emptywheel

One thing I note in this post on latest Carter Page FISA story: Nothing Mueller has done to date appears to be fruit of Steele dossier. Not even for Manafort. https://www.emptywheel.net/2018/01/29/carter-page-did-not-need-to-be-a-spy-to-be-targeted-under-fisa/ …

That’s kind of irrelevant if it was used to justify surveillance.

I'm sure you, of all people, know how often whackjob consultants get to feed FISA on the way in AND testify in court on the way out for Muslim defendants. Did you complain then?

Well we never knew before, now did we. And in any case it’s a violation of civil rights and needs to stop. Period. You can’t just make things up to justify spying on American citizens, or base an entire investigation on madenip things. Just no.

Sure we did. Defense attorneys raise it all the time and I've heard it from former LE. This is not about "making stuff up." It's about the standards for privatized intelligence, which on CT side are far worse than Christopher Steele. At least Steele speaks Russian.

Well it helped when he got his information from...Russians... It’s fascinating to me that hatred for Trump has made people absolutely support this terrible behavior. It’s shameful.

Surely you're not suggesting I support the way the dossier was used? https://www.emptywheel.net/2017/10/25/democrats-continue-to-score-massive-own-goals-with-steele-dossier/ …

Yeah. I absolutely am. It doesn’t matter what you wrote on your blog. You’re defending it right now. That kinda makes you hypocritical.