Posted on 02/02/2018 11:35:10 AM PST by EdnaMode
Rep. Devin Nunes’s infamous memo — the document numerous House Republicans claimed would demonstrate fundamental anti-Trump corruption at the FBI — was released early Friday afternoon. The entire thing is three and a half pages and only takes a few minutes to read closely and carefully.
After doing that, there is only one conclusion a fair reader could draw: There is absolutely nothing here.
There is no proof in the memo that the FBI is biased against Trump, no proof of abuse of surveillance powers by the FBI, and no proof that the investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia are fundamentally flawed. The memo is a piece of partisan spin, and not a particularly compelling one at that.
Republicans who claimed it was anything else have been egregiously misrepresenting what the memo actually says.
The memo does not support its core claim The memo begins by making a grandiose claim: The FBI’s use of surveillance power under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) during the 2016 campaign was “a troubling breakdown of legal processes established to protect the American people from abuses related to the FISA process.”
The only example the memo cites is an October 21, 2016, request by the Department of Justice and FBI for permission under FISA powers to snoop on former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page. The key word there is former: Page had left the Trump campaign at least a month before the application. That’s the first red flag that there’s nothing here, as an FBI campaign to undermine Trump’s campaign would almost certainly involve targeting someone who was actually working on it.
(Excerpt) Read more at vox.com ...
Not surprising.
Great point! They usually try to hide these stories, but have given it a ton of attention.
.... for political espionage reasons.
But it's just a BIG DUD, you see.
The memo says that the FISA warrant was based on more than just the Steele dossier, so without knowing what else they had or just how big a part it played then I have a hard time calling the warrant baseless. And in order to have the warrant renewed, the FBI would have to show that their surveillance was actually producing results. I would think that would require more than just submitting the same Steele report again and again.
But what do I know. According to Comey, it’s no big deal, par for the course.
What would you expect Comey to say?
That’s the spin, “dud” sometimes a dud explodes a little later.
I think this is the tip of the iceberg, this is just a small piece of the 99 page document, we still have to 1.2 million page OIG report.
Afraid you are right.
Looks like he’s a “catcher.”
Yes, the IG’s report is due to come quite soon.
That should be a very interesting one.
I’ll wager the Democrat response will be equally entertaining!
CA....
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