Claim: Joe DiGenova Says That IG Horowitz Has Concluded That the Last Three Carter Page/Trump FISA Warrants Were Obtained Illegally

I have a few caveats here.

First, I don't know how Joe DiGenova would know this. Yeah, he has contacts in DC. But in the IG office?

Second, this doesn't sound like something this particular IG (and maybe any IG) would find. Remember the IG report on McCabe et al.? It took pains to give McCabe, Strzok, Page and the every reasonable benefit of the doubt, and some benefit of unreasonable doubts, too.

I cannot imagine this IG would state his conclusions so baldly. At best, we could hope he finds the later FISA warrants "not in accordance with routine practice" or something fairly milquetoast like that.

But, it's news.

Washington attorney Joe diGenova claimed in an interview last night that the Department of Justice inspector general has determined that "the final three FISA extensions were illegally obtained," and the first one is still being investigated.

For the past year, DOJ IG Michael Horowitz has been investigating the FBI's 2016 surveillance activities and his report is expected later this month or in early June.

...

"The only question now is whether or not the first FISA was illegally obtained," diGenova said.

More at the link, including video of the appearance.

Though it's news I'd add several asterisks to, and also the advice that if you expect a lot, you're bound to be disappointed, whereas if you expect little, you leave yourself room to be upside-surprised.

Meanwhile, pine-scented Druid philosopher James Comey continues defending the Steele dossier which he plainly never investigated at all before making a literal federal case of it. Or since, for that matter.

Or maybe he's just pretending, hoping that if he keeps claiming complete ignorance about simple, well-publicized facts, he can dodge the "intent" part of a criminal charge.

This line of questioning has to do with Comey's previous statement that he could not say for sure whether the president had paid prostitutes to pee on each other, or a bed, or whatever the bullshit Sydney Blumenthal Conspiracy Theory was.

Comey defended saying that, noting that the Mueller report included one oblique reference to the alleged pee pee tapes.

Comey told CNN's Anderson Cooper that former special counsel Robert Mueller made an "oblique reference" to the veracity of the video that supposedly shows prostitutes urinating on Trump, popularly known as the "pee tape."

Cooper even told Comey that "those tapes were false" as he asked the former FBI director whether he regrets providing legitimacy to the Steele dossier in former interviews. Comey continued to suggest the dossier might be grounded in fact even when asked whether he had provided credibility to a lie.

The reference there isn't clear -- Mueller noted that someone had emailed someone in the Trump organization saying he'd stopped the release of "the tapes," but then added that he thought "the tapes" were themselves fraudulent.

Mueller "forgot" to mention that second part.

"Do you regret making those comments that some would see as sort of stoking the fires or leaving it as an open question?" Cooper asked.

"No, I was trying to give an honest answer, and my answer would be the same today," Comey responded.

The guy went on tv and proclaimed that it remained an open possibility that the president paid prostitutes to pee on a bed and was being blackmailed over that by Russia, and denies he was acting irresponsibly or outside of accepted bureau practice.

posted by Ace of Spades at 03:22 PM

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