Another Piece of the Trump Puzzle: The Carter Page FISA Warrant - by Josh Marshall
By JOSH MARSHALL Published APRIL 11, 2017, 10:37 PM EDT
The Washington Post published a story this evening that adds a significant new piece to the Trump puzzle. The headline is that in the summer of 2016 the FBI obtained a FISA warrant to monitor the communications of Carter Page, a key player in the Trump/Russia story. Obtaining a FISA warrant is significant in itself since to do so the government must show probable cause that the target of the warrant is acting as the agent of a foreign power. What this means, what the government has to show is Link to tweet
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Let me run through what I believe are the key points in this story.
1. The article says that Page was the "only American to have had his communications directly targeted with a FISA warrant in 2016 as part of the Russia probe." That's a significant data point in itself since this appears to show categorically that none of the other frequently mentioned players were surveilled directly.
2. The warrant was apparently obtained in July 2016. At one point the article refers to the FISA warrant being obtained "last summer". But later it says the application for a FISA warrant "showed that the FBI and the Justice Department’s national security division have been seeking since July to determine how broad a network of accomplices Russia enlisted in attempting to influence the 2016 presidential election." Ergo, I think we know that the application was at least made in July. Conceivably it was granted in August. I'm not sure how long a period there can be between the two.
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http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/another-piece-of-the-trump-puzzle
