Did the Republican Congressmen over sell the Memo? Absolutely. Did that make it a nothingburger? No. Was it a bombshell? Sort of. The FISA memo also referred to as the Nunes Memo, was compiled by Republicans on the House Intel Committee. Trump supporters should be disappointed as should Hillary haters. However the most revealing thing in the Memos is about the FBI lowering their standards when seeking FISA warrants.
That is why Congress imposed SPECIAL RESTRICTIONS on access to FISA courts and use of FISA evidence. To access FISA courts, only the highest ranking FBI officials must vet and approve, a high ranking DOJ official must authorize, and they must re-vet and re-approve every 90 days.
— Robert Barnes (@Barnes_Law) February 2, 2018
Claiming someone is an "agent of a foreign power" is a difficult standard to ever show, and should never happen to a domestic political opponent in a domestic political campaign. That is why the FBI had to cook the books — put a bogus informant on their team & lie to the courts.
— Robert Barnes (@Barnes_Law) February 2, 2018
In following this standard there is a clear shortcoming. The FBI used the Steele Dossier, in part, with seeking a FISA warrant on Page. That Dossier was highly motivated for political gain and paid for by the DNC. According to Nunes, this was not disclosed to FISC. Contrary rebuttals are surfacing stating that the FBI did disclose the partisan motivations to the Court, which arguably makes matters worse. Then there’s the issue of Yahoo News.
Confirmed: DOJ officials used Yahoo News story- fed to Yahoo by Steele- as further evidence for FISA warrant. This is called "circular reporting," and is a cardinal sin in intelligence work pic.twitter.com/QhdafiOQQN
— Buck Sexton (@BuckSexton) February 2, 2018
https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/959479815643500544
The FBI clearly lowered their standards when obtaining this FISA warrant. They allowed circular reporting which is taboo in the industry. But let it sink in that the FBI is using the media to obtain information. In this era of fake news, as citizens, we should feel insulted the FBI did so little intelligence work in seeking this warrant. The FBI didn’t due their due diligence and purposely sought a warrant to spy on an American citizen. And yet now they want to complain about the public trust.
That’s it? Dishonest and misleading memo wrecked the House intel committee, destroyed trust with Intelligence Community, damaged relationship with FISA court, and inexcusably exposed classified investigation of an American citizen. For what? DOJ & FBI must keep doing their jobs.
— James Comey (@Comey) February 2, 2018
Since when has the government disclosing information to the public a hindrance on American trust. That could only be the case if the government was abusing said trust and now the government is fessing up. James Comey is a weasel who would much rather leak to the media than be honest with the public. The FBI was just revealed to abuse the FISA warrant system on an American citizen. This is a significant matter. FBI credibility is plummeting not because of Congress but because of people like James Comey and Andrew McCabe.
https://twitter.com/LedgeSomewhere/status/959614604824334336
Russia, Russia, Russia
While Carter Page is at the center of the Russian witchhunt, it’s independent of Paul Manafort. Unfortunately the Russian investigation won’t go away as a result of the Memo. While the Memo may discredit the investigation, it in no way has enough to end it. In this way, many are disappointed. In this way, the Memo was oversold. In fact, to some the investigation is validated. Folks like John McCain claim that this was Putin’s bidding, but America’s interests were best served by knowing that our government is abusing the FISA system. Just think, the standard was Probable Cause and an unsubstantiated dossier was used. They didn’t have probable cause so they misled the court. They received four warrants in total, gathering sensitive information for months amounting to zero charges on Carter Page.
Takeaway
The FBI and DOJ abused the FISA warrant system. There in lies the anger and the irrationality as to why so many Republicans voted to renew FISA’s power. The Memo is not the smoking gun, but we eagerly await more information of the FBI/DOJ’s abuses hopefully to the extent that charges for these abuses can be levied.
