That memo is dumb AF. It is just their conspiracy theories structured to give Trump cover for firing people at the FBI.
Also, I need them to pick a lane. Is Carter Page was an unpaid volunteer who attended one meeting? Or is he so critical that the spying on him was definitely a political hit job worth firing the entire FBI leadership over?
No shit. Of course, this is the party of have-it-both-ways, so I'm not holding my breath.
LOLOLOLOLOLOL! I'm so fucking glad this has been released. A lot of it has already been disseminated by the press, and discussed.
Yes! there is nothing earth shattering in there by this point. Even if the press hadn't been discussing it for the past week, the big takeaway would be that the dossier was partly funded by Clinton. Which we knew. (and which does not make it false.)
Maybe that's why they released it on a Friday. lol.
I don't even understand this. SO the big thing this memo says is that the FBI didn't tell the judge that the 4th renewal of this FISA warrant was a) made by a man that disliked 45 and b) funded as opp research for the Clinton campaign. I am sure all FBI informants leading to warrants are besties with the person they are giving information on.
Word.
And not for nothing, but at least in the criminal context the FBI does not rely on the single say-so of a single source as PC. If the source is a good source who has provided previously reliable information in the past, that can be noted to increase the weight afforded to what the source says. But either way, the application for a search warrant will provide the information from the source as part of a mosaic of evidence -- which includes separate evidence that either separately is incriminating or shows that what the source says was right -- that establishes probable cause.
Granted, FISA warrants are not precisely the same as criminal warrants, but even so, the FBI was not walking into court being like "hey, this guy says Carter Page is sketchy" and getting a FISA. They would have had corroborating evidence. I read somewhere that these applications are generally 50-60 pages.
Didn't Jeb!'s campaign initially start and pay for the Dossier? So not shocking this memo pretends it's all DNC/Hillary.
I believe it wasn't Jeb! but the Washington Free Beacon. They stopped paying after the primary so I suppose you could argue that at late 2016 FISA application would be mostly funded by Dems.
But yeah, my takeaway is this: Nunes’s staff found an opening in McCabe’s testimony to paint the underlying evidence of Russia collusion as tainted and they ran with it as a device to set up the firing of Rosenstein (and, thus, Mueller).
Didn't Jeb!'s campaign initially start and pay for the Dossier? So not shocking this memo pretends it's all DNC/Hillary.
I believe it wasn't Jeb! but the Washington Free Beacon. They stopped paying after the primary so I suppose you could argue that at late 2016 FISA application would be mostly funded by Dems.
This is true. Also, the guy who owns or controls the Washington Free Beacon is a huge Ted Cruz donor. That's why the WFB funded it.
I believe it wasn't Jeb! but the Washington Free Beacon. They stopped paying after the primary so I suppose you could argue that at late 2016 FISA application would be mostly funded by Dems.
This is true. Also, the guy who owns or controls the Washington Free Beacon is a huge Ted Cruz donor. That's why the WFB funded it.
Ah, I've been getting the candidates in the clown car confused.
Nunes also accidentally confirmed in the memo that what actually started the investigation was the tip from Australian intelligence after Papadopolous drunk-bragged about Russian collusion to them. So, good work, Devin! You have undermined your whole argument with this lame ass memo.
Nunes also accidentally confirmed in the memo that what actually started the investigation was the tip from Australian intelligence after Papadopolous drunk-bragged about Russian collusion to them. So, good work, Devin! You have undermined your whole argument with this lame ass memo.
I can’t get it to load again, but I missed this. Can you elaborate?
Nunes also accidentally confirmed in the memo that what actually started the investigation was the tip from Australian intelligence after Papadopolous drunk-bragged about Russian collusion to them. So, good work, Devin! You have undermined your whole argument with this lame ass memo.
Yep.
David French @davidafrench
Here’s potentially the most important paragraph in the memo. It appears to confirm the NYT’s scoop — which was that the counterintelligence investigation began BEFORE the FISA applications against Page. Papadopoulos was already under investigation. Wow: (image)
I haven't read it just following along here. So this sounds like a super hyped up nothing burger? Is anyone watching cable? Are they covering it as that as well?
Post by turnipthebeet on Feb 2, 2018 13:22:09 GMT -5
I thought I heard somewhere that part of why the FBI didn’t want it released was because it had classified info regarding how intelligence agencies monitor people under surveillance, which could be used by people under surveillance to avoid being monitored. Is that in there?
Nunes also accidentally confirmed in the memo that what actually started the investigation was the tip from Australian intelligence after Papadopolous drunk-bragged about Russian collusion to them. So, good work, Devin! You have undermined your whole argument with this lame ass memo.
I can’t get it to load again, but I missed this. Can you elaborate?
From the last paragraph (and weird that this memo is a numbered list that then just stops with no conclusion, but I digress):
5. The Page FISA application also mentions information regarding fellow Trump campaign advisor George Papadopoulos, but there is no evidence of any cooperation or conspiracy between Page and Papadopoulos. The Papadopoulos information triggered the opening of an FBI counterintelligence investigation in late July 2016 by FBI agent Pete Strzok.
Emphasis mine; goes on to throw shade about Strzok text messages, as one would expect.
...Does Nunes really think that the FISC would grant multiple FISA warrants on a US citizen based solely on a dossier of a spy-for-hire? Man, he must think the judges are all idiots.
I thought I heard somewhere that part of why the FBI didn’t want it released was because it had classified info regarding how intelligence agencies monitor people under surveillance, which could be used by people under surveillance to avoid being monitored. Is that in there?
Not that I could see. I think that was speculation. I'm now thinking that the FBI didn't want the memo released because so much of it was patently false and/or biased.
I thought I heard somewhere that part of why the FBI didn’t want it released was because it had classified info regarding how intelligence agencies monitor people under surveillance, which could be used by people under surveillance to avoid being monitored. Is that in there?
I really don't see that, but wonder if something got taken out before release. The memo ends kind of abruptly. It's weird.