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Last week Oregon’s Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum filed a request for a temporary restraining order against federal police officers in Portland. On Wednesday of this week Judge U.S. District Court Judge Michael Mosman heard arguments in the case and appeared to be on the fence, accepting some of the Resenblum’s claims but not all. Today, the Judge ruled against the restraining order: A U.S. judge Friday denied an order sought by Oregon’s top law enforcement officer to stop federal agents from arresting people during nightly protests in Portland that have roiled the progressive city and pitted local officials against...

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A U.S. judge on Friday denied Oregon’s request to restrict federal agents' actions when they arrest people during chaotic protests that have roiled Portland and pitted local officials against the Trump administration. Federal agents deployed by President Donald Trump to tamp down the unrest have arrested dozens during nightly demonstrations against racial injustice that often turn violent. Democratic leaders in Oregon say federal intervention has worsened the two-month crisis, and the state attorney general sued to allege that some people had been whisked off the streets in unmarked vehicles....

BREAKING: Judge denies Oregon's request for TRO reining in federal agents in Portland, says state lacks standing. Order: https://mobile.twitter.com/joshgerstein/status/1286786447568072704

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A federal judge will hear arguments Wednesday on Oregon’s request for a restraining order against federal agents sent to the state’s biggest city to quell protests that have spiraled into nightly clashes between authorities and demonstrators. The lawsuit, filed by Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, alleges that federal agents sent by President Donald Trump have arrested people with no probable cause, whisked protesters away in unmarked cars and used excessive force to quell the unrest. It’s part of growing pushback against the Trump administration’s use of federal agents in Portland and its plans to do the...

The Senate on Thursday passed legislation reauthorizing three intelligence programs that lapsed earlier this year amid a GOP stalemate. Senators voted 80-16 on the bill, which pairs the reauthorization of the USA Freedom provisions with some changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, known as the FISA court. The Senate changed the bill, which originally passed the House in March, as part of a two-day floor debate. Senators added more legal protections for some individuals targeted by the court. The proposal, which was spearheaded by Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), would increase the role of outside legal...

Amid a series of documents released by the Senate Judiciary Committee [SEE HERE] there is a rather alarming letter from the DOJ to the FISA Court in July 2018 that points toward an institutional cover-up. [Link to Letter] Before getting to the substance of the letter, it’s important to put the release in context. After the FISA Court reviewed the DOJ inspector general report, the FISC ordered the DOJ-NSD to declassify and release documents related to the Carter Page FISA application. In the cover letter for this specific release to the Senate Judiciary and Senate Intelligence committees, the DOJ cites...

The inspector general detailed devastating, systematic FBI failures in executing procedures designed to ensure the accuracy of FISA applications. On March 31, Inspector General Michael Horowitz released an interim report on his audit of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s compliance with procedures to protect Americans’ civil rights in Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act cases. Horowitz’s “Management Advisory Memorandum” detailed devasting and systematic failures by the FBI in executing the procedures designed to ensure the accuracy of the applications submitted under oath to the FISA court.Contrary to the left’s spin, the FBI’s incompetence in handling more (Most? All?) FISA cases is not...

The Senate cleared a nearly four-month extension of intelligence programs that expired on Sunday as part of a deal that will also allow for votes on broader surveillance reforms. The Senate had been expected to hold an initial procedural vote Monday on the House-passed bill that paired extension of the three expired USA Freedom Act provisions with some changes to the court established by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Instead, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) came to the floor minutes before the scheduled vote and passed a 77-day extension of the three USA Freedom Act provisions. The extension...

Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) are working to kill a House deal to reauthorize expiring intelligence programs and reform the surveillance court, throwing up an eleventh hour roadblock to the agreement. The two libertarian-minded Republicans, who are close allies of President Trump's, are urging Trump to veto the House agreement, which pairs a reauthorization of expiring intelligence programs with broader changes to the court associated with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). "The president I think really would like to see real reform, and I think the open question is whether or not he'll take what [Attorney...

Law raises concerns about extent feds can spy on AmericansPresident Trump has told congressional Republican leaders that he will not support a clean reauthorization of surveillance laws without significant reforms to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court system that was abused during the Russia collusion probe, a senior White House official says.The surveillance provisions are set to expire on March 15, and the White House indicated to Republican leaders Tuesday that it would support only a temporary, 30-day extension to allow Congress to iron out the reforms. House Democratic leaders have indicated publicly they are open to bipartisan compromise.“Just got back from the...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is taking on a familiar role as a thorn in the side of leadership as Congress barrels toward a surveillance deadline with no deal in sight. Paul, a libertarian-minded Republican, is pushing for broader surveillance court reforms to be included as part of any bill that reauthorizes or extends the expiring provisions of the USA Freedom Act, a 2015 law that overhauled the country’s intelligence programs. "The time is ripe now. It’s an inflection point. You’ve got Republicans coming around to this," Paul said. "I think even the powers that be in the Senate, the Republicans...

A ruling by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Wednesday mistakenly said Fusion GPS, the opposition research firm which hired British ex-spy Christopher Steele in 2016, was looking for dirt on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton rather than on then-candidate Donald Trump. The court fixed the glaring error only after the Washington Examiner brought it to its attention. Judge James Boasberg, the court’s presiding judge, cited the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act applications against former Trump campaign associate Carter Page in a Wednesday opinion and, in the midst of pointing out the multitude of flaws, omissions, and factual errors in...

Amid scandal and abuse, reforming the FISA surveillance system will not be easy. But without systemic reform, the secret court at the heart of the government’s surveillance authority may not even survive. “I don’t even give [the secret FISA Court] a 50-50 chance” of survival in its present form, Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) told Just The News. Many Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill now say they are in agreement that something transformative must be done to fix shortcomings in the programs that allow government spying on U.S. citizens. But agreement on details is proving elusive.(I discuss why fixing FISA...

Our Republic Is Under Assault Our Republic Is Under Assault Every year I have the privilege of representing you at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). It’s an opportunity to report on the work of Judicial Watch, which is more active than ever, thanks to your steadfast support. CPAC brings together thousands of conservative leaders and organizations. Regularly seen on C-SPAN and other national news networks, CPAC has been the premier event for any major elected official or public personality seeking to discuss issues of the day with conservatives. From presidents of the United States, including President Trump this...

Against the backdrop of a then pending OIG FISA report, in December of 2019 buried deep in the congressional budget Continuing Resolution (CR) was a short-term extension to reauthorize the FISA “business records provision”, the “roving wiretap” provision, the “lone wolf” provision, and the more controversial bulk metadata provisions [Call Detail Records (CDR)], all parts of the Patriot Act. As a result of the FISA CR inclusion the terminal deadline was pushed to March 15, 2020: FISA Court judges Rosemary Collyer (declassified 2017) and James Boasberg (declassified 2019) both identified issues with the NSA bulk database collection program being exploited...

During his twelve-year reign as FBI Director, Robert Mueller not only protected his criminal friends by silencing those who could expose their bad acts, he projected his friends’ crimes onto others in order to fraudulently appoint a Special Counsel. And the FISA court judge Reggie Walton — who was hacked by Obama officials John Brennan and James Clapper, according to whistleblower evidence — has been involved in more than one of these plots. There is no better Deep State tool for punishing your enemies than a fraudulent Special Counsel (who is not accountable to anyone) with an unlimited budget and...

The FISA court's top judge wrote in a secret ruling on January 7 that at least two of the four spy warrants against Carter Page were invalid and not lawfully authorized. Authority granted to the federal government to secretly wiretap and spy on former Trump affiliate Carter Page was “not valid,” the nation’s top spy court noted in a secret ruling penned earlier this month. The order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), which was created and authorized by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), was initially signed and issued on January 7, 2020, but was not declassified and...

The FISA court officially acknowledged Thursday that the FBI submitted false information when obtaining warrants to surveil Trump campaign aide Carter Page. Therefore, the FISA warrants that were issued are invalid. "Thanks in large part to the work of the Office of the Inspector General, U.S. Department of Justice, the Court has received notice of material misstatements and omissions in the applications filed by the government in the above-captioned dockets. See Docket No. Misc. 19-02, Order (Dec. 17, 2019; DOJ PIG, Review of Four FISA Applications and Other Aspects of the FBI's Crossfire Hurricane Investigation (Dec. 2019)," the court released...

The Justice Department has concluded that the evidence underlying multiple warrants authorizing the surveillance of former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page failed to show Page was a foreign agent, as the law requires. The department delivered its conclusion in a December letter to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), the secretive federal body that approved the department’s four surveillance applications of the Trump aide. A Justice Department assessment found that in at least two applications "there was insufficient predication to establish probable cause to believe that Page was acting as an agent of a foreign power," states a FISC court...

A FISA Court order declassified Thursday confirmed that the government had found two of the four FISA applications authorized for the FBI to surveil 2016 Trump-campaign adviser Carter Page to be “not valid,” and will further investigate the validity of the other two. The order revealed that the government found two of the surveillance application renewals to be “not valid” because the FBI provided “insufficient predication to establish probable cause to believe that Page was acting as an agent of a foreign power.” Based on the ordering of the applications, it is likely the review found the second and third...