WHAT THE?? FBI 'altered evidence' that falsely painted Carter Page as a Russian spy

The Inspector General (IG) of the Department of Justice Michael Horowitz made his report public Monday and in it he alleges that FBI misconduct in "surveilling" the Trump campaign found that the agency "altered" evidence which cast former Trump presidential adviser Carter Page as a Russian spy.

According to The Federalist co-founder Sean Davis and journalist Mollie Hemingway, the report “found that the FBI falsely claimed to the FISA Court not only that Carter Page was a Russian agent, but also falsely claimed that an unnamed intelligence agency had told the FBI that Page was ‘not a source’ in their efforts to surveil and curtail Russian intelligence efforts.”

Davis and Hemingway explain that Page had previously worked as an informant and witness for the US in a federal espionage case against a Russian intelligence official. However, Page was targeted by the Obama FBI as a spy working for Putin to steal the 2016 election from Hillary "Bleach Bit" Clinton.

 “According to the IG report, before the FBI and DOJ went to the FISA Court to apply for a warrant to spy on Page, an unnamed U.S. intelligence agency had told the FBI that Carter Page had previously assisted that agency’s efforts against Russian spies. Although exculpatory information about potential spy targets is required in spy warrant applications, Obama’s FBI and DOJ deliberately withheld that information from the spy court in order to paint Page in the worst possible light.

“Ahead of an application to renew the spy warrant in 2017, a top FBI lawyer doctored evidence from the unnamed agency which confirmed that contrary to FBI claims that he was a Russian spy, Page had in fact assisted the United States in its efforts to counter Russian operations,” The Federalist added “An e-mail from the agency that clearly stated Page was ‘a source’ for them was doctored by Kevin Clinesmith, a top FBI national security lawyer, to give the opposite impression to the federal spy court."

The IG's report found that the renewal applications that followed the initial request, also failed to include exculpatory information regarding his relationship with another U.S. government agency nor did include the information Page shared with that agency about his contacts with Russian intelligence officers. This occurred even after the Crossfire Hurricane team re-engaged with the other U.S. government agency in June 2017.

None of the inaccuracies and omissions Davis and Hemingway identified in the renewal applications were brought to the attention of OI before the applications were filed. As a result, similar to the first application, the Department officials who reviewed one or more of the renewal applications, including Yates, Boente, and Rosenstein, did not have accurate and complete information at the time they approved them.

The IG report found that the FBI made 17 “serious” errors in getting a FISA application on Carter Page and said that the FBI “fell far short” in correctly doing its job.

The report stated that investigators were “deeply concerned that so many basic and fundamental errors were made by three separate, hand-picked investigative teams; on one of the most sensitive FBI investigations; after the matter had been briefed to the highest levels within the FBI; even though the information sought through use of FISA authority related so closely to an ongoing presidential campaign; and even though those involved with the investigation knew that their actions were likely to be subjected to close scrutiny.”

This is a clear indictment of the FBI and something needs to be done as a follow up. Maybe James Comey has some ideas.

Yeah, sure.

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