To set the stage for the Fox News article that discusses some of those communications, here are some entries from a Paul Sperry twitter thread re McCabe:
BREAKING: 4 days after the NYT broke the story of Hillary using private unauthorized server, McCabe privately met with her former campaign co-chair. Then, 20 days after IC IG forced FBI to open investigation of Hillary, McCabe suddenly promoted to HQ & controls the "special" case
With all that in mind, would you trust McCabe to run a fair and impartial investigation of anything involving the Clintons? Recusal for McCabe from the Hillary email case would seem to a no brainer, yet McCabe fought furiously to remain involved. Apparently it was only the determination of James Baker, Comey's counsel, that succeeded in forcing McCabe to step aside. And, of course, we also know from Baker's testimony that the top level of FBI executives were fully aware that the Russia Hoax was totally driven by Clinton campaign operatives, such as Michael Sussman and Glenn Simpson's Fusion GPS. But McCabe was a key to pushing the Clinton Russia Hoax operation within the FBI.
How key? That's what Fox News gets into in FBI clashed with DOJ over potential 'bias' of source for surveillance warrant: McCabe-Page texts.
Here's what we learn from the handful of McCabe/Page texts.
First of all, we see that Page was feeding McCabe red meat type anti-Trump articles from obviously partisan sources, such as Benjamin Wittes at the Lawfare Blog. To give a flavor for those articles, Wittes (a close friend and supporter of Jim Comey) characterizes Trump as "an affirmative national security threat" and the Trump administration as "malevolence tempered by incompetence." To realize that Page and McCabe were feeding on such obviously intemperate rhetoric even as they were officially involved in opening a Full CI Investigation on the Trump campaign, marshalling support for a FISA on the Trump campaign, and then pushing to get a Special Counsel appointed to dog the newly elected President--that speaks volumes for their anti-Trump commitment and lack of professional balance.
However, the main thrust of these texts has to do with the effort to obtain a FISA on Carter Page. It turns out that the FBI's was receiving significant pushback regarding the bias of the sources who were known to be behind the FISA application: Christopher Steele, the Clinton oppo research firm Fusion GPS run by Glenn Simpson, and Clinton/DNC attorney Michael Sussman. The pushback was coming from Stu Evans, who was the the DOJ's National Security Division deputy assistant attorney general, and who was influencing Deputy AG Sally Yates' views on the FISA application.
The problem was that the FBI was using obviously partisan and highly biased sources to support just as obviously (to anyone, unlike the FISA court, who knew the actual facts) evidence free assertions, such as these, summarized by Fox:
The FISA application eventually filed by the FBI on Oct. 21, 2016 stated, "The F.B.I. believes [Carter] Page has been the subject of targeted recruitment by the Russian government."
The FBI went on to allege that Carter Page "has established relationships with Russian government officials, including Russian intelligence officers," and that the FBI believed "the Russian government’s efforts are being coordinated with [Carter] Page and perhaps other individuals associated with” Trump's campaign. Page, the FBI told the FISA court, “has been collaborating and conspiring with the Russian government.”
Lisa Page was at the center of the all this, coordinating the efforts to win over Stu Evans, working with Peter Strzok and McCabe. This full court press lobbying of Evans is seen in the following texts:
"OI [Office of Intelligence] now has a robust explanation re any possible bias of the chs [confidential human source] in the package," Lisa Page wrote to McCabe on Oct. 12, 2016. "Don't know what the holdup is now, other than Stu's continued concerns."
It's unclear whether the confidential source in question was Steele or another individual. "Stu" was an apparent reference to Stuart Evans, then the DOJ's National Security Division deputy assistant attorney general. In one previously unearthed and since-unredacted text message, former FBI Special Agent Peter Strzok texted Lisa Page that he was "Currently fighting with Stu for this FISA" in late 2016.
"Strong operational need to have in place before Monday if at all possible, which means to ct tomorrow," Page added. "I communicated you and boss's [Comey's?] green light to Stu earlier, and just sent an email to Stu asking where things stood. This might take a high-level push. Will keep you posted."
And, as we know, the FBI was ultimately successful--with devastatingly divisive results for the country. Based on totally trumped up oppo research narratives.
We have a lot more revelations to look forward to.
I don't think the House committee ever interviewed Evans- at least I don't remember it.
ReplyDeleteOne thing with this though- it is likely that Page turned over all her texts, not just those to and from Strzok. I would love to see the entire set.
It's entirely possible that Evans did get interviewed. Someone who would know--I can't recall whether it was Nunes or someone else--stated that they interviewed something like 88 people. How many have been identified? A handful so far. Lots more to learn!
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