The Spygate Scandal

[Mystic Wanderer]

Looks like the judge that signed the FISA application for the FBI to spy on certain people in the Trump Campaign will be stepping down earlier than anticipated. 
Hmmm...   Imagine that!
Well, she got off easy, only losing her job. I wonder if she'll get to keep her pension?
I don't really have bad feelings towards her, because the documents she approved were supposed to be vetted already. Now, if she knew they weren't true, then that would be an entirely different story! Did she know? Was she a part of the Deep State creatures as well?

From what I hear, all the people who signed the FISA application are also in BIG trouble and will probably go to jail.
Merry Christmas to the U.S.A.!

WASHINGTON — A secretive court that oversees national security surveillance has taken a step toward addressing dysfunction in the system detailed in a recent inspector general report, ordering the Justice Department to identify all cases that an F.B.I. lawyer heavily criticized in the report has worked on, according to an order made public on Friday.

Separately, the court announced that its presiding judge, Rosemary M. Collyer, is stepping down nine weeks earlier than planned for health reasons. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. of the Supreme Court has selected Judge James E. Boasberg to succeed her in that role in the new year. He will be the first judge appointed by a Democrat to lead the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court since 1995.

The developments underscored that the court has entered a period of turmoil and change after the report this month by the Justice Department inspector general that uncovered damning inaccuracies and omissions in applications to wiretap a former Trump campaign adviser, Carter Page.

The report has raised questions about the system by which the F.B.I. obtains wiretap orders and search warrants targeting suspected spies and terrorists under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA. The Justice Department must convince a judge on the FISA court that the target is probably an agent of a foreign power, and it is supposed to disclose any exculpatory information — not just facts that make the target look suspicious.

But the inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, found that the F.B.I. cherry-picked and misstated the evidence about Mr. Page. Among the problems was that the law enforcement officials presented his long history of meeting with Russian intelligence officials but did not tell the FISA court that Mr. Page had sometimes told the C.I.A. about those meetings.

One of Mr. Horowitz’s most serious findings was that during the period when the Justice Department was preparing to seek its third renewal of the Page wiretap order in 2017, a lower-level F.B.I. lawyer assigned to assist the Russia investigation team, Kevin Clinesmith, misled a colleague by altering an email from the C.I.A. about its relationship with him.

Mr. Horowitz has referred his findings about Mr. Clinesmith, who has resigned from the F.B.I., to prosecutors. The Justice Department also informed the FISA court about the issue in classified filings in October and November, according to a newly declassified order. But the order, issued Dec. 5 and made public on Friday, indicated that the court wants more action.

Judge Collyer, as the presiding judge on the 11-member court, ordered the department to identify any other FISA applications that Mr. Clinesmith may have worked on. If there are any others, she said, the department or F.B.I. must explain what steps it would take to ensure every fact in them was accurate.

Judge Collyer also asked whether the Justice Department was referring the matter to Mr. Clinesmith’s bar association for potential disciplinary action, like losing his license. (He was not named in the inspector general report or in the newly declassified order, which is partly redacted, but people familiar with the Russia inquiry have identified him.)

A spokesman for the Justice Department, which had until Friday to respond, declined to comment. A lawyer for Mr. Clinesmith did not immediate respond to a request for comment.

Read the full article here: Source