Carter Page FISA application declassified

[Quickseller]

The FISA warrant application for Carter Page has been declassified and released by the FBI.

This is the FISA application (via subsequent wiretaps) that were allegedly used to spy on the Trump Campaign in the 2016 US Presidential election. Many have alleged the actual underlying purpose of the FISA application was to spy on the Trump Campaign, and/or was otherwise politically motivated.

One of the early interesting tidbits in the application is a comment that Russia has interfered with US elections (and the elections of other countries) for decades that span multiple generations. To my knowledge, the media and political elates have made very close to zero hubbub about this interference until the 2016 election, and they are now acting as if Russia is about to take over our country with their interference.     

The declassified documents are over 400 pages, and are heavily redacted. I have not yet had the opportunity to review anything close to a substantial portion of what was released yet.

Post in this thread anything interesting you find.

What do you think?

Link to released documents - https://int.nyt.com/data/documenthelper/95-carter-page-fisa-documents-foia-release/full/optimized.pdf

[Quickseller]

Having read the entire dump, it seems that the information is mostly repetitive, and you will have read nearly all information in the original FISA application. The second renewal does have an additional footnote about how Steele was fired as a source from the FBI, and that Page wrote a letter to the FBI alleging voter suppression by Hilary Clinton, asking them to investigate.

A couple of interesting things:
- It appears the fact that Christopher Steele was hired by Fusion GPS, who was hired by the Clinton campaign was originally classified as "top secret/no foreign nationals" -- I wonder why this would be. What could it be about this information that would cause "exceptionally grave damage to National Security" if disclosed?

- The basis for the FISA application appears to have been (1)that Page lived in Russia, (2) that Page gave a speech in Russia, (3) Steele's dossier, (4) partisan news articles that we now know Steele was the basis for, and (5) speculation within the US new media. This means that Page was spied on, and likely has his phone calls listed to based on this information.

- The exact statute citation for the FISA application was redacted.

[theymos]

That seems to strongly support Trump's position that Clinton, Obama, and many corrupt DoJ officials conspired to illegally spy on his campaign. It also lends some credence to the idea that the Trump-Russia investigation is largely driven by the same corrupt group of people.

I feel that Trump is not handling this at all effectively, though. He should really be able to use this stuff to totally clean house in the DoJ (his DoJ), but it seems that he's done very little, and in fact he's made several shocking political blunders in this area. Due to his failure to properly address it, I wouldn't be surprised if the probably-still-functional anti-Trump conspiracy within the DoJ acts against him just before the midterm elections

[Quickseller]

From what I can tell, most of who likely were conspiring against Trump are no longer in the DOJ, with the exception of Rod Rosenstein, and possibly a small number of FBI agents.

There are obviously those helping the Mueller investigation that essentially took over where James Comey left off when he was fired. Unfortunately, it would be very difficult politically to get rid of this group at this point. Indictments have been handed down at politically inconvenient times by Mueller, and I would not be especially surprised to see more not long before the midterms, although this may backfire, as Trump and some congressional Republicans have somewhat delegitimized his investigation, and any indictments would likely be seen as being political.

Based on their behavior in Peter Strzok's public congressional testimony, I suspect some congressional Democrats are a part of the Clinton, Obama, DoJ conspiracy, and they may have played a part in getting Sessions to recuse himself, which ultimately lead to Mueller's appointment.

I think the window to nip the Trump Collusion with Russia investigation in the bud has closed, and this probably needed to happen well before Comey was fired. Part of Trump's problem is that Russia has a long history of meddling in elections (as does the US), so an investigation into Russian election meddling is not exactly frivolous, although based on 18 months of evidence, an investigation into the Trump campaign conspiring with Russia to meddle appears to be frivolous. Based on available evidence, it does not seem that Russia was particularly effective in their meddling, as their disinformation campaign did not appear to have reached many people, and other activities likely got people to attend rallies no more frequently than they otherwise would have.   

[theymos]

although based on 18 months of evidence, an investigation into the Trump campaign conspiring with Russia to meddle appears to be frivolous. Based on available evidence, it does not seem that Russia was particularly effective in their meddling, as their disinformation campaign did not appear to have reached many people, and other activities likely got people to attend rallies no more frequently than they otherwise would have.   

It was always an obvious witch-hunt. The only "manipulation" that's ever even been seriously suggested has been intelligence & propaganda by the Russians, which they're obviously doing all the time and you're never going to completely stop.

As someone who is far from a Trump fan, I've been finding it shocking how notable people are politically getting away with saying stuff like "Trump is a treasonous Russian agent who stole the election!" This sort of mainstream rejection of US legitimacy strikes me as unsustainable. If for example the anti-Trump faction in the DoJ drops some nasty-looking stuff just before the midterms and then it turns out to be largely fabricated (a very likely scenario IMO), then Republicans are going to consider this action to be manipulation far worse than anything that the Russians are accused of doing, probably leading to yet more escalation in both rhetoric and tactics.

[Quickseller]

Ironically, the reported goals of the 2016 Russian meddling was to sow discord in US politics, which those on the Left are gladly furthering, probably to the point that their behavior is resulting in much greater discord than Russia could have even hoped for.

I would not be surprised to Mueller (and his team) leak additional information and/or indict additional people just before the midterms, although many on the right are already calling Mueller's actions as political. For example, RealClearPolitics has called out the fact that the recent indictments left out hacking attempts by the Russians on Republicans, and Andrew McCarthy of NationalReview, called out the indictments as "nakedly politicized law enforcement", as those indicted should not be presumed innocent, and will never see the inside of a US courtroom.

Also of interest, Rod Rosenstein is in the process of getting impeached, although Identity Politics, and the number of Democrats in the Senate will prevent him from being found guilty in Congress. I personally think a contempt of congress charge would be more appropriate that is enforced by the House, rather than an impeachment.