A complete and total blackout. That was how ABC, CBS, and NBC reacted on their Tuesday evening newscasts when the top Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judge, Rosemary M. Collyer blasted the FBI for misleading the court when seeking surveillance warrants for a former Trump campaign staffer. The order was damning, accusing an FBI lawyer of a criminal act in intentionally lying to the court. It added that the court’s confidence in the FBI’s evidence was so shaken they needed extra oversight for all cases.

Judge Collyer penned the four-page order declaring: “When FBI personnel mislead NSD [National Security Division] in the ways described above, they equally mislead the FISC.” Much of the order explained the application process for obtaining FISA warrants and what happened in the case of Carter Page; in order for the public to “appreciate the seriousness of that misconduct and its implications…”

On page three of the order, the judge accused an unnamed FBI lawyer of intentionally lying to other FBI personnel and the FISC in turn, which was a criminal act:

In addition, while the fourth electronic surveillance application for Mr. Page was being prepared, an attorney in the FBI's Office of General Counsel (OGC) engaged in conduct that apparently was intended to mislead the FBI agent who ultimately swore to the facts in that application about whether Mr. Page had been a source of another government agency.

She added that the FISC couldn’t trust anything the FBI told them anymore:

The frequency with which representations made by FBI personnel turned out to be unsupported or contradicted by information in their possession, and with which they withheld information detrimental to their case, calls into question whether information contained in other FBI applications is reliable.

Instead of reporting on this damning order by the top FISC judge, the broadcast networks were salivating over impeachment. NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt eagerly proclaimed President Trump would occupy a “rare and dishonored place in American history.” And ABC and NBC gushed about former Trump campaign staffer Rick Gates getting sentenced to three years of probation.

Meanwhile, Fox News Channel’s Special Report kicked off its broadcast with the breaking news. “Breaking tonight, the FISA court is fighting back not against the critical inspector general's report, but against the FBI,” announced anchor Bret Baier, skipping past the opening teases.

“This is a stunning rebuke of the FBI by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. In its order of this afternoon, the court chastised the FBI for the FISA abuses brought to light in the recent inspector general's report,” reported correspondent Doug McKelway.

As a rebuke to a false claim made by fired FBI director James Comey over the weekend, when he suggested it was difficult to obtain a FISA warrant, McKelway noted: “The government made 1,081 FISA surveillance requests in 2018. The court rejected only one of them. That is an approval rate of well over 99 percent, a number which has raised concern that the FISA court has been a rubber stamp for the FBI.” That was followed up with soundbites of bipartisan suspicion of the court’s legitimacy.

McKelway concluded: “This is all information that U.S. attorney John Durham may factor into his ongoing criminal investigation.”

The transcript is below,c click "expand" to read: