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ICYMI, @carterwpage is suing:
Comey
McCabe
Clinesmith
Strzok
Page
Pientka
Somma
Auten
DOJ
for a minimum of $75,000,000.00.
I'll discuss some highlights from Carter's complaint in this thread. The entire complaint can be found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cxy88h9aOCDTF3YLePqqrXzO7Ql_AnoQ/view
Comey
McCabe
Clinesmith
Strzok
Page
Pientka
Somma
Auten
DOJ
for a minimum of $75,000,000.00.
I'll discuss some highlights from Carter's complaint in this thread. The entire complaint can be found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cxy88h9aOCDTF3YLePqqrXzO7Ql_AnoQ/view
The best thing a good lawyer can do, if there is an opportunity to do so, is to let your opponent make your case for you. @McAdooGordon does exactly that right off the bat. This is an extremely strong opening.
This gets right to the heart of the matter. The FBI never had probable cause to spy on @carterwpage. @McAdooGordon doesn't beat around the bush and, unlike the gaslighting media and lying Democrats, calls Steele exactly what he is: a Clinton operative.
@McAdooGordon does a great job here boxing in the defendants by establishing that, from the outset, the FBI *knew* that Carter Page was an operational contact for the CIA and also *knew* that Hillary was suspected of having concocted the entire Russia hoax to frame Trump.
This is extremely methodical from @McAdooGordon. Failure after failure to inform the court of the truth. The Danchenko part is probably the most damning, i.e. that both Steele and Danchenko were portrayed as credible without telling the court that they contradicted each other.
Here's another example of great lawyerly skills. @McAdooGordon says that Carter's case is the most egregious FISA abuse ever. That seems like a big claim but at this point in the filing it's really just a logical conclusion based on all the evidence that's already been presented.
Next up is a section that describes the people being sued "in their individual capacities". They will inevitably claim that they are indemnified because the acted in their official capacities. I'm sure Leslie has that gamed out. John Does are included in case new info comes up.
The complaint then goes into the nitty-gritty of the fraudulent FISA applications. This here seems to be the key, i.e. that the court was not told that Hillary used a law firm to conceal payments to FusionGPS, who then paid Steele, who then spread disinformation about Carter.
More great lawyering here in letting your opponent make your case for you. FBI agent Gaeta said that Steele's behavior was "one of the craziest" he'd seen in two decades of handling sources. Yet, the FBI continued holding out Steele to the FISA court as super duper credible.
Important point here that is often overlooked. Despite having had 3 months of extremely intrusive and unconstrained access to every aspect of Carter's life and history, the FBI found nothing. But they forged on anyway, misleading the court with the words "continue to produce".
There's a lot on Danchenko in the complaint. He is a weak link. Here @McAdooGordon explains how the FBI blatantly lied to the FISA court, claiming that Danchenko had been "truthful and cooperative" when, in reality, he was "truthful and cooperative in disavowing Steele".
Next up is Clinesmith. Again, Leslie does a fantastic job making the point that is often missed. Clinesmith doctoring evidence wasn't so much about wanting to obtain yet another FISA. It was much more about *covering up* the fact that the FBI had lied to the court over and over.
Here's why Leslie is so good at this. Instead of just claiming that Comey misled the FISA court (which we all sort of know he did), she proves it in one simple paragraph. In Jan 2017 Comey said the Steele stuff was "unverified". In Apr 2017, he signed the next warrant regardless.
Next up is McCabe. Despite repeated warnings, he forged on with the FISA, even personally intervening with DOJ. At a minimum, this establishes that he acted recklessly. This will become an issue when McCabe invariably argues that he was acting in his official capacity.
@McAdooGordon also compiles a list of misrepresentations made to the court by Auten (who I have it on good authority is in a lot of trouble other than this lawsuit). Here she ties some of his misrepresentations in with Danchenko. The "Russia-based" lie is one that most missed.
This is interesting. The section on Lisa Page is just this one paragraph. The claim is that she leaked.
You can tell how well a complain is written by whether it creates a theme that ties everything together. @McAdooGordon does just that, as illustrated here in a section about Somma. The overarching theme is that all the defendants went rogue, misleading the court and even the DOJ.
Leslie then goes through some Strzok and Lisa Page text messages from which is can be reasonably concluded that they collaborated to leak to the media. Looking forward to discovery on this.
In total there are 8 causes of action. I'm not going to go through them as there's a lot of legalese but the gist of it is that these rogue FBI staff lied to the FISA, leaked against Carter and violated his constitutional rights, eg 4A against unreasonable searches and seizures.
In sum, this is an extremely well written complaint, replete with well researched details. As mentioned, the overarching theme is that rogue FBI staff went after Carter. Strategically, that might be why Carter decided not to sue Danchenko, Steele etc. Maybe that will come later.
