In the spirit of Adam Schiff's parody of the transcript of Trump's ill conceived (and executed) phone call to Zelensky I offer this version of an imagined visit by the Ghost of FISA warrants past to Judge Rosemary Collyer, head of the FISA court panel of judges. Her term was to expire in March but she has apparently decided to return to the District Court of the District of Columbia before that. pl
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The Ghost - Rosemary! Rosemary! You have been a naughty girl! You knew the Steele Dossier was opposition research! You knew it and you still granted those crooks at DoJ and the FBI a surveillance warrant on that pathetic creature Carter Page. You knew the whole thing was a sham. You knew it! Now the chickens are coming home to roost! (H Rap Brown reference from the 60s) You published a letter saying they should be better boys and girls at the FBI. They did not like that and Lou Dobbs told millions that you are a phony. Then you sent out another letter demanding "accountability" for those who lied to you and deceived you. Now the FBI is really angry. Do you think that they will not tell the truth to save themselves? How are they different from you? They will follow you back to the DC District court. They will follow ... I am sorry but I will have tell the nuns at Trinity University about this, so sad.
Rosemary - So what! Trinity has been declared a Trump Free Zone! I will be praised for my courage in being an early adherent to The Resistance. I will be appointed to more boards there. I might even be a graduation speaker. Let's see, my talk can focus on the perfidy of anyone like Kelly Ann Conway who IS NOT in The Resistance. She is a Trinity alumna you know.
The Ghost - This may work out for you. If a Democrat is elected this time there may be a SCOTUS seat in it for you. Those old geezers can't last forever. Sleep well your honor.
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In the interest of full exposure, I know Judge Collyer slightly having testified several times in her DC district court as an expert in a habeas corpus case involving a Gitmo prisoner whom I thought had been framed by Central Asian police and handed over to the US as an Al-Qa'ida official. I thought and still think that the aforesaid police were just trying to get rid of someone to whom they owed money.
When I first entered her court she remarked that I looked like a stereotypical colonel, a British colonel actually. I thanked her. In the course of the hearing she spoke to me in chambers to say that she was under a lot of pressure from "people who wanted this prisoner kept at Guantanamo." I said that I had thought she was appointed for life. She did not respond to that.
So far as I know the prisoner is still at Guantanamo.
BTW, Rosemary and SWMBO were educated by the same order of nuns. pl
https://www.eurasiareview.com/20122019-fisa-judge-rips-into-fbi-demands-action-oped/
Life appointment & still trembling. This is what sits guard over our Constitutional rights?
Aux armes, citoyens...
Posted by: JerseyJeffersonian | 22 December 2019 at 04:33 PM
Col. Lang
As you have noted previously that in your experience as an expert witness in court proceedings, you have seen instances wherein law enforcement did not abide by the intent of the law.
The problem is that the judiciary has also by and large been corrupted. Some years ago I contested a moving violation. During my presentation to the court, I showed the judge facts and photographic evidence that buttressed my argument that the cop could not have visually observed me from the location that he said he saw me. The judge dismissed my argument and held me guilty of the moving violation purely on the basis as he said, that the cop would not willfully make a false deposition.
In this case all Judge Collyer has done is send strongly worded letters. She has not proactively initiated reviews of all FISA applications with the intent for the court to personally verify all the affidavits and evidence. So those that have had the most secretive and intrusive surveillance placed not only on them but anyone they have been in contact with have no redress. This makes a complete mockery of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of our Constitution.
The judiciary is by large in cahoots with law enforcement to scalp ordinary people who don't have the resources to contest willful wrongdoing by the government.
Trump could have done some good here for the rule of law by declassifying all the documents relating to Spygate. That would have at least provided some sunshine, even if nothing came of it. The American people, at least those interested, would have seen how corrupt & deceitful the national security state apparatus is in reality. Maybe a few Americans would then change their opinion that we should not be giving unfettered powers to the state organs of security to operate in the dark and violate the constitutional rights of American citizens with impunity.
In this regard Trump is just like them all. Another con man as TTG calls him. Such a disgrace!
Posted by: blue peacock | 22 December 2019 at 07:28 PM
Who does Judge Collyer think she's fooling? I'm so glad she's been called out and MOCKED for the ruler rap on the knuckles she gave the FBI instead of filing charges of CONTEMPT OF COURT, for crying out loud. Maybe she's been influenced too much by nuns. It's THEIR prerogative to forgive and forget, not hers.
Posted by: akaPatience | 22 December 2019 at 10:01 PM
Methinks Rosemary does not want to lose her FISA court baby. After all a 99% approval rate is quite good enough for government work, considering her own stellar skill set for this highly sensitive task - having been a former member of the NLRB. Now that the FISA court itself is up for renewal, Rosemary just woke up and is scrambling to look both productive and virtuously petulant.
Posted by: Factotum | 22 December 2019 at 10:18 PM
Colonel,
Is Barr little more than an Establishment Con-Man running a scam on Trump and the rest of us? Why hasn't their been indictments, he has hard evidence of criminal behavior that spans into the 100s of individuals that are all tied to the Establishment's attempt to take down Trump. Former Federal Prosecutor DiGenova has even documented some of it and nobody seems to be listening.
I want hard indictments by Barr, I want him to get off his AG duff and do something 'concrete' spelled hard indictments that bring the FBI 20 plus to criminal court for starters. It's time to put the Establishment crooks in federal prison orange, no more playing around.
I have one message for AG Barr -- do your job, put the Establishment crooks in federal prison and stop playing around. Or are you just another Establishment scam-artist?
Posted by: J | 25 December 2019 at 03:47 PM