In a stunning admission to CNN‘s Jake Tapper Wednesday, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper admitted the Steele dossier was used for an extension of FISA surveillance.
“As I understand it, this was simply an extension of the original FISA request. Meaning that, or implying, that apparently, there was information that was considered valuable that was being obtained, via the initial FISA request,” Clapper told Tapper.
Conservative Tree House points outs:
As much as he is a stuttering doofus, and therein showcases his political value for the former administration; and to the extent that Clapper has previously stated there was no attempt by the DOJ/FBI to gain a FISA authorized approval for surveillance on any Trump campaign officials: “none that I’m aware of“; …it is always valuable to listen to Clapper because he has a tendency to, well, to let slip stuff that makes the black hats cringe.
Cue the audio visual “slippage.” Inside tonight’s interview by Jake Tapper, former DNI James Clapper now unwittingly refutes his previous assertion of “no Trump FISA warrant“, and simultaneously lets it slip out that the Clinton/Steele dossier was not used in gaining origination authority for FISA-702 surveillance, but rather for an “extension” of a previous application for FISA-702 surveillance.
In the very same interview, Clapper praises the dossier’s author, former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele. Clapper then reveals U.S. intelligence agencies used the discredited document to corroborate its findings. The admission should come as concerning as Steele recently told a court that document contains “limited intelligence.”
Steele also admitted part of “his final December memo,” was unvetted.
“Such intelligence was not actively sought; it was merely received,” Steele added.
The dossier contains explosive, but unverified, opposition research that alleges intel ties between Russia and Trump and also claims Russia holds blackmail material over Trump.
In what was the second major “leak,” to come from the FISA abuse memo, a new report reveals Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein signed off on an application to extend surveillance of Trump campaign official Carter Page.
In June, The Gateway Pundit reported, Page sent a request to Rosenstein seeking the release of information used to allegedly obtain a FISA warrant to monitor his communications.
Page, a former investment banker, was a foreign policy advisor to the Trump campaign.
The Daily Beast recently reported former FBI Director James Comey, bureau Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein are officially named in the “shocking” FISA abuse memo.
