Dems Release Counter Memo in Response to Explosive GOP Memo

A few weeks ago the GOP released a memo that outlined the alleged surveillance abuses by the FBI and Justice Department that showed a bias against President Donald Trump on his campaign trail.  

Last week, the Democrats’ memo defending the allegations was also released to the public.  

The memo claims that what was reported in the GOP memo was inaccurate and that both the FBI and Justice Department “did not abuse the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) process, omit material information, or subvert this vital tool to spy on the Trump campaign.”

“The 10-page Democratic memo charges that the Republican memo was wrong to assert that the FBI’s investigation of Russian election meddling resulted from the creation of the so-called Steele dossier — an unverified private intelligence document detailing Trump’s ties to Russia,” writes The Hill. “The Democratic memo claims that the FBI had been investigating Trump associates for seven weeks before the dossier, authored by former British spy Christopher Steele, was handed over to them. This, according to the memo, means that the FBI did not rely on the dossier to obtain a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant to spy on Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page.”

The GOP memo claims that the information collected from the Steele dossier was obtained by senior officials inappropriately and that they used opposition research acquired on one of Trump’s previous foreign policy advisors, Carter Page during the presidential election race.

“The Committee has discovered serious violations of the public trust, and the American people have a right to know when officials in crucial institutions are abusing their authority for political purposes,” said Chairman Devin Nunes, the author of the memo in a statement.

Democrats argue that Nunes wasn’t privy to several of the relevant classified documents to make these accusations.  

“The Committee Majority’s memorandum, which draws selectively on highly sensitive classified information, includes other distortions and misrepresentations that are contradicted by the underlying classified documents, which the vast majority of Members of the Committee and the House have not had the opportunity to review, and which Chairman Nunes chose not to read himself,” reads the Democrats’ memo. 

“What you basically will read in the Democratic memo is they are advocating that it is okay for the FBI and DOJ to use for political dirt paid for by one campaign and use it against the other campaign,” said Nunes about the Democratic memo.  

Not to mention, the democratic memo did not address some of the claims made in the GOP memo.  

“Republicans had found that the DOJ and FBI left out Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton campaign funding of the dossier, as well as the anti-Trump motivations of author and former British spy Christopher Steele, in its request for a warrant. Indeed, Republicans have pointed to this as proof that intelligence agencies abused surveillance powers,” writes Fox News. “The memo, however, did not directly challenge the Republican assertion that former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe testified to the House Committee that they would not have sought the Page surveillance warrant had it not been for that infamous dossier.”

Democrats pushed to release the memo weeks ago, but the FBI and DOJ called for a redraft to protect the sensitive material.

President Donald Trump was not impressed with the Democrats response.

“The Democrat memo response on government surveillance abuses is a total political and legal BUST. Just confirms all of the terrible things that were done. SO ILLEGAL! Tweeted Trump.

While the Democrats believe the original GOP memo was merely an attack to diminish FBI Director Robert Mueller’s investigation, Republicans believe the American people have a right to know about these injustices.

“The American people now clearly understand that the FBI used political dirt paid for by the Democratic Party to spy on an American citizen from the Republican Party,” said Nunes.

Author’s note: We aren’t surprised that the Dems memo contradicts Nunes memo at every possible turn, but it’s not really convincing. Again, the Steele Dossier is not a credible source. The Dems memo is only causing the public to revisit the scandals exposed in the GOP memo. This is certainly not a smart move by Democrats.

Editor’s note: In the propaganda wars the tables seem to be turning. The Democrats are losing this battle and the “collusion” argument is pointing more at Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.  The timing could be very unfortunate for the Democrats, as election season comes around this summer.