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Supercut of Media Declaring Discredited Steele Dossier Is Legitimate (VIDEO)

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The release of Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report on alleged misconduct by the FBI in its investigation of the Trump campaign in 2016 shredded any hint of legitimacy of the infamous Democrat-funded anti-Trump dossier compiled by Christopher Steele. The extensive IG report’s utter dismantling of any claims to the legitimacy of the dossier has given previous mainstream media coverage of the “dirty” document some rather devastating context.

The Steele Dossier, Horowitz’ investigation found, played a “central and essential role” in the FBI’s decision to surveil the Trump campaign. “We determined that the Crossfire Hurricane team’s receipt of Steele’s election reporting on September 19, 2016 played a central and essential role in the FBI’s and Department’s decision to seek the FISA order” targeting Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, reads the report.

Though it played a pivotal role in the decision to move forward with the surveillance of the Trump campaign, the dossier — created by oppo research firm Fusion GPS and funded by the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign — was viewed by the CIA as based on “internet rumor” and was largely discredited by intelligence officials by the time it was used to help begin the surveillance of the Trump campaign, Horowitz explains. . .

Initially, mainstream outlets repeatedly assured their viewers that substantive details in the dossier had been “corroborated,” a claim that Horowitz made clear is false. When more and more claims in the Democrat-funded dossier were discredited, the media shifted to asserting that it hasn’t been “conclusively disproven.”

(Read more from “Supercut of Media Declaring Discredited Steele Dossier Is Legitimate” HERE)

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Former FBI Official Calls Revelations in IG Report on FISA Abuses ‘Terrifying’

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A former FBI official responded to the release of the Department of Justice Inspector General’s report about FISA abuses, calling the revelations “terrifying.”

Former FBI Assistant Director Chris Swecker made the comments to Neil Cavuto on his Fox News show on Wednesday. . .

“These are serious abuses. FISA is the most intrusive technique you can use. You can put a microphone in someone’s house, you can put a camera in their house. You can intercept their phone calls, you can intercept their emails, their texts, you can mirror their hard drives,” he explained.

“You can look at every aspect of someone’s life with a FISA order. It’s extremely intrusive and to find out there were 17 different errors, omissions and unsupported assertions in there, is absolutely is terrifying to me,” he concluded.

“We gotta make sure that the people who did this are held accountable,” Swecker continued. “It’s not the FBI, it’s the Comey leadership team, it comes from the top.” (Read more from “Former FBI Official Calls Revelations in IG Report on FISA Abuses ‘Terrifying'” HERE)

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Former FBI Attorney Lisa Page Sues DOJ for Releasing Her Texts with Peter Strzok

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Former FBI attorney Lisa Page is suing the Department of Justice and the FBI for violating her privacy by releasing her personal information to the public.

Page, 39, announced her lawsuit over Twitter on Tuesday. The attorney alleges that the DOJ and the FBI’s release of text messages between her and then-FBI agent Peter Strzok violated Privacy Act provisions regulating the release of private information to the media.

“I sued the Department of Justice and FBI today,” Page said. “I take little joy in having done so. But what they did in leaking my messages to the press was not only wrong, it was illegal.”

The DOJ released 375 of Page’s texts to Strzok in December 2017. The DOJ inspector general compiled the messages as part of a larger investigation into alleged bias at the FBI. The messages were released as evidence that some FBI officials displayed bias against President Trump. (Read more from “Former FBI Attorney Lisa Page Sues DOJ for Releasing Her Texts with Peter Strzok” HERE)

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FBI Partners with the Postal Service to Get Your Fingerprints

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It wasn’t all that long ago that the public was made aware of the huge privacy concerns with sharing your DNA with consumer genetic testing companies to find out your origins. One such concern was the ability of the federal government and law enforcement agencies to gain access to your DNA. As the public has become more aware of such privacy concerns, it seems strange that on Friday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced a new partnership with the United States Postal Service where customers like you can voluntarily provide them with their fingerprints while you’re at the post office.

Isn’t that nice and convenient? The government is making it that much easier for you to give them your fingerprints! Gotta buy some stamps or mail a package, why not help the government build up a national database of fingerprints. That sounds great for your privacy. . .

According to the FBI website, “Only you may request a copy of your own Identity History Summary (or proof that one does not exist). You would typically make this request for personal review, to challenge information on record, to meet a requirement for adopting a child, or to meet a requirement to live, work, or travel in a foreign country.”

Of course, there are plenty of ways to obtain a criminal background check without providing the federal government your fingerprint. Most of the information is a part of the public record. If you’ve forgotten that you’ve been arrested in the past and want to check, you can start with local records before you give Big Brother your fingerprints. There are also some websites that can pull up records for a fee as well, without giving up your fingerprints. (Read more from “FBI Partners with the Postal Service to Get Your Fingerprints” HERE)

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Judge Says the FBI Can’t Keep Refusing to Confirm or Deny the Existence of Social Media Monitoring Documents

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The ACLU is one step closer to obtaining documents detailing the FBI’s use of social media monitoring tools. The FBI replied to the ACLU’s FOIA request with a Glomar and a denial.

First, it neither confirmed nor denied it had responsive records. Then it said even if it did have some, it still wouldn’t release them. According to the FBI, releasing documents about the government’s well-known use of social media monitoring software would somehow allow criminals to take a peek at super-secret law enforcement tools. It made these assertions despite the fact it publicly secured contracts for social media monitoring tools.

The ACLU sued. And now, it’s obtained at least a partial victory. The court says it’s not quite accurate to say the DOJ has already publicly acknowledged use of social media monitoring tools. Citing the ACLU’s victory in an FOIA lawsuit over drone strike documents, the court points out the bar to clear first is whether it can be said the DOJ — not the FBI — has made it clear it’s in the social media monitoring business. . .

But that’s not the end of the discussion. The FBI works with several other federal agencies and the documents requested would cover any secondhand use of monitoring tools. So, is it public knowledge other federal agencies engage in social media monitoring?

Given the wide array of evidence indicating (1) that other agencies engage in social media monitoring in the immigration and transportation contexts, and (2) that those agencies cooperate, coordinate, and share information with the FBI, the Court also considers whether such evidence makes it possible to impute, for purposes of applying Exemption 7(E), social media monitoring in the immigration and transportation contexts to the FBI. The ACLU presents extensive evidence that the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”), U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (“CBP”), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”), and the Department of State (“DOS”) engage in social media monitoring.

(Read more from “Judge Says the FBI Can’t Keep Refusing to Confirm or Deny the Existence of Social Media Monitoring Documents” HERE)

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China-Born U.S. Navy Lieutenant, Wife Arrested Over Attempts to Export Guns to China

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A Navy Lieutenant and his wife were arrested in a joint FBI and NCIS raid Thursday in the San Jose area. The raid occurred at the home of Navy Lt. Fan Yang and his wife, Yang Yang on 6901 Salamanca Ave. Documents obtained by First Coast News say Fan Yang currently holds a top-secret US security clearance and is actively serving in the Navy in a sensitive anti-submarine warfare unit. He was assigned to the Maritime Patrol Reconnaissance Weapons School at Naval Air Station Jacksonville.

Fan Yang was born in China, emigrated to the United States in 1999 as a teenager, and became a US citizen in 2006, according to the documents. The accusations against the Yangs include conspiracy to defraud the United States, importing and manufacturing firearms, transfer of a firearm to a non-resident and conspiracy to violate federal law (specifically knowing submission of false and misleading export information).

Fan Yang is also charged with illegal possession of a firearm by an alien admitted under a non-immigrant visa. His wife is accused of submitting false and misleading export information and fraudulently trying to export illegal merchandise from the US to China.

The court documents say the couple worked together to assist a Chinese national in illegally possessing firearms between March 2017 and Sept. 2019. The documents indicate the couple lied to hide the true nature of that relationship. One account in the documents says Fan Yang requested time off from work to take his family to Disney. But investigators say credit cards linked to him and his wife show flights purchased to Sioux City, Iowa and a meal bought in Sioux City, Nebraska the weekend they were reportedly at the amusement park. That same weekend, documents say a one-way flight to an airport 100 miles away from Sioux City, Nebraska was also purchased by Fan Yang for the Chinese national. (Read more from “China-Born U.S. Navy Lieutenant, Wife Arrested Over Attempts to Export Guns to China” HERE)

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Newly Declassified Court Documents Reveal FBI FISA Violations in Targeting Americans

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Newly declassified court documents indicate that the FBI failed to comply with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in targeting Americans while searching through NSA records during President Trump’s administration and after James Comey’s tenure as FBI director.

An October 2018 ruling from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) found that the FBI violated Section 702 by not keeping track of searches that pertained to “United States persons,” and that proposed changes were still not enough to comply with the law. That ruling was later affirmed on appeal in July 2019. The documents were declassified and released Tuesday.

FISA Section 702, which deals with targeting people outside the U.S. for gathering foreign intelligence information, places restrictions on gathering information when it comes to Americans or people located in the U.S.

“Because the FBI’s proposed procedures do not require it to keep records that ‘indicate whether terms are United States person query terms,’ the FISC held that these procedures do not comply with Section 702(f)(l)(B),” said the decision from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review (FISC-R), which heard the appeal.

The queries examined took place between 2017 and 2018, which would largely be during FBI director Chris Wray’s tenure and during the Trump presidency. The FBI did not immediately return a request for comment. (Read more from “Newly Declassified Court Documents Reveal FBI FISA Violations in Targeting Americans” HERE)

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WATCH: FBI Raids Offices of Dem Senator as Part of ‘Ongoing Criminal Investigation’

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The offices of Illinois state Sen. Mark Sandoval (D) were raided by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents on Tuesday, as part of an “ongoing criminal investigation.” . . .

The FBI did not disclose any details of the investigation, but told the Chicago Tribune that the raids on Sandoval’s district office and at the Illinois State Capital Building involved agents conducting “authorized law enforcement activity.”

According to the Associated Press, “Several men in dark suits and ties could be seen walking from the Senate Democrats’ side of the Capitol, carrying the bags and boxes of materials. The word ‘evidence’ could be see written across at least one of the bags.” The Tribune reported that one agent appeared to be carrying a desktop computer wrapped in plastic.

The Daily Mail reported that the “new investigation comes off the heels of a string of alleged corruption at Chicago’s City Hall,” citing a number of ongoing federal probes launched against Illinois officials.

Sandoval has served in the Illinois Senate since 2003, and currently serves as chairman of the Transportation Committee. The senator was also behind pushing through an initiative that doubled the state’s gas tax to 38-cents a gallon this year. The new tax went into effect in July as part of an effort to raise $45 billion for an infrastructure plan. (Read more from “WATCH: FBI Raids Offices of Dem Senator as Part of ‘Ongoing Criminal Investigation'” HERE)

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Records Raise New Questions About FBI’s Michael Flynn Investigation

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By Fox News. Then-Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe told the White House in early February 2017 that the bureau was not considering the national security adviser at the time, Michael Flynn, for a potential Logan Act prosecution over conversations with the Russian ambassador before Donald Trump was sworn in as president, government records reviewed by Fox News indicate.

McCabe was referring to the rarely prosecuted 200-year-old statute that bars American citizens from engaging with a foreign government without authorization from the current U.S. government.

The records also indicate that Flynn reported, on two separate occasions, in the days leading up to his White House firing that FBI agents told him the bureau investigation was over or being closed out.

Both incidents raise questions over the underlying offense that formed the basis for the initial FBI and DOJ investigation into Flynn.

The retired general was later fired by the White House for misleading the vice president about communications with Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador, during the transition before Trump was sworn in. (Read more from “Records Raise New Questions About FBI’s Michael Flynn Investigation” HERE)

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Adam Schiff Lashes Michael Flynn for Refusing to Cooperate

By Politico. Former national security adviser Michael Flynn has refused to cooperate with the House Intelligence Committee’s demand for testimony and documents, Chairman Adam Schiff wrote in a letter released Monday.

“Notwithstanding repeated efforts by committee staff to engage with your counsel and accommodate your adjournment requests, you have, to date, failed to comply with the committee’s subpoena or cooperate with the committee’s efforts to secure your compliance,” Schiff wrote in the letter to Flynn, which demands that the retired Army lieutenant general appear for testimony on Sept. 25.

Schiff said Flynn’s new counsel, Sidney Powell, “exhibit[ed] a troubling degree of unprofessionalism” in conversations with committee staffers, outlining a series of interactions between Powell and Schiff’s aides.

According to Schiff, Powell “refused to accept service” of the subpoena issued by the panel in June. Schiff indicated that Powell repeatedly sought deadline extensions for Flynn’s cooperation before ultimately ignoring phone calls attempting to arrange Flynn’s testimony for late July, just ahead of Congress’ six-week summer recess. (Read more from “Adam Schiff Lashes Michael Flynn for Refusing to Cooperate” HERE)

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The FBI Is Probing the Pot Industry, but Not for the Reason You Might Expect

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FBI officials said in a recent podcast that state licenses required to grow and sell marijuana open the possibility of public officials becoming susceptible to bribes in exchange for those licenses.

“We’ve seen in some states the price go as high as $500,000 for a license to sell marijuana,” Supervisory Special Agent Regino Chavez said. “So, we see people willing to pay large amounts of money to get into the industry.” . . .

The legal status of cannabis remains iffy, even in states that have passed laws legalizing medical and recreational pot. The federal government still considers marijuana illegal, with the DEA listing it as a Schedule I drug — meaning officials believe it has a high potential for abuse.

The feds aren’t the only ones looking at illegal activity in the legal pot business. California has tripled the number of raids on unlicensed marijuana shops this year, the Los Angeles Times reported earlier this summer. Unlicensed growers in the state face fines of up to $30,000 per day.

David Kirschner, an intelligence analyst with the FBI, said states should expect marijuana-related corruption to increase as recreational pot becomes more widespread. (Read more from “The FBI Is Probing the Pot Industry, but Not for the Reason You Might Expect” HERE)

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