Worse Than Watergate
September 23, 2016: Michael Isikoff writes an article in Yahoo News reporting that the government was/is investigation Page's ties to the Kremlin. The source of the information for this article was Christopher Steele. Amazingly, Steele then used this article in his dossier to support the "information" he collected on Page. (Can you believe this??)
September 23, 2016: In an article published in Politico magazine on Sept. 23, Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks is quoted by a reporter working on a profile of Page saying that "he has no formal role in the campaign."
September 25, 2016: Page sends a letter to then-FBI director James Comey, stating: "For the record, I have not met this year with any sanctioned official in Russia despite the fact that there are no restrictions on U.S. persons speaking with such individuals." He also writes that he has sold his "de minimis" stake in Russian energy giant Gazprom at a loss. Bloomberg News reported on Page's "deep ties" to Gazprom in March, but a Politico account in September suggested Page exaggerated his contacts with Gazprom.
September 26, 2016: In his first public comments about accusations that he met with Russian officials, Page tells the Washington Post's Josh Rogin: "All of these accusations are just complete garbage." He adds: "All the ones that are mentioned in the various articles, I didn't meet with any of those guys. ... It's completely false and inconceivable that someone would even accuse me of that." Page admits, however, that he did briefly meet and shake hands with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich, a fellow speaker at the New Economic School commencement address. Page also tells Rogin that he will take a leave of absence from the Trump campaign: "This is another distraction that's been created here. ... There's so little time between now and the election, this is in the best interests of the candidate. It's so ridiculous I want to have it behind us."
October 2016: The FBI and the Justice Department obtain a FISA warrant (warrant under the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act) to monitor Page's communications after "convincing" a FISA court judge that there is probably cause to believe that Page is acting as an agent of a foreign power - namely, Russia. It is renewed three times, as required by statute, every 90 days. What is not clear is whether new evidence to support probable cause was presented each time, as required to continue surveillance.
December 2016: Partly in response to the Yahoo News article, Trump attorney Don McGahn, writes Page to "immediately cease" saying he is a Trump advisor. "You were merely one of the many people named to a foreign policy committee in March 2016 - a committee that met one time (and which you did not even attend)," McGahn writes. "You never met Mr. Trump, nor did you even 'advise' Mr. Trump about anything. Thus you are not an 'advisor' for Mr. Trump in any sense of the word."
January 10, 2017 -
In sworn testimony at his confirmation hearing, Attorney General nominee Jeff Sessions testifies that he is "not aware of any communications" between the Trump campaign and the Russian government during the campaign.
BuzzFeed News publishes the full unsubstantiated dossier detailing President Trump's alleged ties to Russia and claiming the Russian government may be blackmailing him. Christopher Steele leaked the dossier. Again, the dossier was created by Steele, who was extremely politicized against Trump and confessed he would do anything to prevent Donald Trump from being president. Steele's dossier "alleges" that former campaign manager Paul Manafort used Page as an intermediary with the Russian government and that Page attended a secret meeting at the Kremlin in July of 2016. [Contents of the Steele Dossier:
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3259984-Trump-Intelligence-Allegations.html ]
January 25, 2017: Nunes and ranking member Adam Schiff announce they're investigating Russian election meddling, including possible communications between Russia and "political campaigns."
January 12, 2017: At President-elect Trump's first news conference, incoming White House press secretary Sean Spicer denies that Trump knows who Page is: "Carter Page is an individual whom the president-elect does not know and was put on notice months ago by the campaign."
January or February 2017: The FBI applies for more surveillance on Page.
February 12, 2017: In an 8-page letter to the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, Page calls the Russia investigations "frivolous" and says that are "among the most extreme examples of human rights violations during any election in US History since Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was similarly targeted for his anti-war views."
February 15, 2017: In an interview with PBS News Hour's Judy Woodruff, Page says he had no meetings with Russian officials in 2016: "I had no meetings, no meetings. ... I might have said hello to a few people as they were walking by me at my graduation-the graduation speech that I gave in July, but no meetings." (He would later re-assert that same statement - that he may have "met" someone from Russia, such as the Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, who was at the Republican National Convention, but he had no "meetings.")
March 2, 2017: Amid concerns about his January testimony and newly-revealed meetings with the Russian ambassador, Sessions announces that he will recuse himself from any investigation related to the Trump campaign.
March 4, 2017: Trump accuses Barack Obama of having Trump Tower "wiretapped".
March 15, 2017: After initially defending Trump, Nunes says he does not believe Trump Tower was bugged. But he adds a caveat: Trump campaign communications could have been incidentally collected as part of wider surveillance efforts.
March 20, 2017: FBI Director James Comey testifies before the Intel Committee, and refutes Trump's claims. Nunes reiterates that there was no "physical" wiretap, but repeats the possibility of incidental collection.
March 21, 2017: Nunes travels to White House grounds to review evidence of potential surveillance of Trump associates. The visit is not initially made public.
March 22, 2017: Nunes holds unexpected press conference and says an unnamed individual (or individuals) showed him intelligence reports indicating the Obama administration captured communications involving Trump and/or his associates. He said it appeared to be legal, incidental collection but nonetheless seemed "inappropriate" and troubling. Nunes briefs Trump before Schiff, despite Trump being a potential subject of the committee's investigation. (Trump says he feels "somewhat" vindicated). The following day, Nunes expresses regret for failing to brief Intel committee before White House.
March 27, 2017: News of Nunes' White House visit emerges. He says he needed to visit the White House in order to access to secure system, an explanation that is immediately challenged. Schiff calls on Nunes to recuse himself from Russia investigation.
April 11, 2017: The Washington Post first reports on the existence of the FISA warrant on Page from the summer of 2016. In an interview, Page again compares the surveillance to the FBI's eavesdropping on Dr. King. "This confirms all of my suspicions about unjustified, politically-motivated government surveillance," he says.
Late April or Early May 2017: The FBI applies for more surveillance on Page. (This application is approved by newly sworn-in Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein)
May 7, 2017: In an angry nine-page letter to the Senate intelligence committee, Carter says he had only "brief interactions" with Pobodnyy in 2013 and calls requests for more information a "show trial" based on "the corrupt lies of the Clinton/Obama regime."
July or August 2017: The FBI applies for more surveillance on Page. (This application is also approved by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Rosenstein appointed Special Counsel Bob Mueller to investigate the Trump campaign for any ties to Russia. Therefore Rosenstein is Mueller's boss and has the power to oversee the investigation of Donald Trump - to set limits, to define the scope of, etc)
October 18, 2017: During five hours of testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sessions is grilled about his contacts with Russians during the campaign. When asked if any surrogates from the Trump campaign had contact with the Russians, he responds: "I did not - and I'm not aware of anyone else that did. I don't believe that it happened."
October 30, 2017: In wide-ranging interview MSNBC's Chris Hayes, Page discusses Papadaopoulos' guilty plea, admitting that he was on campaign email chains with Papadopoulos about Russia. "I genuinely hope, Carter, that you are innocent of everything, because you are doing a lot of talking," Hayes says.
November 2, 2017: During six hours of closed-door testimony with the House intelligence committee, Page testifies that he told Sessions about his trip to Russia ahead of time. During the testimony, Page invokes the Fifth Amendment when asked to produce documents that could potentially be relevant to the investigation.
November 3, 2017: In an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper, Page says that the fact he told Sessions about his upcoming trip to Russia was a "nothing event" made "totally in passing." He adds that Sessions was not the only one on the campaign that he told before he took the trip. "I mentioned it to a few other people," he says.
January 29, 2018: The House Intelligence Committee votes along party lines to publicly release a classified memo overseen by Republican Rep. Devin Nunes which criticizes the FBI's handling of a FISA warrant on Page, alleging that relied too heavily on information in the Steele dossier. In a rare public statement, the FBI says it has "grave concerns" about the memo.
The Memo Reveals the Following:
• The "dossier" compiled by Christopher Steele (Steele dossier) on behalf of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Hillary Clinton campaign formed an essential part of the Carter Page FISA application. Steele was a longtime FBI source who was paid over $160,000 by the DNC and Clinton campaign, via the law firm Perkins Coie and research firm Fusion GPS, to obtain derogatory information on Donald Trump's ties to Russia.
(a) Neither the initial application in October 2016, nor any of the renewals, disclose or reference the role of the DNC, Clinton campaign, or any party/campaign in funding Steele's efforts, even though the political origins of the Steele dossier were then known to senior DOJ and FBI officials.
(b) The initial FISA application notes Steele was working for a named U.S. person, but does not name Fusion GPS and principal Glenn Simpson, who was paid by a U.S. law firm (Perkins Coie) representing the DNC (even though it was known by DOJ at the time that political actors were involved with the Steele dossier). The application does not mention Steele was ultimately working on behalf of-and paid by-the DNC and Clinton campaign, or that the FBI had separately authorized payment to Steele for the same information.
• The Carter Page FISA application also cited extensively a September 23, 2016, Yahoo News article by Michael Isikoff, which focuses on Page's July 2016 trip to Moscow. This article does not corroborate the Steele dossier because it is derived from information leaked by Steele himself to Yahoo News. The Page FISA application incorrectly assesses that Steele did not directly provide information to Yahoo News. Steele has admitted in British court filings that he met with Yahoo News-and several other outlets-in September 2016 at the direction of Fusion GPS. Perkins Coie was aware of Steele's initial media contacts because they hosted at least one meeting in Washington D.C. in 2016 with Steele and Fusion GPS where this matter was discussed.
(a) Steele was suspended and then terminated as an FBI source for what the FBI defines as the most serious of violations-an unauthorized disclosure to the media of his relationship with the FBI in an October 30, 2016, Mother Jones article by David Corn. Steele should have been terminated for his previous undisclosed contacts with Yahoo and other outlets in September-before the Page application was submitted to the FISC in October-but Steele improperly concealed from and lied to the FBI about those contacts.
(b) Steele's numerous encounters with the media violated the cardinal rule of source handling-maintaining confidentiality-and demonstrated that Steele had become a less than reliable source for the FBI.
• Before and after Steele was terminated as a source, he maintained contact with DOJ via then-Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr, a senior DOJ official who worked closely with Deputy Attorneys General Yates and later Rosenstein. Shortly after the election, the FBI began interviewing Ohr, documenting his communications with Steele. For example, in September 2016, Steele admitted to Ohr his feelings against then-candidate Trump when Steele said he "was desperate that Donald Trump not get elected and was passionate about him not being president." This clear evidence of Steele's bias was recorded by Ohr at the time and subsequently in official FBI files-but not reflected in any of the Page FISA applications. Furthermore, during this same time period, Ohr's wife was employed by Fusion GPS to assist in the cultivation of opposition research on Trump. Ohr later provided the FBI with all of his wife's opposition research, paid for by the DNC and Clinton campaign via Fusion GPS. The Ohrs' relationship with Steele and Fusion GPS was inexplicably concealed from the FISC.
• According to the head of the FBI's counterintelligence division, Assistant Director Bill Priestap, corroboration of the Steele dossier was in its "infancy" at the time of the initial Page FISA application. After Steele was terminated, a source validation report conducted by an independent unit within FBI assessed Steele's reporting as only minimally corroborated. Yet, in early January 2017, Director Comey briefed President-elect Trump on a summary of the Steele dossier, even though it was-according to his June 2017 testimony-"salacious and unverified." While the FISA application relied on Steele's past record of credible reporting on other unrelated matters, it ignored or concealed his anti-Trump financial and ideological motivations. Furthermore, Deputy Director McCabe testified before the Committee in December 2017 that no surveillance warrant would have been sought from the FISC without the Steele dossier information.
• The Page FISA application also mentions information regarding fellow Trump campaign advisor George Papadopoulos, but there is no evidence of any cooperation or conspiracy between Page and Papadopoulos. The Papadopoulos information triggered the opening of an FBI counterintelligence investigation in late July 2016 by FBI agent Pete Strzok. Strzok was reassigned by the Special Counsel's Office to FBI Human Resources for improper text messages with his mistress, FBI Attorney Lisa Page (no known relation to Carter Page), where they both demonstrated a clear bias against Trump and in favor of Clinton, whom Strzok had also investigated. The Strzok/Lisa Page texts also reflect extensive discussions about the investigation, orchestrating leaks to the media, and include a meeting with Deputy Director McCabe to discuss an "insurance" policy against President Trump's election.
III. FISA and FISA COURTS
What is the History of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) ?
In 1978, Congress passed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and President Carter signed it into law. That law established essentially five things: (1) First, that non-criminal electronic surveillances within the United States were only permissible for the purpose of collecting foreign intelligence and/or foreign counterintelligence. (2) Second, it identified foreign powers and agents of foreign powers as the entities and persons that could be targeted for electronic surveillance. (3) Third, it articulated a probable cause standard that had to be met before an electronic surveillance was permissible. (4) Fourth, the Act established the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Courts (FISC), one at the district court level for initial review of surveillance applications, and one at the appellate level should the government appeal a district level denial of an application. (5) Finally, the Act established the only circumstances under which an electronic surveillance could lawfully be conducted in the United States for the purpose of collecting foreign intelligence or foreign counterintelligence.
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