It’s here! The day we’ve been eagerly waiting for is here.
The controversial FISA memo has been released by the House Intelligence Committee. Crafted by the office of Rep. Devin Nunes, chairman of the Committee, the memo contains damning revelations about improper behavior by FBI officials during the 2016 presidential campaign.
President Trump hinted at what the memo would contain this morning:
The top Leadership and Investigators of the FBI and the Justice Department have politicized the sacred investigative process in favor of Democrats and against Republicans – something which would have been unthinkable just a short time ago. Rank & File are great people!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 2, 2018
The President is right, and now we have proof. Byron York details the memo here:
The House Intelligence Committee has released its controversial memo outlining alleged abuses of secret surveillance by the FBI and Justice Department in the Trump-Russia investigation. Here are some key points:
* The Steele dossier formed an essential part of the intial and all three renewal FISA applications against Carter Page.
* Andrew McCabe confirmed that no FISA warrant would have been sought from the FISA Court without the Steele dossier information.
* The political origins of the Steele dossier were known to senior DOJ and FBI officials, but excluded from the FISA applications.
* DOJ official Bruce Ohr met with Steele beginning in the summer of 2016 and relayed to DOJ information about Steele’s bias. Steele told Ohr that he, Steele, was desperate that Donald Trump not get elected president and was passionate about him not becoming president.
The FBI and Justice Department mounted a months-long effort to keep the information outlined in the memo out of the House Intelligence Committee’s hands. Only the threat of contempt charges and other forms of pressure forced the FBI and Justice to give up the material.
We already knew many of the details going into this much-anticipated release. The Clinton campaign employed the firm Fusion GPS, which, in turn, employed the services of ex-British spy Christopher Steele to dig up compromising information on then-candidate Donald Trump. Steele did his job in spades, only because he was fed false information by individuals connected to the Russian government. This information, which detailed dalliances between the Manhattan real-estate mogul and Russian prostitutes, formed the basis of the infamous “Trump dossier,” which was shopped around Washington, D.C. during the presidential campaign but no news source accepted due to its questionable nature. That is, until Buzzfeed, a site not known for journalistic integrity, published the contents.
One organization did accept the dossier and its findings, however. The FBI apparently used the dossier as a basis to obtain a FISA warrant to spy on the Trump campaign, suspecting foreign collusion.
This is an absolute scandal. The FBI accepted flawed intelligence in order to discredit a private citizens running for president. Paired with the trove of anti-Trump text messages exchanged by FBI investigator Peter Strzok and his mistress Lisa Page, we have the makings of a conspiracy on our hands.
Now, it’s up to the President and members of Congress to hold these individuals accountable for their actions.
Share this breaking news over Facebook now. The memo is out!
UPDATE – The full memo can be read here:
House Intelligence Committee Report On FISA Abuses by The Federalist on Scribd