Pictured above is a representative page from the just released FBI application to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for access to the intercepted communications of Carter Page, the hapless U.S. citizen who went from being a trusted FBI counterintelligence asset to evil Russian spy faster than you can say “Stop Trump!”. Having plowed through hundreds of similarly heavily redacted pages, I have been able to reach only one conclusion: the FBI and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein are determined to keep the American public guessing about why the Deep State spied on Page and, by extension, the Trump presidential campaign.

Although the available public record has amply established that, during the 2016 presidential campaign, James Comey’s FBI  and President Obama’s Justice Department served as the counterintelligence and law enforcement arm of the Democratic National Committee, the just released FISA application is so heavily redacted, it might as well not have been released at all. I will keep trying to distill some meaning from the unredacted scraps, but don’t hold your breath. My initial impression is that precious little comprehensible information escaped the FBI’s black magic markers.

Of far greater value is the 99 page Memorandum Opinion and Order of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court dated April 26, 2017. This document was released last year at the direction of Dan Coats, President Trump’s Director of National Intelligence.

In it, the Court describes between redactions how the FBI was caught in March 2016 disclosing “raw FISA information” to [REDACTED] which “is largely staffed by private contractors.  [REDACTED] certain [REDACTED] contractors had access to raw FISA information on FBI storage systems [REDACTED]. The apparent purpose for the FBI’s granting such access was to receive analytical assistance from [REDACTED]. Nonetheless, the [REDACTED] contractors had access to raw FISA information that went well beyond what was necessary to respond to the FBI’s requests [REDACTED].”

So who were the private contractors and why they were given this improper access to raw FISA information? Maybe the Congress or the Justice Department’s Inspector General will root out the answers and let the rest of us in on the secret.

Apparently this review by the FISA Court was instigated by Admiral Mike Rogers of the NSA who brought to the court’s attention the FBI’s abuse of the FISA system. After I have researched the matter further, I will have a more comprehensive post for you.

In the meantime, you can expect a lot of claims about the meaning of the just released Carter Page application. There are many very smart people working the problem, and maybe something useful will emerge. As for me, I haven’t been able to see past the redactions.