Tag: New Economic School

FISA Memo Deconstructed

Notes:

  1. Memo text was OCR’ed, I have made corrections to mis-scans, but typo may remain.
  2. Wikipedia links for individuals were added, for background.
  3. Original Classification was TOP SECRET/NOFORN:
    1. TOP SECRET – shall be applied to information, the unauthorized disclosure of which reasonably could be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security that the original classification authority is able to identify or describe.
    2. NOFORN – the statement of NOFORN (meaning “no foreign nationals”) is applied to any information that may not be released to any non-U.S. citizen.
  4. The Memo contains no paragraph/portion marking and does not appear to adhere to the guidelines for marking of “Derivatively Classified Information”.  {I am assuming that DOJ/FBI and House marking requirements are similar to DOD requirements.}
  5. The Memo has no “Classification Authority Block” as required by EO-13526CAB
  6. Subsequent to the first page of the memo, the marking are:
    header
    Header
    Unclass
    Footer

    which I have confirmed is incorrect, they should contain the declassification authority.

  7. The threshold for issuing a FISA warrant is; “To issue a FISA order authorizing investigators to eavesdrop on an American, a judge must agree that there is reason to believe the target was knowingly engaging in clandestine intelligence activities for a foreign power that violate American criminal laws — or is knowingly aiding or conspiring with someone else who is doing that.”
    1. Thus Dr. Carter W. Page was either a foreign agent, who reported to a foreign power, or,
    2. Conspiring with someone (President elect Trump, or campaign staff) who was.  But since Dr. Page was not openly associated with the campaign it would be necessary to show that he was clandestinely associated with the campaign.
  8. The memo addresses only the FISA warrant re: Carter Page, it does not address the speculated FISA warrant used to Surveil The Trump Organization Mail Server.  It does not address other campaign staff who are speculated to have been surveilled.

Contrary to earlier reporting in the New York Times, which cited FBI sources as saying that the agency did not believe that the private server in Donald Trump’s Trump Tower which was connected to a Russian bank had any nefarious purpose, the FBI’s counter-intelligence arm, sources say, re-drew an earlier FISA court request around possible financial and banking offenses related to the server. The first request, which, sources say, named Trump, was denied back in June {2016}, but the second was drawn more narrowly and was granted in October {2016} after evidence was presented of a server, possibly related to the Trump campaign, and its alleged links to two banks; SVB Bank and Russia’s Alfa Bank. While the Times story speaks of metadata, sources suggest that a FISA warrant was granted to look at the full content of emails and other related documents that may concern US persons.

Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/443752/trump-kompromat-story-its-all-disturbing

 

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