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FISA-GATE
IN HIS TOWNHALL ARTICLE, “WHY FISA-GATE Is Scarier Than Watergate,” Victor Hanson writes, “We are now in the midst of a third great modern scandal. Members of the Obama administration’s Department of Justice sought court approval for the surveillance of Carter Page, allegedly for colluding with Russian interests, and extended the surveillance three times.”62
Hanson then explains how none of these government officials told FISC that their warrant requests were based on Steele’s dossier, which was clearly a “hit piece” on Trump, directly funded by the Clinton campaign. And how these same officials failed to mention the fact that Steele and his dossier had been dismissed by the FBI for obvious lack of credibility as a source. These same officials also failed to mention that DOJ official Bruce Ohr had personally met with Steele and that his wife Nellie was hired by Fusion GPS to work on the dossier.
This pattern of recklessness and blatant disregard for standard government procedure is exactly how this Deep State functions. And to be sure, like many tactics and operations in American government, this isn’t new—it’s simply a heightened version of a Deep State past, a collective group armed with more technological warfare. And with the rise of instant messaging and broadcast, everything is caught on tape, able to be shared with all the world—the same way David Corn broke the Mitt Romney “47 percent” video. Nothing is off limits now. And this dangerous game is played by both sides, internally and externally.
James Baker, the FBI’s General Counsel, leaked the Steele dossier to David Corn, knowing full well that the dossier was pure smut. What we have here are government officials engaging in dirty tricks and politicizing their own agendas in favor of one candidate and against another.
And yet, when a former or even current government employee speaks out against this machine, they’re immediately branded as whistleblowers—disloyal and treasonous citizens who ought to be shamed, not lauded for their courage and outspoken actions. Just look at William Binney, the former NSA analyst of twenty-five years, who spoke out about the breadth and illegality of the NSA’s surveillance of the American public. Or Edward Snowden, who lives in hiding just like Julian Assange. What led to this shift in the way we view whistleblowers?
62 Hanson, Victor Davis. “Why FISA-gate Is Scarier Than Watergate.” TownHall. 8 Feb 2018. https://townhall.com/columnists/victordavishanson/2018/02/08/why-fisagate-is-scarier-than-watergate-n2445740