Free Republic

Evidence obtained in illegal surveillance would be inadmissible The ruling by the nation's top spy court that at least two of the four warrants obtained by the Obama administration to surveil onetime Trump campaign adviser Carter Page were "not valid" states that the FBI must "sequester all" relevant information and evidence. The notation prompted speculation that convictions obtained in Robert Mueller's special counsel investigation that relied on material obtained from the Page surveillance could be voided. Evidence obtained by authorities through illegal means is not admissible in court cases. The spy warrants were based largely on the infamous "Steele dossier"...

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 Obama Justice Department official appointed by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to scrutinize the FBI’s FISA reforms determined the bureau’s reforms would be insufficient without a change in the FBI’s culture. David Kris, a controversial pick for the job after his full-throated defenses of the FBI’s decision-making throughout the Trump-Russia investigation, said the changes FBI Director Christopher Wray proposed in the wake of DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s damning report on FISA abuse were insufficient and told the court its review “should not obscure the larger issues presented.” “Standards and procedures, checklists and questionnaires, automated workflows, training modules, and...

(snips) In the second half of Devin Nunes interview with Maria Bartiromo today he was asked his thoughts about the FISA Court selecting David Kris as an FBI surveillance and compliance monitor. The issue is quite important because the FBI FISA reforms and promises are essentially meaningless without some form of structural review process. However, the new 2020 FISC Presiding Judge James Boasberg selecting David Kris has been noted by several people as a rather weak effort on behalf of the court. As an outcome of our former FISA-702 reviews CTH has an entirely different reason for questioning the selection...