Quote Originally Posted by Lewkowski View Post
What was used to justify the FISA warrant outside of the Steele Dossier?
Most of this info remains redacted, with only the relevant statutes noted in the apps.

However, it begins like this:



(with the redacted content--likely providing increasingly detailed information about those contacts w/ Russian intelligence--growing in size for each app)

And continues like this:



Transcript of intercepted convos between two SVR officers talking about Page:





As for the Steele memos, the FBI was and remains satisfied that Steele is a reliable source, but of course they went to great lengths to provide independent corroboration. The Schiff memo points out that the FBI's counterintelligence investigation was initiated nearly two months before they received Steele's intel, based on other information that was available to them:

https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000...1-edefe9d00001

  • Christopher Steele's raw intelligence reporting did not inform the rave decision to initiate its counterintelligence investigation in late July 2016. In fact, the FBI's closely-held investigative team only received Steele's reopening in mid-September—more than seven weeks later. The FBI – and, subsequently, the Special Counsel's – investigation into links between the Russian government and Trump campaign associates has been based on troubling law enforcement and intelligence information unrelated to the "dossier."


  • DOJ's October 21, 2016 FISA application and three subsequent renewals carefully outlined for the court a multi-pronged rationale for surveilling Page, who, at the time of the first application, was no longer with the Trump campaign. DOJ detailed Page's past relationships with Russian spies and interaction with Russian officials during the 2016 campaign, . DOJ cited multiple sources to support the case for surveilling Page—but made only narrow use or information from Steele's sources about Page's specific activities in 2016, chiefly his suspected July 2016 meetings in Moscow with Russian officials. . In fact, the FBI interviewed Page in March 2016 about his contact with Russian intelligence. the very month candidate Donald Trump named him a foreign policy adviser.

As DOJ informed the Court in subsequent renewals, Steele's reporting about Page's Moscow meetings . DOJ's applications did not otherwise rely on Steele's reporting, including any "salacious" allegations about Trump, and the FBI never paid Steele for this reporting. While explaining why the FBI viewed Steele's reporting and sources as reliable and credible, DOJ also disclosed:
  • Steele's prior relationship with the FBI;
  • the fact of and reason for his termination as a source; and
  • the assessed political motivation of those who hired him.
The FISA applications contain redacted sections that describe this information.

Now you might chafe at the thought of having to take Schiff's word on anything, but let's be clear: we now know that Nunes lied about the contents of the FISA apps, and we have confirmed that some of Schiff's corrections were accurate.

In closing, I must confess that I find the striking differences between your views on govt. surveillance of brown Muslim Americans (who might hold extremist views) and a non-Muslim white American (who has had suspicious contacts with intelligence officers of a hostile foreign nation and is strongly suspected of having committed numerous criminal violations of US statutes)... to be pretty hilarious. You're turning into a parody of yourself, Lewk.