Tag: Nunes FBI memo

More memos are coming. Here are six questions about ‘Phase Two’ of the Nunes investigation.

The following article by James Hohmann with Breanne Deppisch and Joanie Greve was posted on the Washington Post website February 5, 2018:

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, heads for the State of the Union last week. Credit: Joshua Roberts/Reuters

THE BIG IDEA: The memo published Friday may have been the most overhyped dud since Geraldo Rivera opened Al Capone’s empty vault in 1986. But House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, whose Republican staffers prepared the partisan document, promises that it was just the beginning.

He boasted on Friday that he now plans to train his fire on other targets. “We are in the middle of what I call ‘Phase Two’ of our investigation, which involves other departments, specifically the State Department and some of the involvement that they had in this,” the California congressman told Fox News.

“Republicans close to Nunes say there could be as many as five additional memos or reports of ‘wrongdoing,’” Axios reported Sunday night. “A Republican source briefed on Nunes’s investigation” told the site that one of the Democrats he plans to go after next is longtime Bill and Hillary Clinton associate Sid Blumenthal, who has been fending off inquiries from congressional investigators for more than two decades. Continue reading “More memos are coming. Here are six questions about ‘Phase Two’ of the Nunes investigation.”

3 questions about the FISA court answered

The following article by Lacy Wallace, Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice, Pennsylvania State University, was posted on the Conversation website February 5, 2018:

Credit: AgnosticPreachersKid-Own work, CC via Wikimedia.org

On Feb. 2, President Donald Trump allowed the release of the previously classified “Nunes memo.” The memo, written by Republican congressional aides, criticized information used as the basis for a FISA court surveillance application related to the Mueller probe into Russia’s possible involvement in the 2016 election.

But what exactly is the FISA court? And how does it work?

1. When was the FISA court established?

Congress passed FISA, or the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in 1978. FISA was originally introduced by Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy. The act was largely a response to President Richard Nixon’s misuse of federal resources to investigate U.S. citizens. Continue reading “3 questions about the FISA court answered”

Nunes paves Trump’s road to autocracy

The following commentary by E.J. Dionne, Jr., was posted on the Washington Post website February 4, 2018:

The Nunes memo. Credit: Alex Wroblewski/Bloomberg

The autocratic leader lies and then falsely charges his opponents with lying. He politicizes institutions that are supposed to be free of politics by falsely accusing his foes of politicizing them. He victimizes others by falsely claiming they are victimizing him.

The autocrat also counts on spineless politicians to cave in to his demands. And as they destroy governmental institutions at his bidding, they insist they are defending them.

In her classic 1951 book, “The Origins of Totalitarianism,” the philosopher Hannah Arendt offered two observations that help us understand the assumptions and purposes behind the memo created by the staff of Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), the chair of the House Intelligence Committee turned propagandist for President Trump. Continue reading “Nunes paves Trump’s road to autocracy”

Gowdy: ‘I don’t’ think Rosenstein should be fired

The following article by Rebecca Morin was posted on the Politico website February 4, 2018:

Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) said: “I think it is fair to ask the deputy attorney general, ‘What did you know at the time you signed one of the applications?'” Credit: AP Photo

Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) said Sunday he doesn’t think Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein should be fired.

Rosenstein oversees special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe on whether Russia colluded with Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

Gowdy, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said during an interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that it concerns him that Trump’s confidence in Rosenstein is faltering. He added: “The president has not sought my counsel on this.” Continue reading “Gowdy: ‘I don’t’ think Rosenstein should be fired”

Schiff: No, the memo doesn’t vindicate Trump

The following article by Brent D. Griffiths was posted on the Politico website February 4, 2018:

“Sources are going to dry up because of what the Republicans on the committee are doing now,” said Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) of fallout from the Nunes memo. Credit: John Shinkle/POLITICO

House Intelligence Committee ranking member Adam Schiff said Sunday that the Republican memo about alleged FBI misconduct does not vindicate President Donald Trump.

“Of course not at all,” Schiff (D-Calif.) told George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “This Week.”

“What the memo indicates is the investigation didn’t begin with Carter Page, it actually began with George Papadopoulos, someone who was a foreign policy adviser for candidate Trump and someone who was meeting secretly with the Russians and talking about the stolen Clinton e-mails,” Schiff said. Continue reading “Schiff: No, the memo doesn’t vindicate Trump”

Panetta: Trump will do damage if he fires Rosenstein and Mueller

The following article by Rebecca Morin was posted on the Politico website February 4, 2018:

Credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Former CIA Director Leon Panetta warned President Donald Trump on Sunday against firing special counsel Robert Mueller or Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

“If he tries to go after them and tries to somehow appear to be obstructing the process that’s involved in this investigation; he’s going to hurt himself,” Panetta said on “Fox News Sunday.” “But more importantly, he’s going to hurt the country.”

Trump has grown increasingly frustrated with Rosenstein, who is overseeing Mueller’s probe on whether Russia colluded with the president’s 2016 campaign. Continue reading “Panetta: Trump will do damage if he fires Rosenstein and Mueller”

Nunes Memo Does Russia’s Work of Eroding Trust in American Justice

The following article by Michael Daly was posted on the Daily Beast website February 2, 2018:

To cast suspicion on the FBI, the memo notes Papadopoulos triggered the bureau’s probe—but omits that he later pleading guilty to lying about his dealings with the Russians.

Credit: Joshua Roberts<

However FBI Agent Peter Strzok felt about FBI lawyer Lisa Page, his texts to his supposed mistress became most emotional not about her but about a dire threat to our national security.

The threat that rouses such ardor in Strzok draws only a shrug from some in the White House and Congress who most loudly proclaim themselves patriots. President Trump excoriates those who go down on one knee during the national anthem, but himself goes down on both knees to an avowed enemy. Continue reading “Nunes Memo Does Russia’s Work of Eroding Trust in American Justice”

The Only Thing the Nunes Memo Proves is That It was Massively Overhyped

The following article by Abigail Tracy was posted on the Vanity Fair website February 2, 2018:

Trump miscalculated, badly, by advocating to #ReleaseTheMemo. Will it backfire?

Credit: Olivier Douliery/Pool/Bloomberg

The much-anticipated Nunes memo, released Friday after weeks of feverish build-up on the far-right, appears to be a dud. The declassified report accuses a group of current and former Justice Department and F.B.I. officials—including James Comey, his former deputy Andrew McCabe, and current Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein—of approving applications to surveil Trump campaign adviser Carter Page without disclosing that ex-British intelligence spy Christopher Steele, who compiled an intelligence dossier used in the warrant, was paid by Democratic sources and harbored anti-Trump bias. The most damning piece of evidence is the allegation that McCabe had testified in December that the warrant would not have been sought without the dossier, although two sources subsequently told The Daily Beast that particular claim is not true. Nowhere in the four-page memo is it noted that Page had already been on the F.B.I.’s radar, after he was targeted for recruitment by Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service years earlier. Continue reading “The Only Thing the Nunes Memo Proves is That It was Massively Overhyped”

6 key takeaways from the GOP memo alleging FBI bias in the Russia investigation

The following article by Amber Phillips was posted on the Washington Post website February 2, 2018:

President Trump approved the release of a controversial and classified congressional memo on Feb. 2. Here are some of its main claims. (The Washington Post)

Republicans claim that when the FBI got a secret court order to spy on former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page during the election, it relied “extensively” on information from a politically motivated British ex-spy who was being funded by Democrats to find dirt on Donald Trump. And it didn’t share those political motivations with a secret court that ultimately authorized the surveillance.

That’s the gist of the declassified memo written by House Republicans, which President Trump agreed Friday to release despite concerns from the FBI and Justice Department that the memo is inaccurate and risks undermining source-gathering methods and ongoing investigations. Continue reading “6 key takeaways from the GOP memo alleging FBI bias in the Russia investigation”

The Trump White House’s laughable spin that releasing the Nunes memo is all about ‘transparency’

The following article by Aaron Blake was posted on the Washington Post website February 2, 2018:

After releasing the Nunes memo on Feb. 2, President Trump said that “A lot of people should be ashamed of themselves and much worse than that.” (Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

The Trump White House and GOP leaders have zeroed in on one main justification for releasing the controversial Devin Nunes memo: It’s all about transparency. “I’ve always believed in the public’s right to know,” Vice President Pence saidThursday. “We have said all along, from day one, that we want full transparency in this process,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told CNN Wednesday.

White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly leaned into it even harder Wednesday on Fox News Radio: “Frankly, in every other case that I can remember in my lifetime where a president was in some kind of trouble, the president, the White House attempted to not release things. This president has said from the beginning . . . ‘I want everything out. I want this thing, I want the American people to know the truth.’” Continue reading “The Trump White House’s laughable spin that releasing the Nunes memo is all about ‘transparency’”