Quote:
Originally Posted by ~Ray
.....the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court held no hearings on the FISA spy warrant applications targeting Carter Page (a former Trump campaign part-time advisor who was the subject of four controversial FISA warrants).
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That is correct.
It's a warrant. They go to a judge and say "We believe we have reason to suspect this person of a crime", and they get a warrant to gather more information. They don't go into a courtroom, hear arguments from the opposing side, don't have hearings... With that said, it is a rubber stamp process. From what I've read they have approved over 30k such warrants, while only denying 12.
(Correct me if I am wrong but....) This is all part of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which was updated and expanded greatly after 9/11 under President Bush.
Republicans are trying to make this out like the original investigation into Carter Paige was invalid. You can spin it all you want, but a foreign government - Australia - came to the United States government and said Cater Paige was aware of the DNC hacking by the Russians before anyone else did. This means Carter Paige was either directly involved, or had information of a crime that took place - a very serious crime where a foreign government hacked an American political party - and then failed to report it.