Republicans Refute ‘Point by Point’ Democratic Memo on Dossier

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes said the Democratic opposition memo did not change the facts or change the outcome of the investigation’s finding his committee released in their own partisan memo several weeks ago.

On Saturday the much anticipated Democratic memo written by ranking minority member of the committee Rep. Adam Schiff, D-CA, was released and surmised that former British spy “Christopher Steele’s raw intelligence reporting did not inform the FBI’s decision to initiate its counterintelligence investigation in late July 2016” among other assertions. The dossier played a significant role in the investigation into President Trump’s 2016 campaign and alleged that members of the Trump campaign were colluding with the Russian government against then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Nunes, R-CA, fought back Saturday against Schiff. Nunes said the Democratic memo did not dispel the original findings of the committee, which he noted were also validated by an investigation headed by the Senate Judiciary Committee into Steele and his role in providing the FBI with the unverified dossier. Senate Judiciary Chairman Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Senator Lindsey Graham, R-SC, made a criminal referral to the Department of Justice last month and released their findings after receiving approval from the FBI.

“The American people now clearly understand that the FBI used political dirt paid for by the Democratic Party to spy on an American citizen from the Republican Party,” said Nunes in a statement released Saturday. “Furthermore, the FISA court was misled about Mr. Page’s past interactions with the FBI in which he helped build a case against Russian operatives in America who were brought to justice,” said Nunes, in a statement.”

Monica Showalter of American Thinker observes:

What we are seeing here is a weak rebuttal to the carefully investigated and verified facts of the Republican memo, created by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, which really did shift the Beltway on its axis. Nunes established that unmaskings had occurred way above the scope of the narrow legal exception; that the Steele dossier was the knowingly false basis of the FBI to seek a FISA warrant to spy on Trump, through Carter Page, and the safeguards to Americans from America’s spy agencies were appallingly violated, by both the judge and the federal investigators, who incidently, were rabidly anti-Trump in their little lovebird text exchanges.

What we have here is Schiff arguing weakly and defensively, with zero new information, that the FBI ‘did not, did not’ abuse their power, and that the Steele dossier is perfectly true and a valid basis for seeking a FISA warrant to spy on someone.

What Schiff lacks here are facts, any new facts. All he is saying is that he doesn’t like the facts established with rock-solid basis, by the Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee. He’s really like the facts to be some other way. He looks like a fool again.

These are the people who would rule us in the supposed blue wave come November?

A Summary of the Summaries

Schiff's memo claims the Steele dossier, the garbage-filled 'unverified' opposition research used by the FBI as the basis for obtaining a FISA warrant on Trump advisor Carter Page, really wasn't the main reason why the bureau spied on both him and by extension Donald Trump. Schiff says the dossier was just "narrowly" used as a basis - neglecting to note that 'narrow' was all that was needed. After all, the big stuff in the dossier was the phony story about Trump bedding down with Moscow hookers and having them deliver 'golden showers.' Carter Page was a lot less useful in the opposition research for the dossier's original purpose which was fill out a conspiracy to smear Trump in the press. But its tiny mention was plenty for the FBI to get excited about, except if they had bothered to assess the purpose of the dossier and its provenance. Calling it 'narrow' is disingenuous indeed. Narrow is all the FBI needs - and that is why it abused its power.
Schiff's memo also notes that Carter Page had been the target for recruitment by Russian agents, and forgets to note that Page told the FBI all about it, in detail, and couldn't stop talking. That's not a guy who's a spy. The bureau's Russian agent claim was otherwise based on Page's consulting work in Russia, his travel to Russia (now that's illegal?) and the fact that he was a guy who just liked Russia. Not a very convincing 'narrative' for spying on someone, unless there was a political agenda, specifically, one involving Getting Trump.
Schiff defends the whole investigation because Trump campaign people, specifically his son, Don, Jr., had a meeting with Natalya Veselnitskaya, a Kremlin-linked lawyer, who promised opposition research in exchange for a meeting, which is not illegal in itself, and certainly no more illegal than the collected opposition research of Steele dossier. Why is it legal for Democrats to gather opposition research from Russians in the Steele dossier, but not Republicans? Schiff doesn't say. It's even less worthy of attention because Don, Jr. got nothing from the Russkis, and did nothing for them and their drop-the-sanctions real agenda.

Schiff defends the whole investigation because Trump campaign people, specifically his son, Don, Jr., had a meeting with Natalya Veselnitskaya, a Kremlin-linked lawyer, who promised opposition research in exchange for a meeting, which is not illegal in itself, and certainly no more illegal than the collected opposition research of Steele dossier. Why is it legal for Democrats to gather opposition research from Russians in the Steele dossier, but not Republicans? Schiff doesn't say. It's even less worthy of attention because Don, Jr. got nothing from the Russkis, and did nothing for them and their drop-the-sanctions real agenda.

"According to Fox News, hours prior-to and just following the June 2016 meeting between Donald Jr. and Veselnitskaya in Trump Tower, Glenn Simpson — a founder of Fusion GPS and former reporter for the Wall Street Journal — met with the Russian lawyer in a New York City courtroom. The report also states a source confirms the two met after the Trump Tower rendezvous."

One thing that has yet to be mentioned is that behavior like this, i.e., using the dossier in the affidavit to obtain and renew the FISA warrant, is done ALL the time by the FBI and federal prosecutors; expand the scope of an existing investigation by drawing a completely unrelated association with a higher-level target, e.g., the Manafort/Page-Trump relationship. As Strzok himself said, “There’s no real there there.”

Similarly, the FBI and federal prosecutors frequently apply the concept of “limited prosecution” (limiting by geography, failing to pursue/identify additional associates, etc.) to avoid ensnaring those they do NOT want to indict. Excellent examples are the BCCI, ABSCAM and Second Mile Foundation investigations.

And then there are the others. Chinagate, TWA 800, the Clinton email “investigation” and others served only to gather evidence and information and either discredit it or make it disappear. Good luck finding anything of substance on any of the above investigations in any FBI database - and the FBI is not the only federal law enforcement agency that does so.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.