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  1. #1

    Trump-Russia continues: FBI Got a FISA Warrant for Carter Page in 2016

    In case all the Syria miniseries drowned out things that actually matter for a few days, we're back, and it's a new week, so that means more Trump-Russia!

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...=.1fefba7ebd2e

    The FBI obtained a secret court order last summer to monitor the communications of an adviser to presidential candidate Donald Trump, part of an investigation into possible links between Russia and the campaign, law enforcement and other U.S. officials said.

    The FBI and the Justice Department obtained the warrant targeting Carter Page’s communications after convincing a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judge that there was probable cause to believe Page was acting as an agent of a foreign power, in this case Russia, according to the officials.


    This is the clearest evidence so far that the FBI had reason to believe during the 2016 presidential campaign that a Trump campaign adviser was in touch with Russian agents. Such contacts are now at the center of an investigation into whether the campaign coordinated with the Russian government to swing the election in Trump’s favor.

    Page has not been accused of any crimes, and it is unclear whether the Justice Department might later seek charges against him or others in connection with Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election. The counterintelligence investigation into Russian efforts to influence U.S. elections began in July, officials have said. Most such investigations don’t result in criminal charges.

    The officials spoke about the court order on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss details of a counterintelligence probe.

    During an interview with the Washington Post editorial page staff in March 2016, Trump identified Page, who had previously been an investment banker in Moscow, as a foreign policy adviser to his campaign. Campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks later described Page’s role as “informal.”

    Page has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in his dealings with the Trump campaign or Russia.

    “This confirms all of my suspicions about unjustified, politically motivated government surveillance,” Page said in an interview Tuesday. “I have nothing to hide.” He compared surveillance of him to the eavesdropping that the FBI and Justice Department conducted against civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

    The White House, FBI and Justice Department declined to comment.

    FBI Director James B. Comey disclosed in public testimony to the House Intelligence Committee last month that the bureau is investigating efforts by the Russian government to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.

    Comey said this includes investigating the “nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia’s efforts.”

    Comey declined to comment during the hearing about any individuals, including Page, who worked in Moscow for Merrill Lynch a decade ago and who has said he invested in Russian energy giant Gazprom. In a letter to Comey in September, Page had said he had sold his Gazprom investment.

    During the hearing last month, Democratic lawmakers repeatedly singled out Page’s contacts in Russia as a cause for concern.

    The judges who rule on Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) requests oversee the nation’s most sensitive national security cases, and their warrants are some of the most closely guarded secrets in the world of U.S. law enforcement and intelligence gathering. Any FISA application has to be approved at the highest levels of the Justice Department and the FBI.

    Applications for FISA warrants, Comey said, are often thicker than his wrists, and that thickness represents all the work Justice Department attorneys and FBI agents have to do to convince a judge that such surveillance is appropriate in an investigation.


    The government’s application for the surveillance order targeting Page included a lengthy declaration that laid out investigators’ basis for believing that Page was an agent of the Russian government and knowingly engaged in clandestine intelligence activities on behalf of Moscow, officials said.


    Among other things, the application cited contacts that he had with a Russian intelligence operative in New York City in 2013, officials said. Those contacts had earlier surfaced in a federal espionage case brought by the Justice Department against another Russian agent. In addition, the application said Page had other contacts with Russian operatives that have not been publicly disclosed, officials said.

    An application for electronic surveillance under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act need not show evidence of a crime. But the information obtained through the intercepts can be used to open a criminal investigation and may be used in a prosecution.

    The application also showed that the FBI and the Justice Department’s national security division have been seeking since July to determine how broad a network of accomplices Russia enlisted in attempting to influence the 2016 presidential election, the officials said.

    Since the 90-day warrant was first issued, it has been renewed more than once by the FISA court, the officials said.

    In February, Page told “PBS NewsHour” that he was a “junior member of the [Trump] campaign’s foreign policy advisory group.”

    A former Trump campaign adviser said Page submitted policy memos to the campaign and several times asked to be given a meeting with Trump, though his request was never granted. “He was one of the more active ones, in terms of being in touch,” the adviser said.

    The campaign adviser said Page participated in three dinners held for the campaign’s volunteer foreign policy advisers in the spring and summer of 2016, coming from New York to Washington to meet with the group. Although Trump did not attend, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), a top Trump confidant who became his attorney general, attended one meeting of the group with Page in late summer, the campaign adviser said.

    Page’s role as an adviser to the Trump campaign drew alarm last year from more-established foreign policy experts in part because of Page’s effusive praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his criticism of U.S. sanctions over Moscow’s military intervention in Ukraine.

    In July, Page traveled to Moscow, where he delivered a speech harshly critical of the United States’ policy toward Russia.

    While there, Page allegedly met with Igor Sechin, a Putin confidant and chief executive of the energy company Rosneft, according to a dossier compiled by a former British intelligence officer and cited at a congressional hearing by Rep. Adam B. Schiff (Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. Officials said some of the information in the dossier has been verified by U.S. intelligence agencies, and some of it hasn’t, while other parts are unlikely to ever be proved or disproved.


    On Tuesday, Page dismissed what he called “the dodgy dossier” of false allegations.

    Page has denied such a meeting occurred, saying he has never met Sechin in his life and that he wants to testify before Congress to clear his name. A spokesman for Rosneft told Politico in September that the notion that Page met with Sechin was “absurd.” Page said in September that he briefly met Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich during that trip.

    Comey has declined to discuss the details of the Russia probe, but in an appearance last month, he cited the process for getting FISA warrants as proof that the government’s surveillance powers are very carefully used, with significant oversight.

    “It is a pain in the neck to get permission to conduct electronic surveillance in the United States. And that’s good,’’ he told an audience at the University of Texas in Austin.

    Officials have said the FBI and the Justice Department were particularly reluctant to seek FISA warrants of campaign figures during the 2016 presidential race because of concerns that agents would inadvertently eavesdrop on political talk. To obtain a FISA warrant, prosecutors must show that a significant purpose of the warrant is to obtain foreign intelligence information.

    [How hard is it to get an intelligence wiretap? Pretty hard.]

    Page is the only American to have had his communications directly targeted with a FISA warrant in 2016 as part of the Russia probe, officials said.

    The FBI routinely obtains FISA warrants to monitor the communications of foreign diplomats in the United States, including the Russian ambassador, Sergey Kislyak. The conversations between Kislyak and Michael Flynn, who became Trump’s first national security adviser, were recorded in December. In February, The Washington Post reported that Flynn misled Vice President-elect Mike Pence and others about his discussions with Kislyak, prompting Trump’s decision to fire him.

    In March, Trump made unsubstantiated claims about U.S. surveillance of Trump Tower in New York. Later that month, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and a Trump transition official, charged that details about people “associated with the incoming administration, details with little apparent foreign intelligence value” were “widely disseminated” in intelligence community reporting. He said none of the surveillance was related to Russia. The FISA order on Page is unrelated to either charge.

    Last month, the former director of national intelligence, James R. Clapper Jr., told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that U.S. law enforcement agencies did not have any FISA orders to monitor the communications of Trump, either as a candidate or as a president-elect, or his campaign. But Clapper did not address whether there were any FISA warrants targeting Trump associates.

    Three years before Page became an adviser to the Trump campaign, he came to the attention of FBI counterintelligence agents, who learned that Russian spy suspects had sought to use Page as a source for information.

    In that case, one of the Russian suspects, Victor Pobodnyy — who was posing as a diplomat and was later charged by federal prosecutors with acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government — was captured on tape in 2013 discussing an effort to get information and documents from Page. That discussion was detailed in a federal complaint filed against another Kremlin agent. The court documents in that spy case only identify Page as “Male 1.’’ Officials familiar with the case said that “Male 1’’ is Page.

    In one secretly recorded conversation, detailed in the complaint, Pobodnyy said Page “wrote that he is sorry, he went to Moscow and forgot to check his inbox, but he wants to meet when he gets back. I think he is an idiot and forgot who I am. Plus he writes to me in Russian [to] practice the language. He flies to Moscow more often than I do. He got hooked on Gazprom thinking that if they have a project, he could rise up. Maybe he can. I don’t know, but it’s obvious that he wants to earn lots of money.’’

    The same court document says that in June 2013, Page told FBI agents that he met Pobodnyy at an energy symposium in New York, where they exchanged contact information. In subsequent meetings, Page shared with the Russian his outlook on the state of the energy industry, as well as documents about the energy business, according to the court papers.

    In the secret tape, Pobodnyy said he liked the man’s “enthusiasm” but planned to use him to get information and give him little in return. “You promise a favor for a favor. You get the documents from him and tell him to go f--- himself,’’ Pobodnyy said on the tape, according to court papers.

    Page has said the information he provided to the Russians in 2013 was innocuous, describing it as “basic immaterial information and publicly available research documents.” He said he had assisted the prosecutors in their case against Evgeny Buryakov, who was convicted of espionage.

    Rosalind S. Helderman contributed to this report.

  2. #2
    You know the spin will be; "See! This shows that we were spied on."

    Also doesn't this show Trump's tweet outed an investigation.
    Last edited by Paranoid Android; 2017-04-11 at 11:46 PM.

  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by Shon237 View Post
    You know the spin will be; "See! This shows that we were spied on."
    Yep! Sadly the FBI got one of those pesky warrant things that law enforcement is supposed to get.

  4. #4
    So are we ever going to get any of this surveillance data - as in any actual evidence of wrong doing? Or is it just going to continue to be innuendo and bullshit for the next 4 or 8 years?

    Contrary to what you seem to believe, Skroe, there are more important matters, like Trump's policies that deserve discussion rather than this nonsense. And yes that includes the Syria and North Korea situation, which already have gotten people killed and might get a lot more people killed if things go far enough sideways.

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by Skroe View Post
    In case all the Syria miniseries drowned out things that actually matter for a few days, we're back, and it's a new week, so that means more Trump-Russia!

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...=.1fefba7ebd2e
    Carter Paige is about the most tertiary person you could possibly pin down as a "Trump adviser". This guy was not a key part of the campaign.

    The whole Russian-Trump collusion story fails the smell test in a big way. If every tiny detail about Trump is being leaked, how does it make sense that there is a big bombshell that is not being leaked? It seems pretty unlikely, after all this time and heavy scrutiny, that there is some smoking gun that isn't being leaked, and isn't being brought to the attention of the public in an ASAP way.

    I sort of doubt James Comey will stroll out and say, "Yeah we have had the goods on Trump for months but, we figured we would just let him continue as president until we finished 100% of our investigation that will lead to immediate impeachment."

    I know a lot of you guys want this to happen but, it's obviously not going to happen.

  6. #6
    Banned sheggaro's Avatar
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    Nothing's ever gonna come out of this.

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Shon237 View Post
    You know the spin will be; "See! This shows that we were spied on."

    Also doesn't this show Trump's tweet outed an investigation.
    Still, good thing it's under investigation. It's bad enough the elections were influenced from the outside, it would be extremely dangerous if the Russians had help on the inside.
    "The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference."

    Elie Wiesel (1928 – 2016)

  8. #8
    Comment from a redditor

    "Can't stop laughing. Trump team was trying to pivot to center this week with only 2 1/2 weeks left until judgment on the first 100.
    Morning: Jeff Sessions refers to immigrants as filth.
    Afternoon: Sean Spicer does some holocaust denial (probably due to incompetence)
    Evening; Sean Spicer apologizes for distracting from Trump trying to "destabilize the middle east region"
    Also, evening: Trump Campaign team member under FISA monitoring for TREASON
    If another article drops tonight I expect to wake up to war with North Korea."
    Quote Originally Posted by Connal View Post
    From my perspective it is an uncle who was is a "simple" slat of the earth person, who has religous beliefs I may or may not fully agree with, but who in the end of the day wants to go hope, kiss his wife, and kids, and enjoy their company.
    Connal defending child molestation

  9. #9
    The illusionary mountain continues to grow. Trump should have been double impeached by now with all these leaks and evidence claimed.

  10. #10
    Legendary! TZucchini's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tijuana View Post
    The whole Russian-Trump collusion story fails the smell test in a big way.
    Active. FBI. Investigation. Say the words with me.

    I sort of doubt James Comey will stroll out and say, "Yeah we have had the goods on Trump for months but, we figured we would just let him continue as president until we finished 100% of our investigation that will lead to immediate impeachment."
    It's clear that you don't understand the intricacies of criminal investigations. Particularly one of this magnitude. A prosecutor would never bring charges against Trump unless they had an absolutely airtight case. They're not going to finish 80% of the investigation and say "well, it looks pretty bad at this point, let's just bring charges!"



    Quote Originally Posted by sheggaro View Post
    Nothing's ever gonna come out of this.
    Something has already come out of this. Trumps credibility and has been irreparably damaged. He had help from the Russians. It's possible that he had a Russian spy within his campaign. Several advisers have resigned over their lies about meeting with Russian officials.

    It's either collusion or incompetence.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Dextroden View Post
    The illusionary mountain continues to grow. Trump should have been double impeached by now with all these leaks and evidence claimed.
    What do you Trumpsters have against active FBI investigations? I thought that shit was your bag.
    Eat yo vegetables

  11. #11
    Amazing the FBI doing so much trump investigation and Zero clinton investigation.

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by Bedian View Post
    Still pushing that russian horseshit lol
    Yep - and the sooner the Russian horseshit is driven out of the whitehouse - the better.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Zeek Daniels View Post
    Amazing the FBI doing so much trump investigation and Zero clinton investigation.
    LOL - comments like that make me laugh, they show so much ignorance in so little space

    Challenge Mode : Play WoW like my disability has me play:
    You will need two people, Brian MUST use the mouse for movement/looking and John MUST use the keyboard for casting, attacking, healing etc.
    Briand and John share the same goal, same intentions - but they can't talk to each other, however they can react to each other's in game activities.
    Now see how far Brian and John get in WoW.


  13. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by Zeek Daniels View Post
    Amazing the FBI doing so much trump investigation and Zero clinton investigation.
    They already did Clinton investigation. Did you miss it? Because it was kind of a big deal during the election.

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by Skroe View Post
    In case all the Syria miniseries drowned out things that actually matter for a few days, we're back, and it's a new week, so that means more Trump-Russia!

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...=.1fefba7ebd2e
    Yes, whether an insignificant aid possibly had a phone call with a Russian during a campaign (had no power to do anything for US interests) is drastically more important than current foreign policy and whether we are going to war w/regime change or not. Uh-uh... Way to get your priorities straight. Besides, all they have is that they had a warrant. No other accompanying information. I am sure the fact he had dealings in Russian businesses in the past and has had conversations abroad led to him being put on the radar for sure, but still nothing that affects Trump.

    What I do think is relevant is that Trump has had business dealings with Russia and abroad so many of his contacts/acquaintences happen to have some type of connections with Russia. Does that mean they are currently engaged in espionage and are traitors? Because they have had business dealings in the past?
    Last edited by GreenJesus; 2017-04-12 at 01:06 AM.

  15. #15
    Dreadlord yoma's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Toxsins View Post
    So are we ever going to get any of this surveillance data - as in any actual evidence of wrong doing? Or is it just going to continue to be innuendo and bullshit for the next 4 or 8 years?

    Contrary to what you seem to believe, Skroe, there are more important matters, like Trump's policies that deserve discussion rather than this nonsense. And yes that includes the Syria and North Korea situation, which already have gotten people killed and might get a lot more people killed if things go far enough sideways.
    You're right. Clearly this whole Trump debacle is Skroe's fault. If only they had created more forum posts about Trump's other numerous idiotic qualities, we wouldn't be in this hot mess.
    "It is not wise to judge others based on your own preconceptions or by their appearances."

  16. #16
    The Unstoppable Force Belize's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Zeek Daniels View Post
    Amazing the FBI doing so much trump investigation and Zero clinton investigation.
    Keep beating that dead horse, some day you'll find the proof Clinton ordered Benghazi from a pizza shop basement.

  17. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by Zeek Daniels View Post
    Amazing the FBI doing so much trump investigation and Zero clinton investigation.
    Wow, it's like you managed to miss the FBI investigation that happened during campaign season. Assuming of course that we're talking about the emails, and not some conspiracy shit.

    We're reaching new lows of cognitive dissonance.
    Quote Originally Posted by Zantos View Post
    There are no 2 species that are 100% identical.
    Quote Originally Posted by Redditor
    can you leftist twits just fucking admit that quantum mechanics has fuck all to do with thermodynamics, that shit is just a pose?

  18. #18
    The Unstoppable Force Belize's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bedian View Post
    Hell im the biggest liberal crying bleeding heart but come on literally zero evidence and this is still news lol
    Well, I'm convinced.

    I mean, how could a crying liberal bleeding heart ever lie.

  19. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by Bedian View Post
    Hell im the biggest liberal crying bleeding heart but come on literally zero evidence and this is still news lol
    The biggest liberal crying bleeding heart is 'all aboard the trump train?' (According to your own words).

    Uh huh. Sure.
    Quote Originally Posted by Zantos View Post
    There are no 2 species that are 100% identical.
    Quote Originally Posted by Redditor
    can you leftist twits just fucking admit that quantum mechanics has fuck all to do with thermodynamics, that shit is just a pose?

  20. #20
    The Unstoppable Force Belize's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bedian View Post
    Dkesnt change that there is no evidence lol
    Alex, I'll take "What is an investigation" for 300 please!

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