{"id":393,"date":"2018-02-02T19:19:15","date_gmt":"2018-02-02T19:19:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ielrblog.com\/?p=393"},"modified":"2018-02-02T19:19:15","modified_gmt":"2018-02-02T19:19:15","slug":"house-gop-releases-controversial-nunes-memo-alleging-doj-fbi-fisa-abuses-2016-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ielrblog.com\/index.php\/2018\/02\/02\/house-gop-releases-controversial-nunes-memo-alleging-doj-fbi-fisa-abuses-2016-election\/","title":{"rendered":"House GOP Releases Controversial Nunes Memo Alleging DOJ and FBI FISA Abuses During the 2016 Election"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Friday, February 2, 2018, House Republicans, with the approval of the Trump administration, released the four-page Nunes memo. The controversial memo, written by Rep. Devin Nunes, the Republican chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, alleges Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) abuses by the DOJ and the FBI during the 2016 election.<\/p>\n

The memo focuses almost entirely on the government\u2019s electronic surveillance of a Trump campaign adviser, Carter Page. According to the memo, on October 21, 2016, the DOJ and FBI received a probable cause order under FISA to conduct surveillance on Page. The agencies also received three FISA renewals from the FISC \u2013 under 50 U.S.C. \u00a71805(d)(1), a FISA order targeting a U.S. citizen must be renewed by the FISC every 90 days, with each renewal requiring an independent finding of probable cause.<\/p>\n

The memo does not explicitly accuse either the DOJ or the FBI of violating the FISA application process. Rather, its primary allegation is that the agencies failed to disclose \u201cmaterial and relevant\u201d information, purportedly because the information in question was \u201cpotentially favorable\u201d to the target of the application. In particular, the memo denounces the following omissions:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The DNC\u2019s and the Clinton campaign\u2019s alleged role in funding Christopher Steele\u2019s efforts to compile a dossier with \u201cderogatory information\u201d on the Trump campaign\u2019s Russia ties;<\/li>\n
  2. The extent of Steele\u2019s direct contact with media outlets \u2013 mainly Yahoo News<\/em>. The memo claims such contact \u201cviolated the cardinal rule of source handling \u2013 maintain confidentiality;\u201d<\/li>\n
  3. Steele\u2019s alleged \u201canti-Trump bias,\u201d which the memo claims was documented by senior DOJ official Bruce Ohr as well as in official FBI materials, but not reflected in the FISA application;<\/li>\n
  4. A source validation report by the FBI that assed the Steele dossier as \u201conly minimally corroborated;\u201d and<\/li>\n
  5. The lack of evidence of cooperation between Page and fellow Trump campaign advisor George Papadopoulos.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    For its part, Democratic leadership has vehemently denounced the memo\u2019s findings as misleading. In a press release<\/a>, Rep. Adam Schiff, ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, stated the following:<\/p>\n

    The authors of the GOP memo would like the country to believe that the investigation began with Christopher Steele and the dossier, and if they can just discredit Mr. Steele, they can make the whole investigation go away regardless of the Russians\u2019 interference in our election or the role of the Trump campaign in that interference. This ignores the inconvenient fact that the investigation did not begin with, or arise from Christopher Steele or the dossier, and that the investigation would persist on the basis of wholly independent evidence had Christopher Steele never entered the picture.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    In response to the release of the Nunes memo, Schiff on behalf of the Democrats had written a 10-pagerebuttal memo. On Monday, when the House Intelligence Committee voted to release the Nunes memo, it also rejected a motion from Schiff to release the Democratic response at the same time. Schiff has told<\/a> the media that the Democrats will attempt to force another vote on the release of the response.<\/p>\n

    For the full text of the Nunes memo, see\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    On Friday, February 2, 2018, House Republicans, with the approval of the Trump administration, released the four-page Nunes memo. The controversial memo, written by Rep. Devin Nunes, the Republican chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, alleges Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) abuses by the DOJ and the FBI during the 2016 election. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-393","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-foreign-intelligence-and-surveillance","7":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\nHouse GOP Releases Controversial Nunes Memo Alleging DOJ and FBI FISA Abuses During the 2016 Election | IELR Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ielrblog.com\/index.php\/2018\/02\/02\/house-gop-releases-controversial-nunes-memo-alleging-doj-fbi-fisa-abuses-2016-election\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"House GOP Releases Controversial Nunes Memo Alleging DOJ and FBI FISA Abuses During the 2016 Election | IELR Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On Friday, February 2, 2018, House Republicans, with the approval of the Trump administration, released the four-page Nunes memo. 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