Sharyl Attkisson: The Six Red Flags We Missed Regarding the FBI’s Abusive FISA Witch Hunt Against the Trump Campaign

Well, the Department of Justice Inspector General report on FISA abuses during the 2016 election is out. It revealed that the FBI made glaring errors when applying for the FISA spy warrant against Carter Page, a former Trump campaign official. Page was viewed as a possible foreign agent and dark lord of the Sith concerning this Russian collusion allegation that turned out to be a total myth. Page was not a foreign agent. In fact, he had worked with the CIA—a piece of information that was left off of the FISA application process. It was one of 17 errors made. Michael Horowitz, the DOJ Inspector General, said that this failure was systemic regarding the omission or exclusion of exculpatory information on the Page warrant. Someone should be fired.

And all of this Trump-Russia nonsense was borne from the infamous Trump dossier, a politically biased opposition research project that was funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democrats. The Clinton campaign retained the services of Fusion GPS who then hired ex-MI6 spook Christopher Steele to compile a document to smear Trump. It was largely unverified. It was total garbage. And it was cited as credible evidence in the process of obtaining a spy warrant against Page. The report by Special Counsel Robert Mueller debunked this dossier. And this DOJ IG report delivered the final kill shot. Yet, the damage is done. Page’s name is ruined. And the liberal media kept the Russian collusion narrative alive and well in the news cycle, despite there being zero evidence to back up any of the claims. They wanted it to be true. They peddled fake news to ensure this tall tale would get legs in the new cycle. And it all blew up in their faces.

FISA court has known about abuses since before 2001 but all, from leaders to Congress, allowed FBI to self-police and self-correct. Besides the illegal govt. intrusion into my computers, look at all the flags:https://t.co/1VKkjLQsMg https://t.co/owsy63jIkS
— Sharyl Attkisson?????? (@SharylAttkisson) December 26, 2019

PODCAST: 6 screaming red govt. surveillance flags that got ignored.
Listen to “The Sharyl Attkisson Podcast” & “Full Measure After Hours” on iTunes or your favorite distributor. Or click a link below @SharylPodcast @FullMeasureAH https://t.co/kRyGqxvKz2 https://t.co/cq3tDxEeiX
— Sharyl Attkisson?????? (@SharylAttkisson) December 21, 2019

1) Always interesting to hear and read the news and then actually get the original sourcing. IG Horowitz says he did not claim there was no political bias in the FBI's Trump-Russia probe. He gave a very specific qualified opinion about one small slice of the opening of the probe.
— Sharyl Attkisson?????? (@SharylAttkisson) December 15, 2019

2) Horowitz actually testified there was remarkable bias and misconduct throughout the FBI probe and political bias demonstrated by numerous players--all of which has been referred to Durham and FBI to address. I read the report. That's what it says.
— Sharyl Attkisson?????? (@SharylAttkisson) December 15, 2019

Does anybody think an FBI lawyer who boldly falsified docs and misrepresented-- did it just once and got caught the first time? Did FBI agents who made 17 egregious mistakes on wiretaps, omitting exculpatory evidence, only do that once and get caught the first time? https://t.co/DBxYkWYWoO
— Sharyl Attkisson?????? (@SharylAttkisson) December 11, 2019

Veteran investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson noted six red flags that were all blind to concerning the FBI’s FISA abuses. And these activities have been well documented. She notes the 2008 FISA reauthorization bill as a red flag since there was supposed to be a safeguard measure attached to it. It was voted down. She also cited the loosening of the unmasking protocols under Obama as another sign of what was to come within the halls of the DOJ concerning the DOJ FISA abuse report (via The Hill):

Despite many public reports of government surveillance abuses, Congress passed up its most recent opportunity to exercise much-needed oversight. Two years ago, in January 2018, Congress reauthorized Section 702 of the 2008 FISA Amendments Act. It allows the U.S. intelligence community wide latitude to spy on U.S. citizens. Shocking abuses of this government authority were exposed by whistleblower Edward Snowden. Yet Congress voted down a measure to reform the law by adding significant safeguards. Insiders told me that a majority of Democrats and Republicans had favored reforms, but shortly before the vote, the parties’ leaders directed members to renew the surveillance authority without them.
[…]
The FISA court has documented numerous serious government surveillance abuses over the years, including a scathing review issued by the court in the fall of 2016 accusing the National Security Agency (NSA) of a problematic “lack of candor” that raised constitutional questions. Yet the court remained publicly silent these past three years amid questions, a crisis of confidence and evidence that it had in hand about FBI wrongdoing. The court spoke out only in recent days, well after the damning findings in the IG report.
[…]
Following sporadic reports of intelligence officials misleading Congress about surveilling U.S. citizens — even spying on journalists and political figures and their staffs — there was a series of red flags in 2016 and 2017 that should have drawn attention and action. Some of the same intelligence officials who we now know wanted to keep President Trump from winning the White House apparently modified rules to make it easier to share and leak intelligence involving innocent U.S. citizens (including people connected to the Trump campaign). Obama administration requests reached a crescendo to “unmask” the identities of Americans whose private information supposedly was collected “incidentally” during the monitoring of other targets.
[…]
As I have written, FBI Director Christopher Wray falsely testified to Congress that there have been no 702 surveillance abuses. Surprisingly, nobody questioned him about this incorrect claim, even though many documented abuses are in the public record.

1. FISA process can’t be fixed as long as @TheJusticeDept @FBI refuse to properly address forensically proven govt. spying on me. This was a symptom; a screaming red flag that was ignored. Stay tuned. @RealDonaldTrump https://t.co/96U4P0Q8bX
— Sharyl Attkisson?????? (@SharylAttkisson) December 10, 2019

2. Will there be a thorough examination of all of the wiretaps and investigations touched by those who the IG said either falsified evidence or were so incompetent, they made huge “clerical errors” on matters that impact constitutional rights of US citizens?
— Sharyl Attkisson?????? (@SharylAttkisson) December 10, 2019

3. Congress has had numerous chances to step up oversight of FISA process amid repeat, documented surveillance abuses against US citizens, politicians & journalists over the years. But leaders of both parties have demanded their members vote down improved oversight.
— Sharyl Attkisson?????? (@SharylAttkisson) December 10, 2019

And this all strikes close to home for Attkisson, who alleges that she was spied on by the government. What is confirmed that is that someone or some agency did hack into her computer back in 2013. Attkisson was an investigative reporter with CBS News. She took to Twitter noting that while the FISA court has ordered the FBI to overhaul and revamp the warrant process due to these egregious oversights, it first starts with her case—another red flag concerning the abuses that occurred during the 2016 election.