Day 380: The Nunes Memo: That’s It?
After weeks of hinting at its contents and #ReleaseTheMemo social media campaigns, the GOP finally got what it wanted: Donald Trump approved a cherry-picked, slanted memo drafted by Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) to be released to the public, despite the FBI itself proclaiming it was misleading.
And it was kind of a dud.
While that didn’t stop conservative media from running with snippets and proclaiming a vast conspiracy against Trump, the facts do not bore that out, as even the memo admitted spy and source Christopher Steele’s “past record of credible reporting on other unrelated matters.”
For instance, the memo tried to paint the infamous Steele Dossier as the impetus to get a FISA warrant to spy on Carter Page and his connections with Russia.
Only the memo undercut that very argument later on:
The Papadopoulos information triggered the opening of an FBI counterintelligence investigation in late July 2016 by FBI agent Pete Strzok.
This sentence is an admission that it wasn’t the Steele Dossier, but rather the long-reported story of George Papadopoulos running his mouth while drunk overseas that triggered the investigation. (Papadopoulos has since pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and appears to be working with special counsel Robert Mueller.)
The memo also summarizes testimony that happened behind closed doors, for which the transcripts were not provided, and omits what other evidence was provided to the FISA court.
The Nunes memo claims that the FISA court wasn’t informed about Steele’s funding for his dossier and his political connections, but according to the Wall Street Journal, that’s simply not true.
The memo is critical of Mr. Steele and notes that prosecutors in their application for the warrant didn’t explicitly state that he was working for a firm funded by Democrats. But the FISA application did disclose Mr. Steele was being paid by a law firm working for a major political party, according to a person familiar with the matter. Redacting the names of U.S. people or organizations who aren’t the subject of an investigation is a common practice in government legal filings, designed to protect privacy.
On top of that, the memo admits that additional FISA applications happened under Trump, by his DOJ.
The FBI and DOJ obtained one initial FISA warrant targeting Carter Page and three FISA renewals from the FISC. As required by statute (50 U.S.C. §1805(d)(1)), a FISA order on an American citizen must be renewed by the FISC every 90 days and each renewal requires a separate finding of probable cause. Then-Director James Comey signed three FISA applications in question on behalf of the FBI, and Deputy Director Andrew McCabe signed one. Then-DAG Sally Yates, then-Acting DAG Dana Boente, and DAG Rod Rosenstein each signed one or more FISA applications on behalf of DOJ.
As the same WSJ story reported, the FISA warrants were approved by four different federal judges, all of whom were appointed by Republican presidents.
So FISA warrants and their renewals were obtained by both the Obama and Trump DOJs, in front of four GOP-appointed judges, partially based on information of an American diplomat running his mouth, partially based on information by a credible source, and partially based on additional information that was not disclosed in the memo.
Not much of a conspiracy.
After weeks of building up suspense, Republicans would have been better off not releasing the memo and instead coyly hinting at the bombshell revelations that were still classified. The memo, slanted as it was, still could never live up to the hype and its bark was far greater than its bite.
380 days in, 1082 to go
Follow us on Twitter at @TrumpTimer
