emptywheel

FISA without faith in the judicial is a scary hypothetical. Hence the concern about crackpot nominees being rammed through.

I have repeatedly defended FISC. But I also happen to think Rosemary Collyer is a dangerously bad FISA judge, possibly the worst for which we have public documentation.

I’ll take your word for it. In this case; however, I’ll take the word of Senator’s Burr and Warner that the unmasking was legitimate.

Oh, it's not unmasking here. It's the underlying FISA order. But by all reports, including an anonymous Byron York report, there were plenty of other sources to back the application. https://www.emptywheel.net/2018/01/30/byron-york-confirms-that-many-names-and-sources-implicated-carter-page-as-an-agent-of-a-foreign-power/ …

My understanding is the foreign surveillance swept up Page et al. Concerning IC - unmasking protocol leads to FISA. Add Papadopoulos blab session. Add IC surveillance of cozy bear. Voila.

Flynn was incidentally collected, as were, probably, a bunch of others (and not just off Kislyak or even off just Russian targets). But Page was targeted himself. I suspect Papadopoulos implicates 702 (Facebook convos), but that's speculation.

Page had been a Russian asset target for years prior to Trump's rise.

Yes. I know.