RUSH: So, we had a bit of a bombshell last night that I need to put in perspective for you. Mr. Horowitz, the inspector general, reported that he has found evidence that an FBI lawyer manipulated a key investigative document related to the FBI’s secretive surveillance of a former Trump campaign adviser — Carter Page.
Apparently, what’s happened here is that it has been discovered — now you and I have known this. This is not a bombshell, in truth. What’s a bombshell about it is that the IG has actually let it out somewhere. That is that an associate of Peter Strzok lied on the FISA application to get the warrant to spy on Carter Page and the Trump campaign. And, I kid you not, when we get to the audio sound bites, you’re gonna hear a bunch of Democrats and associates on CNN act shocked and surprised. They had no idea.
Now, none of this is news. To those of us that know. Just like Fiona Hill yesterday testified, had no idea about “GPS Fusion.” She had no idea about the Steele dossier other than it was presented to her by (impression) of the Brookings Institute. Total ignorance. These people don’t know half the story. They actually do. They’re just claiming ignorance on it.
So, we have a former FBI lawyer under criminal investigation for doctoring the FISA warrant application to spy on Carter Page. The reason for lying on it and doctoring it is to get it approved. They didn’t have anything. They’ve never had any evidence to warrant any FISA warrant to spy or any of that. They’ve never had any evidence on Trump.
We’re told that the alterations on the application are so significant that they changed the document’s meaning. We’re also told the alteration would not have had any effect on the ultimate outcome, that is, the FISA warrant would have been issued anyway, but it doesn’t matter because it was altered in a criminal way.
By the way, isn’t Carter Page a military individual? Isn’t Carter Page a graduate of the Naval Academy? So why wasn’t he sacrosanct like Vindman? “O say can you see.” And Bill Taylor? You know, all these former military guys testifying against Trump. We can’t criticize ’em. They’re above reproach. They cannot be in any way criticized or accused of anything. You better be very careful.
But with Carter Page we can make it up on him and we can supply the FISA court with a doctored warrant to essentially permit spying on the Trump campaign. And if you defend Carter Page, why, you better not because he worked with Trump. The Washington Post has confirmed CNN had the original report on this bombshell. The Washington Post has confirmed it, which just means that they both got the leak.
Now, the Washington Post article said that the lawyer worked for Strzok. That’s why the name you hear associated with Strzok is Lisa Page. The Washington Post quietly deleted that detail in subsequent stories. They eliminated from their story as it was continually updated and published that the perp here was tight with Strzok. The Washington Post also said that Horowitz found the lawyer who modified the document falsely stated that a documentation to back up a claim he had made in discussions with the DOJ.
I think the reason for this leak of a bombshell is to denude it and to be able to say, “It’s just the Republicans flailing away, knowing how difficult it was for Trump, knowing how well Schiff did, knowing how slam dunk the impeachment hearings were, this is simply a flailing attempt to deflect attention away from the fact that Trump is guilty of whatever.
I’m just gonna tell you right now, folks, I’m not all in on Horowitz. Horowitz is from the same group of people that have been testifying all week and last. And announcing that they’re gonna release this thing on December 9th, this would be much better utilized if it came as a surprise. Not now everybody involved in it’s gonna have whatever length of time between now and then.
So basically, two weeks, if not longer, to come up with some defense or explanation. And we don’t know what else is gonna be in the IG report. This is just one little bit of it that’s been leaked. I mean, if this investigation is real, this inspector general report would end the careers of all the names of people we know here. It would end the career of James Comey. It would end the career of Peter Strzok and James Baker and Bruce and Nellie Ohr, because every one of these people had dealings with defrauding the FISA court.
And that’s what the IG’s investigation is specifically of: The FISA application aspect of all of this. Barr’s guy, Durham, is working on other aspects of this. But the inspector general is almost exclusively dealing with FISA abuses, applications for warrants to spy, what the court was told, who lied if anybody. So we got a leak now suggesting that somebody performed an illegal act in order to get the warrant. But then of course… See? This is exactly what I mean.
In fact, the CNN article even gives it away. It says, “This news could provide the Republicans a political boost at a moment where the Democrats’ impeachment investigation into Trump’s quid pro quo with Ukraine has battered the president.” It has not “battered the president.” There’s no evidence the president is “battered” at all. His approval numbers are up. The numbers supporting impeachment including in key battleground states are down.
The ratings for the Democrat debate on MSNBC this week were at an all-time low. Nobody watched it, which has gotta be great news for Plugs, ’cause he did horribly in this debate. It’s gotta be the best news they could get that nobody saw it. And then of course all the Democrats who think they did great? Nobody saw it. So, you know, big whoop.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Look, this is somewhat confusing. I need to parse this. I want to present to you a detailed explanation of Horowitz’s assertion here about how this FISA warrant application was doctored. We think we know who did it. Here’s what Horowitz found, the inspector general — and remember, this is leaked to CNN, which is then leaked to the Washington Post, and both of them got first dibs on this.
Horowitz found that the FBI employee who modified the FISA document… This document is the application for a warrant to spy. It contains all of the evidence the FBI wants the judge to know so that the judge will grant the warrant to spy — in this case, on Carter Page. In his investigation, “Horowitz found that the FBI employee who modified the warrant application lied, falsely stated that he had, quote, ‘documentation to back up a claim that he had made in discussions with the Justice Department about the factual basis for the warrant application.'”
It’s like Susan Rice did. Susan Rice wrote an email on the day Trump was inaugurated that ostensibly was the notes of a meeting in the Obama Oval Office two weeks prior where Obama said, “Look, on this Trump business, everything’s gonna be done by the book.” It was a post-written, postdated email designed to provide justification for what had been illegally done at first glance, and the same thing is what has happened here. So essentially you have an FBI employee tied tight to Strzok who essentially lies on the FISA warrant application.
He then sent an email after the fact to try to obfuscate — cover up for the lie — or make the lying or incorrect information appear to be valid. Now, we’ve known the FISA warrant application was bogus because there was never any evidence. The FISA warrant application included news stories that the FBI had leaked to people like the New York Times and the Washington Post. Nothing about this has been aboveboard. Now, when we get to the audio sound bites of CNN talking about this, you’ll find Preet Bharara, the former U.S. attorney for the Southern District New York, saying, “This is a problem. This is a very big problem.”
Like you didn’t know about it?
Come on.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Don’t misunderstand. Folks, this is a bombshell. This FBI FISA warrant application that was doctored, lies, it’s a bombshell. It’s a big, big deal. Don’t missunderstand. I’m just suggesting to you that intelligence guided by experience, the leak goes to CNN, then the Washington Post — all I’m saying is announcing the date where the whole report’s coming December 9th, I just wish they wouldn’t have announced the date. I understand people want to see it, all that. I wish it would be sprung as a surprise, not giving the perps here a chance to build up response to it.
In addition to that, I can predict to you right now the way all of this is gonna be portrayed: as Republicans and Trump in panic, Barr in panic, Durham in panic because Schiff and his motley crew were so, so successful in impeachment that this is simply the last gasp of a dying presidency. This is how they’re gonna portray it. And it isn’t gonna work, but it still ticks me off. I know this is how they’re gonna play it. I know this is what they’re gonna try to say about it.
The bottom line is the bottom is falling out of them, exactly as I was predicting.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Fort Worth, Texas. David, you’re up. It’s great to have you, sir. Hi.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. Happy Friday.
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER: So what you described about Horowitz’s report, it sounds bad in terms of somebody, you know, doctoring an email. But at the end of the day, if that’s the big bombshell —
RUSH: Ah, ah, ah. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It’s not just that. The offense is lying on the FISA warrant application.
CALLER: Okay.
RUSH: The doctoring of the email took place after the lying on the application to back date it —
RUSH: — so that it looked legitimate.
CALLER: Okay. Perhaps I’m misunderstanding you, because what I want to see is, you know, using Clinton campaign propaganda to get a FISA warrant. That’s what I want Horowitz to comment on.
RUSH: I agree. I agree.
CALLER: If they lied about it, that’s bad, too. But, you know, that’s the thing that I know we all know was really bad.
RUSH: It’s worse than that. But I know. You don’t want this process crime stuff to be the big stuff.
CALLER: I don’t want them to be able to say… You know, ’cause obviously if it’s a Republican and a process crime, it’s still really bad ’cause then they go to jail with Paul Manafort. If it’s a Democrat and it’s a process crime, yeah, they’ll say, “Okay, you know, you got us but at the end of the day, you know, we still had the Russians. We still had to investigate the Russians and the Trump campaign.” I’m really hoping that, you know, there’s more meat in there.
RUSH: Let me just tell you… (sigh) Look, folks, I’m in a very difficult situation here ’cause I gotta be honest with you. At the same time, I don’t like negativity. I’m not a negativist. I’m not a pessimist or anything, but I’m just gonna tell you. I’m not holding out much on Horowitz. This thing should have been out in May. This thing has been delayed for so damn long that even Charles Grassley has been asking, “What the hell is going on with this?”
This guy has all the information gathered back in May. That’s when we first heard this thing was coming. If I were you, my advice would be to lower your expectations on Horowitz — and if I’m wrong about it, be pleasantly surprised. Durham is where the action’s gonna be if there is any, not Horowitz. Horowitz is exclusively the FISA warrant application process and what do we know about that. We know that the FISA warrant was lied to.
We know that the Steele dossier was used. We know the Steele dossier is made up. We know that the FBI knew it was made up. We know the Steele dossier has yet to be verified because it can’t be verified. We know the Steele dossier was actually a series of small dossiers written by Glenn Simpson at Fusion GPS in cahoots with Nellie Ohr, who was the link at the FBI to Fusion GPS. We know that the FBI leaked elements of the Steele dossier to the media.
Then the media reports what the FBI leaked so that it looks like there are multiple reports of the details in the Steele dossier. The whole thing is a lie. The entire… Everything on this FISA warrant application that involves the Steele dossier is entirely fabricated, and if Horowitz doesn’t say that, then… (chuckles) If all we’re gonna get here is that somebody working for Strzok lied on the application? Yeah, lied how? We still don’t know what the lie is.
(Snort!) Horowitz has produced a bunch of other IG reports up to now. How many of them have been bombshells? It’s had some pretty damning stuff in it, but what of it has stuck? So that’s just me. I’m telling you, I’d love to be wrong about it. But I, again, am using intelligence guided by experience. There’s another thing, another reason I have this attitude. I’ve been hearing for six months, for six… (interruption) What? What, Mr. Snerdley? (interruption) The program… (interruption)
What is Trump saying is gonna be historic, Durham or Horowitz? What’s he saying is gonna be historic? Durham probably would be totally historic if Durham has gotten the bottom of it. But Horowitz is looking at one thing: FISA warrant application process. That is all he’s looking at. Now, that includes the dossier. It’s big. But I don’t… Is it Horowitz’s charge to determine what evidence they used is false or made up, or is all he’s looking at how they used it?
In other words, is the IG supposed to find out when the Steele dossier’s legit or not, or is he just gonna look at how they used it and determine it was improper the way they used it, or is he gonna say it is improper itself? Is part of his investigation to determine whether or not the court was lied to? If so, then it could be bombshell because they were. I know Trump is saying it’s gonna be historic.
Is he talking specifically about December 9th or in general when all of this — whatever all of this is — comes out? I don’t doubt that Trump knows, and I don’t doubt that he’s gotta good indication. We know! We know what they’ve done! That’s what’s so damn frustrating. We know what they’ve done. We know they had nothing. We know that Mueller should have closed the file the moment he was given it, that there was never any evidence. We know.
That’s what’s so frustrating about this. Then you got Ron Brownstein on CNN saying that people like me criticizing bureaucrats, that’s what George Wallace did. So now we’re racist, folks. We’re racist right out of George Wallace and good old Alabama. About all Alabama’s good for is football now. The only time the left will even say the word is when they’re talking about college football ’cause Alabama, that’s where Jeff Sessions is from.
Beauregard! Jeff Sessions. So we’re… Meanwhile, you ought to see the story we’ve got about the racism on Long Island where the left lives. But, yeah, because we don’t bow down and kiss the feet of a bunch of haughty bureaucrats, we’re like George Wallace now? So we know what happened. And I don’t know about you. I’m impatient waiting for this stuff. Horowitz was supposed to be in May. Where is it?
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Trump says that the government watchdog report on the origins of the investigation is what’s gonna be historic. Well, that’s Durham. That’s not Horowitz. Trump is saying that Durham is gonna be historic, and we don’t have a release date on that.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: By the way, keep something in mind about Horowitz. Horowitz can’t charge anybody with anything. He’s just an investigator. All he can do is make criminal referrals. So if he finds evidence of a crime, he has to take it somewhere as a criminal referral. In this case, it might be to Durham or it might be to I don’t know where. Durham would be the likely choice. But I just got an email that may help. I gotta ask you all a question.
I just got an email from somebody who says, “Wait a minute, Rush. Let me tell you what we’re expecting. We are expecting criminal referrals of Comey and McCabe and maybe even Rosenstein from the Durham FISA warrant application. I need to ask: How many of you were expecting that? Maybe this is why there’s a little of a variance between my attitude about Horowitz and yours. (interruption) You are expecting the inspector general…? I’m talking to the program observer here.
What frustrates me about this — and there are many things — is that all of this stuff that we know still has been entirely totally ignored by what we would call the mainstream media. In fact, I’ve got a sound bite here to illustrate what I’m talking about. Again, let me find it. I had not intended to get to it now. It is… Let’s see. Yeah, give me 9, 10, and 11, and maybe 12.
This is CNN talking about the bombshell from Horowitz about the FBI employee who doctored, altered, lied on the FISA warrant application and backdated an email with false information in it to try to justify the alterations on the application. CNN breaks the news on the Carter Page FISA warrant, and everybody seems confused over at CNN. Here first is Wolf “Blitzed” reporting the breaking news.
BLITZER: We’ve got some breaking news, uh, that we’re following right now. Our senior justice correspondent, Evan Perez, is learning new information about the origins of the Russia probe and what? Uh, there’s, uh, somebody under investigation right now?
RUSH: Oh, the origins of the Russian probe! You know, I’m wrong. These people know exactly what happened. They were complicit in fabricating all of the lies about it. CNN knows exactly what… Look, maybe they don’t. They could be the biggest bunch of dryball dummkopfs that we’ve ever found, or they could be so absorbed in their own little made-up world of illusion that maybe they don’t.
PEREZ: This is an investigation that began, uh, ah, uh and was found as part of the, uhh, the probe that’s being done by Michael Horowitz, the inspector general for the Justice Department. And what he found was that there was a — a — an employee at the FBI who altered a document that was used in the preparation for one of the FISA warrants, one of the warrants — uh, surveillance warrants — that was, uh, done against Carter Page, who was the Trump campaign aide. This document, whatever changes were made, uh, was substantive enough to change the meaning of the document. Again, this is an altered document. There’s a lot we don’t know about this employee and what the motivations were. But it is a big deal, obviously, for you to make a change to a document, to alter it in any way.
RUSH: “It’s a big deal. See, it’s a big deal to make a change to a document, folks. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah! To alter it in any way is a really big deal. We don’t know who did it.” Can you say Lisa Page? All you gotta do is read what Horowitz said: “a close associate of Peter Strzok,” and both of them were fired for the text messages, the affair they were having going back and forth as they were setting up a backup plan to get rid of Trump in case this one bombed out.
CNN claims not to know.
Now we go to the first guest or witness that CNN called, Preet Bharara. He’s a Schumer guy. He’s the former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, now known by everybody as the famous SDNY. It’s the Justice Department, but this is the federal district for the Southern District of New York. It’s not Horowitz. It’s not Durham. It’s not the D.C. Justice Department. This is the U.S. attorney’s office, Southern District of Manhattan. Preet Bharara ran the office during the Obama administration.
So Wolf Blitzer says, “So, Preet, what is your reaction to this?”
BHARARA: That’s kind of an alarming, uh, bit of news. If there was an FBI agent sworn to uphold the Constitution who, uh, can be proven to have altered a document in connection with a legal proceeding — including the — the obtaining of a FISA warrant — that… that’s really serious. It doesn’t get a lot more serious than that. That’s not a good thing. It’s a terrible thing. This particular thing that Evan Perez has just broken the story on does sound serious to me.
RUSH: As though they’re hearing about it for the first time. “Oh, wow, this could be really bad!” How can they not know that this stuff was done? Carter Page was never even charged. Carter Page was the man on whom they got the warrant to spy, and he was never charged with anything. So why in heaven’s name were they spying on Carter Page? Answer is: They weren’t. It was part of the deception. You get the warrant to spy on Page, and you can spy on anybody he’s talking to.
You get the warrant to spy on Page and you can bug him, you can monitor his phone calls and anybody’s talking to — and he was, for a brief period of time, in the Trump campaign. (sniveling) “And he also had friends in Russia! So you see, it’s very important to get a warrant to spy on Carter Page because he traveled to Russia, and it was very, very important to make Russia look like they were really, really at the bottom and behind all this.”
Here’s Carter Page himself. He was on Fox Business today, Mornings with Maria Bartiromo, who said, “Explain to us what happened for those people who have not been following this as closely as you and I have.”
PAGE: They have just been putting false information out there to the media — the Democrats and their allies in the media — constantly pushing lies after lies. It gets picked up by the Comey-McCabe FBI, and they got a warrant — a fraudulent warrant, I believe — to spy on myself as a way of getting into the Trump campaign. I’d get calls from the Washington Post, New York Times, CNN. They’re asking me about these same two false allegations which the Democrats, their consultants and their lawyers were all pushing. None of them picked it up. But finally, they found someone from Yahoo News to put out this disinformation to the world and really interfere in the U.S. presidential election. There has been a continued cover-up to this very day.
RUSH: Yeah. Exactly right. And everybody’s expecting Horowitz to unveil all this. And now we’re expecting, some people, expecting criminal referrals of Comey and McCabe and maybe even Rosenstein or Rosenstein — I’ve heard it pronounced both ways. And here’s Carter Page: basically get a warrant to spy on me so they could spy on everybody else. I was never charged with anything. And his story about Yahoo News put out this defamatory information to the world about what he had done to justify the warrant to spy on him. It was a pack of lies.
And that was absolutely untrue. Ukraine was up to their eyeballs in trying to sabotage Trump. Now, Horowitz, the IG, is not looking into any of that. By the way, here’s Ed Meese, who was on The Daily Caller website. The correspondent Amber Athey was interviewing former attorney general Meese. “There have been a lot of comparisons of Trump’s scandal to Watergate, but if there’s spying going on using the FISA warrants against a political opponent, that sounds much more like Watergate to me.”
MEESE: In many ways what happened in the Obama administration and the spying on the campaign is much more like what happened in Watergate, where there were actually improper violations of the law, in one case a burglary, in the other case the misuse of FISA information or of a FISA warrant, I think that’s a very different situation than anything that is even alleged here.
RUSH: So the point here is that everybody knows what happened. The media is engaging in a cover-up of it, and they’re trying to act now like they’re shocked and stunned that this has been discovered. “Oh, this is very serious stuff,” says Preet Bharara. “Oh, this is problematic.” Come on, Preet. You people knew all of this.
But I don’t know, folks. I think that Comey and McCabe ought to be indicted and sent up the river. But can you see the swamp doing that to itself? And Horowitz is the swamp, folks.
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