FISA-Gate: The Plot to Destroy Our Republic

by Justin Raimondo
Antiwar.com
Feb. 05, 2018

You don't need any special analytical abilities to understand "the memo" and its meaning. A simple reading reveals that allegations of skullduggery peeking by the Obama administration during the presidential campaign were entirely accurate: the memo just filled us in on the details. And while the debate has largely been over whether the proper legal procedures were followed by the FBI and administration officials in spying on Carter Page -- someone only marginally connected to the Trump campaign -- the real question is: why were they sneaking around Page at all?

Oh, he claimed to be an "informal advisor" to the Russian government: he had business interests in Russia and met with Russian officials. Furthermore, and most importantly, he opposed the anti-Russian hysteria that permeates official Washington, and he often said -- in public speeches as well as privately -- that US sanctions against Russia are a mistake.

But so what? Since when is it illegal to hold these views?

Page was never a "Russian agent," and the FBI never proved that he was or is. Instead, they submitted that phony BuzzFeed "dossier" to the FISA court as "evidence" justifying their hot pursuit of him on more than one occasion. They did so without telling the judge who paid for the dossier (it was the Clinton campaign, as Trump claimed when this first came out) and they withheld other important details about its provenance -- including that it was written by Christopher Steele, a "former" British intelligence agent who openly expressed a passionate desire to see Trump defeated. Nor had they verified the information in the dossier related to Page, because they "didn't have time," as former DNI chief James Clapper has said on numerous occasions.

Page was targeted and the information gleaned from listening in on his phone conversations, reading his email, and god knows what other sneaky intrusions, was leaked to the media in a concerted campaign to influence the outcome of the election. So, yes, there was "collusion" -- except it wasn't a pact between Putin and Trump but rather an alliance between Hillary's campaign and the national security bureaucracy to get her elected. In effect, the top leadership of the FBI became an adjunct of the Clinton campaign -- and, after Trump won, they executed a plan to frame him for "collusion" and oust him.

Read More