The Nunes Memo is Devastating – Part I

Congressman Devin Nunes wrote a classified memo to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence regarding bias and impropriety at the FBI in its investigation of Donald Trump’s campaign staff and “Russia collusion.”

It is devastating.

While I do not believe this reflects the character of FBI, nor the professionalism of rank and file FBI agents, the behavior described is criminal and treasonous. A deep-seated political bias by certain FBI personnel actually manifested into an investigation against the people associated with Donald Trump. They omitted key details in their request for a warrant under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), details that certainly would have soured the credibility of the request. 

As Congressman Jim Jordan said “What destroys trust is when you take that kind of document dress it up make it appear like it is legitimate intelligence and then take it to a court to get a warrant you don’t tell them important facts like, ‘oh by the way the Clinton campaign paid for this,’ and you do all of this in the context of a presidential campaign. It is really that basic.”

The situation begins with a “dossier” provide by GPS/Fusion consultant Christopher Steele. As I noted at the time of its release, it is a fabrication. This means the information is, in part or entirety, made up. It was easy to tell, it has some obvious mistakes which that you can read about here. In the intelligence world, when a source is found to have fabricated intelligence, all current and previous production from that source is considered tainted and discarded. But this was a key piece of data in the FISA warrant request, which would not have been possible without it. Director Comey at one point briefed President Trump that the dossier was “salacious and unverified.” 

So Christopher Steele’s information was a fraud. The memo mentions that he lied to the FBI about speaking to the media. I don’t know what kind of intelligence officer he once was, but he is not one now, his information was fabricated and his integrity is gone. The FBI knew this.

The FBI runs on procedure. If per chance a procedure is not followed properly, then an agent runs the risk of having evidence thrown out and letting a criminal go free. Losing a case through improper procedure can cost an agent his career. Agents ALWAYS follow procedure. A breach of procedure is notably unusual.

According to the Nunes memo, the procedure for filing a request with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) requires that all relevant facts be included so that the FISC judge can make an informed opinion on whether to grant the warrant. This must include any information potentially favorable to the target.

Yet the FISA requests for Trump associate Carter Page did not contain the information that the dossier was funded by the DNC and Hillary Clinton Campaign. Nor did it mention that the corroborating article in Yahoo News, was not, in fact, new information but actually reporting on the same information. This information was well known to the FBI and DOJ, contained in their files, yet that information which certainly would have disqualified the source of the dossier was not there. 

I don’t know what laws have been violated here, but fraud and obstruction of justice are possibilities.

Continued in Part 2.