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.
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