9 Key Points From Newly Declassified Report Details On FISA Abuse

Yesterday, Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell declassified a slew of footnotes from Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report on Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act abuse. In a cover letter to Sens. Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson, the Republican senators who had pushed for the declassification, Grenell noted that “transparency is now needed more than ever.” Grenell added that Attorney General William Barr concurred in the declassification decision as it relates to DOJ interests.

Wednesday’s declassification follows the release last week of newly declassified information in three footnotes: 302, 334, 350. Those footnotes revealed that the FBI had received information that the Steele dossier included Russian disinformation and that Steele’s primary sub-source did not have a “network of sources.” The additional information released this week builds on those revelations and adds some new ones.

Here are nine key points.

1. The U.K. Consented to Steele’s Cooperation
Christopher Steele, the man behind the Steele dossier that formed the basis of several FISA surveillance applications, cooperated with the IG’s investigations “with the consent of his government,” according to the newly declassified information. (We also now know that although Steele had suggested to the FBI that he had a “high-ranking” position, his former employer pegged him as holding only a “moderately senior” position.)

Whether Steele’s cooperation was complete and forthright, however, is another question. And whether MI6 and other elements of British intelligence are cooperating with Barr and U.S. Attorney John Durham’s probe into the targeting of the Trump campaign and administration likewise remains to be seen.

2. There Was Potentially A Lot More Spying on the Trump Campaign
It was clear even before yesterday’s additional declassifications that the “Obama Administration Spied on the Trump Campaign Big Time.” But now we know that in addition to the electronic surveillance of Trump campaign associate Carter Page, the FBI conducted “physical searches targeting Carter Page,” which could include “physical premises or personal property,” and that the FISA court authorized “overseas surveillance” of Page.

So, in addition to the FBI intercepting Page’s communications, including ones with members of the Trump campaign, the FBI also had access to any confidential campaign material that Page maintained at his residences or in hotel rooms, including on computers or thumb drives. We remain in the dark, however, concerning the breath of this intrusion into Trump campaign materials because Horowitz noted that his team did not review all of the material searched—just that information pertinent to his narrow inquiry related to FISA abuse.

This revelation concerns not just Trump and his campaign, but the constitutional rights of an innocent American citizen—Carter Page—who we now know suffered an even greater infringement of his Fourth Amendment rights than previously known, including physical searches of his property as late as July 13, 2017.

3. U.S. Intelligence Lacked Derogatory Information on Joseph Mifsud
The purported predicate for the launching of Crossfire Hurricane was comments from George Papadopoulos to an Australian diplomat, Alexander Downer, that the Russians had “dirt” on Hillary Clinton. Papadopoulos later revealed that Joseph Mifsud was the source of that information.

The IG report had reported that a search of the FBI’s database for Mifsud did not reveal any records indicating Mifsud was an FBI source. From yesterday’s declassification, we now know “that the FBI requested information on Mifsud from another U.S. government agency and received a response from the agency indicating that Mifsud had no relationship with the agency and the agency had no derogatory information on Mifsud.”

That’s quite the revelation: Our intelligence community lacked any derogatory information on the supposed Russian asset who fed Papadopoulos the inside skinny on the Kremlin’s machinations to dump dirt on Hillary right before the election.
The declassification raises even more questions: When did the FBI reach out to the other U.S. government agency? Was it shortly after launching Crossfire Hurricane? If not, why not? Wouldn’t that be the first step in any investigation into Papadopoulos’ concerning comments?

And while there was no derogatory information on Mifsud, what about favorable information on him? Was there any intel on Mifsud?

4. More Questions About the Predica
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