All Trumped Up Over The FISA Court

Imagine, or pretend for a moment that you were President of the United States.

You would be literally be “the boss of” and have access to a vast trove of over 14 different American Intelligence & National Security agencies.

If so desired, you could watch video of the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, see photographs of his corpse and burial at sea, and examine the report made of his DNA following his death and capture. By virtue of the Office of the President, there would be virtually nothing to which you would not entitled to know, or view in the agencies of the United States government. You would be able to see the code-named TOP SECRETS of our government. You would have full and unfettered access to the highest levels of secret information… including Nuclear Access Codes.

The Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Energy, State, and Justice, along with all their myriad divisions and offices – ALL Executive level agencies – which includes the FBI, US Marshals Service, Secret Service, DEA, ATF, Coast Guard, and more – would ALL be under your ultimate control, and you would be their Boss.

The CIA is an independent agency.

Because the FBI and the NSA are Executive level offices/agencies, it is NOT a stretch to imagine that the President ~COULD~ request information from the FBI and/or NSA about their operations, and requests for warrants.

Yet… there is NO evidence or hint that Trump has requested any information from the FBI or NSA concerning their FISA Court requests.
Why not?
And instead, he relies upon a biased “news agency” for a security report?
But wait… he knows more than the Generals do.
And, he uses an unsecure Android cell phone.
What a blithering idiot he is!

The president has NO ROLE in the FBI or NSA’s decision to seek a warrant or the FISA court’s approval for one, and the warrant application would be initiated by the FBI or NSA and presented to the FISA court by Justice Department attorneys. It’s a lengthy process, which includes review and oversight by numerous people, various offices, and includes paperwork.

In other words, a federal judge (who may not be appointed more than one 7-year term) who is independently selected by the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court (in this case, John Roberts), has found probable cause to believe that an individual or an group of people may have broken the law or to have interacted with a foreign agent.
That is an EXTREMELY SERIOUS charge!

http://www.fisc.uscourts.gov/

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court was established by Congress in 1978. The Court entertains applications made by the United States Government for approval of electronic surveillance, physical search, and certain other forms of investigative actions for foreign intelligence purposes.

The Rules of Procedure for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court were promulgated pursuant to 50 U.S.C. § 1803(g). They govern all proceedings in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The current Rules of Procedure for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court supersede both the February 17, 2006 Rules of Procedure and the May 5, 2006 Procedures for Review of Petitions Filed Pursuant to Section 501 (f) of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, as amended. The current Rules of Procedure took effect on November 1, 2010.

FEDERAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES

FIELD AGENTS
Fill out a warrant request form, which includes:
* Identity of target
* Facts establishing probable cause that the target is involved in terrorism or spying
* Details of the facilities and communications to be monitored
* Procedures to minimize the collection of information about people in the United States
(The format for submitting a request was standardized.)

FIELD OFFICE SUPERVISOR
Verifies and approves the request.

AGENTS AND LAWYERS AT THE HEADQUARTERS
Ensure that the form contains all required information, and finish the request. The number of lawyers and other staff members was increased at headquarters to process the requests.

DIRECTOR OF AGENCY
Certifies that the information sought is necessary to protect the United States against actual or potential attacks, spying or international terrorism and cannot be obtained by normal investigative techniques.
(An electronic tracking system has being developed to connect field offices, headquarters and the Justice Department.)

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT

LAWYERS AT THE OFFICE OF INTELLIGENCE POLICY AND REVIEW (O.I.P.R.)
Draft a formal application based on the request.
(Lawyers from the O.I.P.R. were deployed to work directly with agents and agency lawyers.)

ATTORNEY GENERAL
Reviews and approves the application.

Attorney General
Surveillance
The attorney general can authorize an emergency order if he determines that the “factual basis” to approve such surveillance exists under FISA In such cases, a court order has to be sought within 72 hours, changed from 24 hours in 2002. If the request is denied, the information obtained from the surveillance cannot be used.

FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE SURVEILLANCE COURT

ONE OF THE 11 JUDGES
Determines whether there is probable cause to believe that the target is involved in terrorism or spying, that the information sought is necessary to protect the country against terrorism and that the minimization procedures are appropriate.

COURT OF REVIEW
A THREE-JUDGE PANEL (separate from the FISA court) can hear appeals to decide whether to uphold the FISA court’s decision.

See also:
EXCLUSIVE: FBI ‘Granted FISA Warrant’ Covering Trump Camp’s Ties To Russia
(https://heatst.com/world/exclusive-fbi-granted-fisa-warrant-covering-trump-camps-ties-to-russia/)
By Louise Mensch, 10:18 pm, November 7, 2016

Was a Trump Server Communicating With Russia?
(http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/cover_story/2016/10/was_a_server_registered_to_the_trump_organization_communicating_with_russia.html)
This spring, a group of computer scientists set out to determine whether hackers were interfering with the Trump campaign. They found something they weren’t expecting.
By Franklin Foer, Oct. 31 2016 5:36 PM