DNI Director Tulsi Gabbard revelations confirming what honest observers (and members of Congress at the time like me) already knew about the Russia collusion hoax may finally result in accountability for government officials who betrayed their oath.
Depending on what the Justice Department does with the referrals, Messrs. Brennen, Clapper, Comey, McCabe, Rosenstein, Page and Strzok might want to lawyer-up. But quick.
This isn’t about politics as usual. Intelligence was manufactured by a ‘deep state’ and then actually used, as we’ve pointed in Jason’s Newsletter, to spy on political opponents.
End the FISA Court!
A few brave Republicans are pushing to let the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act—the tool a politicized Department of Justice has repeatedly abused—expire at the end of the year. Bully for them but it’s unlikely to happen.
I wrote more extensively about the whole tawdry affair in my book, Party Animal, The Truth About President Trump, Power Politics & the Partisan Press. Here’s a preview of how this garbage wound up in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court from the chapter titled “From Russia With Love”:
A law firm representing both Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the DNC hires Fusion GPS’s Glenn Simpson, who retains former British intelligence officer Steele and Russia specialist Nellie Ohr to create a “dossier.” Simpson then “planned to push the information…to policymakers on Capitol Hill, the press and the FBI.” It apparently then gets funneled to associate deputy attorney general Bruce Ohr—none other than Ohr’s husband. Bruce Ohr then gives the dossier to the FBI. In December of 2016, an associate of John McCain hands over copies of the Steele ‘dossier’ to the late Arizona Senator, a longtime Trump critic, who then passes it on to the FBI as well. Director Comey, despite telling then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper that “he was not able to sufficiently corroborate” the documents, nevertheless unleashes a probe into the alleged ‘Russian ‘interference’. It all leads to a $35 million special counsel investigation with a clearly disengaged Robert Mueller as point man for a cabal of partisans trying to bring down a duly elected President.