IG report suggests FBI might cheat
on all its FISA wiretap requests
by
Jacob Sullum
Original Article
Posted By: Pluperfect,
12/18/2019 4:34:31 AM
Former FBI Director James Comey initially portrayed last week’s damning report on the bureau’s probe of Russiagate as a vindication. This week, Comey admitted that Inspector General Michael Horowitz discovered “real sloppiness,” which is “concerning.”
That characterization does not begin to cover the problems described by Horowitz, which this week prompted a highly unusual public rebuke from the court that reviews secret warrant applications under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The FISA court called the FBI’s conduct “antithetical to the heightened duty of candor” that applies in such cases.
Reply 1 - Posted by:
Gruntmedic 12/18/2019 5:20:55 AM (No. 265499)
People should y held in contempt and sent to jail,but they're just being told to fix it.
Congress should shut it down.
9 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
chumley 12/18/2019 6:21:42 AM (No. 265521)
There should be a lot of defense attorneys putting in for new trials about now.
7 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
stablemoney 12/18/2019 6:25:33 AM (No. 265525)
The FBI has ceased investigating. It being easier to do a frame up.
7 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
nina584 12/18/2019 6:46:08 AM (No. 265541)
Slopiness...willing full fraud is more like it!
10 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
WhamDBambam 12/18/2019 7:05:26 AM (No. 265554)
Between the Clintons and Obama, I'm afraid that the FIB has been hopelessly corrupted.
10 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
jeffkinnh 12/18/2019 7:31:31 AM (No. 265580)
"Horowitz allowed that they might reflect “intentionality,” saying “it’s fair” to “look at all of these 17 events and wonder how it could be purely incompetence.”"
The Court's rebuke and its imminent DEADline is a stunning slap to the FBI. The court is saying, "We cannot trust the FBI.". The article then points out that Horowitz responded under questioning that the "mistakes" he identified COULD be intentional. A FAIR person might judge that they were. Horowitz only concluded there was no bias because no one admitted and no evidence was found of a clear and direct bias in their specific actions, i.e. "I did this because I want to get rid of Trump.". Yet Horowitz and the Court both have stated that the FBI is more than sloppy. They cannot be trusted.
In essence, these agencies destroyed their core value by their insane desire to stop Trump and their conviction that they had the right and responsibility to do what they did, even illegal things, for a "higher" cause.
"a much deeper problem involving overzealousness, confirmation bias and tunnel vision"
A DEEP (STATE) institutional problem that while Horowitz's job won't let him declare a criminal conspiracy at all levels of the organization, WE KNOW it is. Horowitz summons up explanations that fall within his purview but there are simpler and more likely correct explanations that we have seen in numerous bureaucratic agencies, biased individuals, sometimes a chain of them, that let no law or ethics stand in their way.
5 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
chillijilli 12/18/2019 7:55:47 AM (No. 265601)
So it was all just a series of snafus. Where have I heard this before, and for how many years? And BTW if everyone in government can use The Snafu Excuse,---even the FBI---and get away with it, how come PDT can't?
7 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
walcb 12/18/2019 8:14:44 AM (No. 265628)
The author needs to put a /s after his last sentence. Where is Roberts, he oversees these courts. Wray thinks they just need to tweek a few things, nobody should be held accountable for this "sloppiness".
3 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
Clinger 12/18/2019 8:23:14 AM (No. 265639)
When they found the first corpse in John Wayne Gacy's crawl space what did they do, stop digging? Of course not. If we don't keep digging, examining every single solitary FISA application we're fools. We must demand that they dig and that we have bipartisan transparency. If Nunes isn't part of that I don't trust it. I want to know if they were spying on Cruz, Kushner, Trump Jr, Baron, Melania ......
4 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
mizzmac 12/18/2019 8:26:57 AM (No. 265646)
Sloppy? Misspelling a word is sloppy. Bad grammar is sloppy. Willfully subverting the law for personal interest is not sloppy--especially not when you are employed as a law enforcement agent. Comey isn't a slob. He's a cunning, calculating, unremorseful liar.
10 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
Jethro bo 12/18/2019 8:46:56 AM (No. 265674)
When an organization is the natiional police force for the Democrat party and the president is filling judges seats with constitutionalist, it becomes imperative to lie about facts to get domestic spying warrants. One can coplain all they want about the FISA court but the real issue is the Deocrat's police force loosely known as the FBI. The FBI needs reform. Let Trump's appointees handle the courts.
2 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
sw penn 12/18/2019 9:27:36 AM (No. 265724)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Foreign_Intelligence_Surveillance_Court
Over the entire 33-year period, the FISA court granted 33,942 warrants, with only 12 denials – a rejection rate of 0.03 percent of the total requests.
So is the FISA court complicit or incompetent?
Or, just the run of the mill Deep State existential threat to freedom?
1 person likes this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
bad-hair 12/18/2019 9:30:06 AM (No. 265726)
So this means they will only approve 95% of their warrant apps instead of 98%
1 person likes this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
curious1 12/18/2019 9:56:52 AM (No. 265761)
Jacob, I would say the courts 'rebuke', if you can call it that, was in response to Rep. Nunes calling for the court to be shutdown, not because of Comey's mouth and attitude.
1 person likes this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
bighambone 12/18/2019 10:02:03 AM (No. 265766)
If the FBI can get away with cheating and other dishonesty including defrauding a federal court in an investigation involving the President of the USA, you can imagine the FBI cheating that could easily occur in an investigation involving just plain Joe from Kokomo, or anyone else, including just plain you?
1 person likes this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
planetgeo 12/18/2019 10:10:09 AM (No. 265773)
The "it was only sloppiness" conclusion is ridiculously easy to puncture. If it was only sloppiness, the targets and the intended outcomes would be randomly distributed (some Republican, some Democrat, etc.). But they're not. Ever. It's all one-sided. THAT is indisputable institutional bias.
It needs to be broken up. And some people need to go to jail, not simply be scolded or reprimanded. For example,those FISA lawyers who lied to the court need to be disbarred AND jailed. And that lawyer who actually edited the text to give the opposite meaning should spend the rest of his life in jail. No more pussy-footing around with these traitors.
2 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
Strike3 12/18/2019 10:22:45 AM (No. 265807)
Duh. You can rest assured that the Steele Dossier inspired attempt at treason was not the first time the FBI cheated and lied.
1 person likes this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
doctorfixit 12/18/2019 10:28:02 AM (No. 265810)
No more secret courts . Get rid of FISA and the FBI
2 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
BigTimeTrumper 12/18/2019 10:47:21 AM (No. 265828)
Tell the people at WACO and Ruby Ridge about FBI "mistakes"...This agency must be disbanded...the NSA should be parred back...let lawfully armed citizens defend themselves...The Police State is way too big and was corrupted by Hillary and Obama..we as a Free People are lucky to have survived their Treason...they thought they had Alinsky'd us into a Government run socialistic garbage dump like californica
2 people like this.
The FISA court needs to be req
0 people like this.
The FISA court needs to appoint a "Devil's Advocate" to question the basis for each request.
0 people like this.
Reply 22 - Posted by:
DVC 12/18/2019 3:36:17 PM (No. 266011)
At this point, I am firmly convinced that the ENTIRE "Patriot Act" be repealed.
This is a typical Washington "lie for a name" game, bill name. It is exactly the OPPOSITE of Patriotic, it destroys the Bill of Rights. End it, NOW.
1 person likes this.
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