses. The next step will be to convene a hearing with IG Horowitz, as the Senate Judiciary Committee has done and the Senate Homeland Security Committee will do next week.
I understand taking action on this issue will be difficult for you, as it will be an implicit acknowledgment that you were wrong to deny these abuses and that you were complicit in the violation of an American’s civil liberties. I also understand such an acknowledgement is made even more difficult by the fact that you’ve already been discredited by your years-long false claim that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to hack the 2016 presidential election.
Nevertheless, I refuse to believe you are beyond redemption. I invite you to work closely with me on your rehabilitation program, and look forward to your scheduling a committee hearing with IG Horowitz at the nearest opportunity.
Sorry, Devin, but Schiff is irredeemable. He made his pro-coup remarks about the validity of Steele, the FISA warrants and the FBI’s integrity KNOWING what was happening… WE knew what was happening. Schiff did not present his views as opinion but as facts he had supposedly verified. No, it was Schiff’s belief that the facts would never be exposed.
An almost three year “investigation” was not, therefore, intended to discover suspected collusion but was intended to draw Trump off sides and get him to commit some impeachable act in retaliation to the baseless investigations. If some sort of valid charge could be derived from the investigation, then his claims of having, in his hands, actual PROOF of collusion (brazenly made without foundation to sustain the investigations) would be forgotten and ignored.
Schiff has proven himself an irredeemable liar that abuses his power and has harmed the country and the citizen’s faith in our government. He needs to be removed from his office. He can rehab on his own time.
rehabilitation of political assholes like sleazy slimy schiff never occurs. he had his moment in nothingness and will fade not into history but the cesspool of hated democraps.
From NBC News, January 17, 2020 – New evidence shows Nunes aide communicated with Parnas on Ukraine – The messages show that Derek Harvey, an aide to GOP Rep. Devin Nunes, was far more involved than previously known in an investigation.
Devin Nunes was involved? What a surprise. Nunes probably isn’t the only one who has been deeply involved in the GOP’s cover-up effort because he’s personally involved in the various Trump administration scandals that they’re desperately trying to keep covered up. At some point they’re going to go down like a row of dominoes, and a few might be have some involuntary, taxpayer-funded rehabilitation in their futures.
@Greg: Nunes has been proven to have been right about Schiff’s lies and his largely ignored warnings about Russian interference while Democrats have been exposed as corrupt liars on all topics. So, attack Nunes with more fabricated “contacts”.
Never mind, of course, Schiff coordinating with Ciaramella to concoct their “whistle blower” fantasy… let’s make up suspicious-sounding “contacts” with Parnas. You people are pitifully desperate.
@Deplorable Me:
Comrade Greggie’s click bait article is nothing more than first year journalism school “Art of Wordsmithing.” Reading paragraph by paragraph, it is almost laughable if it wasn’t so pathetic. The authors leave much to the imagination trying desperately to smear Nunes’ staffer, and by suggestion, Nunes himself.
For example:
Great. Now, evidence of what? What House Democrats? Was the “evidence” confidential? Have the authors actually seen the “evidence?” Was it released legally? How was the “evidence” obtained? Nice click bait using the word “evidence.”
Then there is this:
How did the authors get access to Harvey’s TEXT messages. Did someone hack into Harvey’s cell phone? Text messages are not emails but Congressional cell phones are not subjected to scrutiny by reporters. Again, how did the authors get those text messages (if they, in fact, have even seen them) and from whom?
Then there is the “Ukraine-related matters” quote. What Ukraine matters? Corruption? Hunter Biden? Joe Biden’s quid pro quo which should have been considered illegal?
Then there is what is called “the hook”:
Of course, the subject of this paragraph is the time frame of the text messages, but is written in such a way as to make the reader think it was about accusation that Trump was trying “to get Ukraine to announce investigations into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son.”
And my favorite:
I hate to tell Comrade Greggie, but this is yellow dog journalism at its worst. It is misleading and full of nothing more than innuendos with the intention of planting suggestions in the minds of readers to make more out of the story than is actually being reported.
It is only this kind of trash reporting that Comrade Greggie’s mind can absorb because it is designed for the non-thinking reader. IOW, idiots.
@retire05: Plus, the assertion that they “floated theories” that are the same wet dreams the Democrats have had but have been unable to provide one share of evidence of. So, what?
@retire05, #5:
Lev Parnas, one side of the text message exchanges, turned them over to House democrats, who then released them in a manner calculated to force the Senate to take the witness issue seriously. See how useful Pelosi’s delaying tactic has turned out to be? Anyone who truly believes this woman is an idiot has to be an idiot. The same is true of Schiff and Nadler.
The dumbest thing Team Trump could have done was to throw Lev Parnas under the bus and put him in fear of retribution from Trump via Barr’s DoJ. Parnas was a key player in Giuliani’s scheme, knows everything, and likely had all manner of documentation in his possession. If the whole story doesn’t come out in the Senate impeachment trial, it will all come out during subsequent months in federal court.
@Greg: No one threw Parnas under any bus. Because he was working with Guiliani the NYC prosecutors went after him for nothing more than what EVERY fundraiser does. He’s just trying to save his skin by selling something to a bunch of suckers.
Democrats are real chumps for an anti-Trump story.
@Greg:
Whoa!!! And since you love the word “perhaps”, perhaps Parnas can get San Fran Nan, Shitt-for-brains and Jabba The Hut Nadler to donate to his defense fund. Or perhaps that is the goal to begin with.
As to forcing the Senate to take witnesses, let’s have at it. Call Joe Biden, Crack Head Hunter Biden and of course the whistleblower (who’s not) and Adam Schiff, who is another fact witness. And let’s call San Fran Nan’s son, John Kerry’s step son, both who have ties to Ukraine. Hell, let’s call San Fran Nan and John Kerry both.
And let’s call the witness who can testify that Ambassador Butthurt, Marie Yavanovitch, ordered them to spy on certain Americans.
.
Pelosi is an idiot. Even the left wing press, or at least some of them, are decrying what she has done. And poor Schiff and Nadler, they are going to be eaten alive by some of the best judicial minds in the nation. What fun that is going to be to watch. Of course, San Fran Nan thinks by making Schiff and Jabba the Hut handlers they will be immune from being required to testify. NOT!!!
Parnas, the new left wing Avanatti.
Suddenly nobody knows him. Suddenly he realizes White House lawyers are going to hang him out to dry. The man isn’t stupid. He knows what has happened to other loyal people Trump has finished with. He explained what happened during the Maddow interview.
@retire05:
Uh huh. Keep on thinking that.
@Deplorable Me:
But why did Schiff send his aides directly to Ukraine so there would be no record of what evidence he might have destroyed? Or just to coordinate future testimony Nov 13, 2019 · At the same time, the whistleblower was filing his report, Adam Schiff sent his staffer Thomas Eager to Ukraine to meet its former President, an organization whose staff included the co-founder of Crowdstrike and the acting US Ambassador to Ukraine, Bill Taylor,
Co Founder of What??? Crowdstrike ? Shaddup.
‘The trip was sponsored by the Atlantic Council Eurasia Congressional Fellowship sponsored by Burisma via a 2017 “cooperative agreement.”
The Co-Founder of Crowdstrike is a Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council.
This Org. has tight ties with Both Clinton and Obama and The perptual boogyman.
Republicans really need to work up a Unified Conspiracy Theory, pulling it all in under one big circus tent.
Understanding what Trump did is a lot easier: He threatened to withhold support and favor from Ukraine’s new president in an effort to extort a politically useful investigation targeting his own most likely 2020 election opponent, and then misused his powers of office to try to cover the whole thing up. Much damage has been done in the process.
@Greg: Shiffs is even easier send in spies if Trump gets close to uncovering severe corruption then frame him for another non crime like collusion.
Funny how the same names pop up running every hoax.
Much damage has been done in the process. What damage is that?
Reputations of Democrat weaponized government offices
State Dept
FBI
FISA Court
CIA
DOJ
IRS
Just following orders.
So let’s hear sworn testimony from all of the republican witnesses with direct, firsthand knowledge of what really went down with Ukraine that Donald Trump ordered to defy lawful Congressional subpoenas. Then—assuming he’s innocent—his innocence will be clearly established, and the Democratic Party’s conspiracy against him will be proved.
Is that not what you want?
This is the point at which all the republican spin and bullshit doesn’t stand up to close inspection. If Trump were actually innocent, they wouldn’t be terrified of allowing republican witnesses with direct, first-hand knowledge from testifying. They wouldn’t need to make lame excuses about how doing so somehow violates executive privilege. There are no important state secrets involved that must be kept for the sake of national security; only secrets that must be kept to to conceal Trump’s serious wrongdoing.
@Deplorable Me: I tune in every once in a while to dee if greggie finally stops drinking the Kool Aide, but he really loves the stuff. It doesn’t matter what flavor is served.
@Greg:
“Suddenly”? No one EVER knew him. Not until the NYC prosecutors went after him, using the justice system as a political weapon (again).
Whoa. That’s mighty rich coming from the party of Nothing But Conspiracy Theories That Implode. Do Democrats EVER accuse anyone of doing something they haven’t beta-tested first?
Again, no, he didn’t; that’s what BIDEN did. And, again, IF he had done that, how is that any different from what Democrats did in 2016 and have been doing since Trump got elected? Democrats have investigated and tried to find SOMETHING to use against Trump to damage HIS campaign and HIS Presidency, finally sinking to impeachment for NOTHING. And, yes. LOTS of damage has been caused… to the Republic, the Constitution and our faith in the electoral system… BY DEMOCRATS.
How about first we hear from ONE Democrat witness that has ANY firsthand knowledge of any impeachable crime, backed up with some evidence? We KNOW what really went down with Ukraine; the transcript tells us that. We also know that Biden extorted Ukraine to protect his son; HE told us THAT.
Trump nor any other Republican is interested in spilling the governments confidential guts just to satisfy the blood-lust of Democrats seeking SOMETHING to use against Trump in the total absence of a worthy candidate of their own. Trump has already gone far and beyond the call to release confidential phone calls, transcripts and memos to try and quiet the crybaby Democrats, but they simply go looking for more. So, the best thing to say to Democrats is, “Shove it up you ass, you ain’t getting any more.” If Democrats had wanted the White House witnesses, they could have subpoenaed them and proven to the court they needed them. Instead, they were on a campaign schedule to impeach Trump and couldn’t wait for their “proof”. So, go ahead and impeach, how they stumble across some “proof” later.
And, yeah, Pelosi is an idiot. A drunken, lying, withered idiot that pretends she has taken her oath seriously while gleefully handing out commemorative pens and repeating, “Impeached for life!! Impeached for life!!” like some deranged parrot. Well, those two Supreme Court justices are REAL and THEY are for life, too. And they are far more substantive than your F**KING asterisk.
@Deplorable Me, #17:
Why do you let these people insult your intelligence? They all knew perfectly well who Parnas was. Parnas might as well have been Giuliani’ shadow. He was an inside player in the Ukraine scheme. He served as Giuliani’s go between and bag man. Does this look like a photo of Giuliani with someone he doesn’t know to you? People need to recognize when the line they’re being handed is total nonsense.
@Greg: It will all eventually be revealed and why after a huge donation to the Clinton foundation US aid doubled in years 15-16, nothing lethal just slush money.
@Greg: Not until NOW. Before he was just some behind the scenes financier… a nobody. You act like he was Hillary getting hung out to dry. Nothing of a kind.
Bottom line, BIDEN, not Trump, extorted Ukraine for political gain.