The
Declassified Impeachment Material Was Stunning, but What Came Before It Is
Worse
April 22, 2026 | Sundance |
Prior to 2018 any public mention of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
(FISA) would be cause for you to immediately lose your security clearance in
government. However, by mid-2018 DC officials were not only openly discussing
FISA in public settings, but the DOJ released a Top-Secret Compartmented
Intelligence Title-1 FISA warrant.
Why was a TSCI Title-1 FISA warrant made public in 2018?
The Carter Page FISA application and subsequent warrant would have been the
easiest document to keep hidden from the public. You cannot FOIA classified
documents. However, someone in the DOJ released their exclusive national
security equity. I am certain it was Andrew Weissmann who made the call.
Additionally, when the DOJ FISA application was made public, few people
noticed the date stamp on the application itself [copy from FISC 3/17/17].
Why was the DOJ releasing the warrant to the public, and why did they use that
specific copy that came from the FISC on March 17, 2017. Why not
release their own copies from their own DOJ-NSD files? What was it about the
FISC copy that made it the option of their choice?
Just as the Atkinson transcript, whistleblower report and IC IG
investigative material showed a fraudulent and corrupt impeachment effort, the
background details of the FISA application being made public shows the
fraudulent and corrupt intent of the Robert Mueller investigation that preceded
it.
You will remember the massive media debate in early 2018 about the FISA
application deployed against former short-time Trump campaign aide Carter
Page. The DOJ, at the time under the control of the Mueller special
counsel for all things Trump-Russia related, wouldn’t let congress see the FISA
application. Devin Nunes complained to House Speaker Paul Ryan.
Eventually a deal was struck and two members from the House Intelligence
committee (democrats and republicans) and two members from the House Judiciary
Committee, were allowed to go to Main Justice and read the FISA application,
but not copy it. Four congressmen were allowed to go read and take notes.
Trey Gowdy and John Ratcliffe represented the two republicans, and their notes
formed the basis for what later was called “The Nunes Memo.”
The Democrats were not happy with the claims in the Nunes memo, and
subsequently HPSCI ranking member Adam Schiff wrote the democrat version.
Both of those sets of memos then needed to be declassified, more delays,
before they could be made public. For weeks and weeks, the Nunes -vs-
Schiff memos were debated by both sides, with each saying their version was the
truth and the other party’s version was spin and/or false. All of
this was happening in January, February and March 2018.
Then, later in the summer, something really weird happened. On July
21, 2018, Main Justice completely reversed position on keeping the FISA
application secret, and for the first time in U.S. history a top secret
classified Title-1 FISA application was released to the public (with
redactions).
People were so filled with curiosity about the Carter Page FISA application
that few, heck, almost no one, stopped to ask why it was released?
Why the sudden secrecy reversal by the DOJ?
The FISA application was made public under the auspices of a Freedom of
Information Act request from the media. However, if you were
intellectually honest and curious that justification never made any
sense. If there was ever a document easy to keep hidden from the public,
a Title-1 top secret, classified, FISA application was that document. No
FOIA lawsuit was ever going to penetrate that firewall, it was simply too easy
for the government to keep hidden.
The FISA application was released over the weekend on July 21st and 22nd, 2018, a Saturday and Sunday. The
FISA was not released on a Friday afternoon, it was released on a Saturday.
Everyone quickly rushed to read the national security search warrant. Heck,
no one in the public had ever seen one before. The FISA application
confirmed the details of a Trump campaign official under a year of extensive
surveillance and search authority; but again, few stood back and asked why it
was being released.
Here’s the background:
Former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosensten gave testimony to the Senate in
June of 2020 {LINK}. Within Rosenstein’s election year and little
covered testimony, he revealed that Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his main
deputy Andrew Weissmann were completely in charge of Main Justice at the DOJ
during the time the special counsel investigation was happening. Attorney
General Jeff Sessions was recused, and DAG Rosenstein was in charge of how much
power and authority Mueller and Weissmann’s team held in the DOJ.
Rosenstein testified the special counsel had full control over everything
and anything related to Trump-Russia, including the Carter Page FISA
application the special counsel had re-submitted for the third renewal on June
29, 2017.
Anything that remotely touched the Trump-Russia investigation was completely
and unilaterally controlled by Mueller and Weissmann, including any ancillary
investigation that would come as an outcome from anything to do with
Trump-Russia (the SSCI leak by James Wolfe is one example)
Rosenstein also testified he deferred everything to Mueller/Weissmann and
never challenged any of their requests for expanded investigative scope or
authority. Rosenstein felt the special counsel was in charge, and
anything they wanted – they got.
As Deputy AG Rosenstein said all the special counsel operations were part of
their investigative authority, and he felt he had no place in questioning,
challenging or refusing anything related to their investigative authority.
Mueller/Weissmann had full control.
That June 2020 testimony was the final piece of the puzzle as to who
authorized the release of the Carter Page FISA application to the public.
It was Andrew Weissmann; but why?
♦ In the background of June and July 2018, unbeknownst to the public at the
time, Inspector General Michael Horowitz had just discovered that FBI lawyer
Kevin Clinesmith fabricated an email, which was used as part of the FISA
application.
The CIA told Clinesmith that Carter Page was working for them.
Clinesmith doctored the email and told the FBI and DOJ that Carter Page was NOT
working for the CIA. The exact opposite of the CIA statement to
him. If the truth was known about Page working for the CIA, the DOJ would
never have been able to get the second renewal of the FISA application in April
2017.
The INSD office of Inspector General Michael Horowitz discovered the
Clinesmith material lie. At the time in June 2018 no one else knew. However,
internally the Mueller/Weissmann special counsel knew exactly what IG Horowitz
discovered. Now they had a problem. The special counsel had renewed
the application using the Clinesmith lie on June 29, 2017.
If the search warrant application was based on fraud, the search warrant
could be invalidated by the same court that authorized it. That would be
a problem because legal cases against Paul Manafort, and Michael Flynn, along
with the investigations of Michael Flynn Jr., George Papadopoulos and Walid
Phares were all based on evidence obtained by the fraudulently constructed
search warrant.
The Weissmann special counsel had a fruit of the poisonous tree problem on
their hands. When the FISA court (FISC) finds out about the results of
the IG report, which will include the fabrication by Kevin Clinesmith, the FISC
could revoke and invalidate the authority of the Title-1 search warrant.
If the FISC did that, all of the evidence against Manafort and Flynn would
disappear, and they would have to drop any investigative path that came from
the exploitation of an unlawful warrant.
♦ The search warrant was already getting massive scrutiny from congress and
the public. People quickly discovered the FBI had used the Steele Dossier
as the ‘Woods file’ underpinning the application. People were finding out
the Steele Dossier was based on fictitious and debunked information the FBI
knew about in January and February of 2017, even before the second and third
renewals.
On July 12th, 2018, the Weissmann special counsel jumped
into action and drafted a letter to the FISC saying despite recent information
from congressional investigations, the predicate for probable cause still
existed (see below). This letter was written to the FISC, filed quietly, and
never shared with DAG Rosenstein or congress. It was a very big lie from
the Weissmann special counsel. [NOTE, only the FISA court knew this
letter existed until 2020.]
[NOTE, only the FISC knew this letter existed until 2020. When the
FISC saw the IG report and the details about Kevin Clinesmith the FISC demanded
the DOJ send a copy of that July 2018 letter to congress for oversight and
accountability – SEE HERE]
Notice this letter to the
FISA Court (July 12) was nine days before the FISA application was made public
(July 21).
Weissmann lied to the FISC to protect his criminal cases which were at a
very important stage in mid 2018. By the time the FISC found out about
the Clinesmith fabrications in late 2019 it was too late. The fraudulent
search warrant had been made public, the cases that used the warrant authority
were over and the special counsel had concluded.
Angered by DOJ Inspector General revealing the Clinesmith manipulation, the
FISA Court (FISC) demanded that congress be notified, and Bill Barr did as the FISC requested… he told congress. In essence,
the judicial branch (FISC) told the executive branch (AG Barr) to tell the
legislative branch (Senate Judiciary Committee) about the DOJ’s intentional
lies. Congress did nothing about it.
♦ However, going back to that critical time in 2018, there was also another
issue surrounding the FISA application that also surfaced mid-summer providing
a second reason to make the FISA application public.
An indictment of Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) Security
Director James Wolfe was unsealed in the DC court {June 7, 2018, LINK}.
James Wolfe was busted for leaking information to journalists from the
Senate Intelligence Committee, one of those leaks was the Carter Page FISA
application, which Wolfe leaked to Ali Watkins on March 17, 2017, a year
earlier.
Wolfe was going to face a criminal trial for charges related to the leaking
of that FISA application. Again, this was problematic for the special
counsel because that leak was part of the reason why the special counsel was
appointed.
On March 17, 2017, SSCI Vice-Chairman Mark Warner wanted a special counsel
appointed. There was a debate about whether President Trump was under an
investigation of any sort. Senator Warner’s motive for the special
counsel was exactly because he knew the DC machinery needed to throw a bag over
all of the corrupt targeting of Donald Trump; a special counsel could do that,
and be weaponized to continue the attacks.
Senator Mark Warner told SSCI Security Director James Wolfe to leak the FISA
application on March 17, 2017. Three days later, March 20, 2017, FBI
Director James Comey first admitted publicly, while testifying to congress,
that President Trump was under investigation since July of the previous year
(2016). The timing of the two events was not accidental. Warner and
Comey both wanted a special counsel investigation put into place for the same
reason. Both needed a cover-up operation.
Fast forward to the end of December 2017 and James Wolfe is busted for the
FISA application leak. FBI Special Agent Brian Dugan had worked the case
for six months; he had James Wolfe completely nailed and Wolfe admitted to his
conduct.
The investigative evidence against the Senate Security Director had to first
flow through the special counsel before it could be given to a grand jury,
because the special counsel had control over anything that touched Trump-Russia
and that included their FISA application which James Wolfe leaked on March 17,
2017, to Ali Watkins.
The criminal case file against Wolfe went to Main Justice in early January
2018. Between January and late April 2018, the Special Counsel went to work
diffusing the damage within the Wolfe evidence files. What they did with that
evidence file is jaw-dropping (Warner/Waldman text messages etc), but that’s
for another story.
In late April 2018 the now weakened evidence file against James Wolfe was
given back to DC U.S. Attorney Jessie Liu and a grand jury was seated May 3,
2018. The Wolfe criminal indictment was unsealed June 7, 2018.
♦ After lying to the FISA court about a justified predicate still existing
on July 12,2018, Andrew Weissmann made the FISA application public on the
weekend of July 22, 2018, for two reasons:
(1) To protect the predicate of his search warrant authority; and by extension
preserve the cases he created using it; and by extension avoid the fruit of the
poisonous tree issue by diluting the need or the FISC to invalidate the Title-1
search warrant.
(2) To render moot and remove the most explosive element of the criminal
case against James Wolfe, the leak of a TSCI FISA warrant.
It was the special counsel, specifically Andrew Weissmann, who released the
FISA warrant to the public.
However, you will notice that Andrew Weissmann did not release the copy of
the FISA warrant from the files of the DOJ-National Security Division. No, he
made public the FISA warrant that James Wolfe had leaked to Ali Watkins; that’s
why the public release carried the FISC stamp 3/17/17.
Few people knew that.
Even fewer knew why.
Now you do.
The fraudulent Crossfire Hurricane investigation of Donald Trump morphed
into the Robert Mueller special counsel investigation of President Trump. The
same DOJ/FBI people participated in both. The week after the
Mueller/Weissmann investigation collapsed under the weight of Robert Mueller’s
now infamous congressional testimony, the next operation commenced. The
IC IG Atkinson impeachment operation was triggered.
The gate to expose the corrupt DOJ and FBI officials, lies at the end of the
path walked by the Mueller-Weissmann special counsel. Follow that
Weissmann trail and you walk right in the front door of Main Justice and the
Washington DC FBI office.
Senate Intelligence Committee Vice-Chairman Mark Warner told SSCI Security
Director James Wolfe to leak the FISA application (2017).
FBI Director Chris Wray gave Senator Mark Warner a heads up that the FBI
found out about it (2017).
Robert Mueller and Andrew Weissmann then began scrubbing the evidence
(2018).
Wolfe’s lawyers told the DOJ they would subpoena Mark Warner to testify.
Charges against James Wolfe were dropped (2018).
