“it began wiretapping at least one Republican”
The story forgets to mention the “two hop rule”.
A search brings an article with information about the rule:
https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/256333/fisas-license-to-hop
“A conspiratorial enterprise is bound to involve communications beyond Carter Page’s first circle of direct contact, so investigators need to look at the next circle as well. They may need to look further, depending on the communications patterns they find in the first two circles radiating from their named target. But under current rules, it’s the first two that government investigators can routinely gain access to in order to “uncover the full scope of a conspiratorial enterprise,” without needing to apply for further warrants.”
Thanks.
I guess this rule explains why some writers said that Page’s FISA could have involved 25,000 of us.
My belief from the beginning was that Carter Page was picked as the highest ranked person in the campaign who was unlikely to be immediately recognized as part of the campaign so no one in the FISA court was going to think that the warrant was Watergate type spying. Any higher up and they risked questions and a refusal.
It infuriates me when an article talks about surveilling Carter Page without mentioning the “two hop” rule. Most people have no idea that surveillance power even exists much less that it could be used “legally” on Trump’s entire circle of associates.