House Democrats' Counter-Memo Released, Alleging Major Factual Inaccuracies (vox.com)

Long-time Slashdot reader Rei writes: Three weeks ago, on a party-line vote, the U.S. House Intelligence Committee voted to release a memo from committee chair and Trump transition team member Devin Nunes. The "Nunes Memo" alleged missteps by the FBI in seeking a FISA warrant against Trump aide Carter Page; a corresponding Democratic rebuttal memo was first blocked from simultaneous release by the committee, and subsequently the White House. Tonight, it has finally been released.

Among its many counterclaims: the Steele Dossier, only received in September, did not initiate surveilance of Page which began in July; the Steele dossier was only one, minor component of the FISA application, and only concerning Page's Moscow meetings; Steele's funding source and termination was disclosed in the application; and a number of other "distortions and misrepresentations that are contradicted by the underlying classified documents". Perhaps most seriously, it accuses Nunes of having never read the FISA application which his memo criticized.
Vox argues the memo proves that no one was misled when the surveillance was authorized. "The FBI clearly states right there in the FISA application that they believe Steele was hired to find dirt on Trump... After the Schiff memo was released on Saturday, House Republicans released a document rebutting its core claims. Their response to this damning citation is -- and I am not making this up -- that the vital line in which the FBI discloses the information about Steele was 'buried in a footnote.'"

Comments

How is this news for nerds?

[cowwoc2001]

This is political mudslinging, not news for nerds.

Re:How is this news for nerds?

[elrous0]

At this point, everything seems to have been infected by the cancer of politics/social justice/etc.

It has infected even once sacrosanct common-ground pastimes like comic books, sports, videogames, etc. You can't even watch a football game anymore without some sports commentator or athlete jumping in to tell you how they feel about Donald Trump or the latest social cause of the week. You can't read a comic book where the lead character doesn't remind you on every other page they they're a strong lesbian-latino-trangendered-muslim who don't-need-no-man-to-help-them. You can't play a videogame that isn't tainted with protests about it being too violent, too white, too gay, not gay enough, etc. It's becoming almost impossible to escape to even one medium anymore without hearing anyone calling anyone else the most vile of epithets for disagreeing with them on politics or social issues. It's fucking exhausting.

At this point you could probably make a fortune just starting up a sports league, entertainment company, etc. that specially banned politics and social issues from its ranks. "A place where you can escape all that insane bullshit and just have fun" sounds so appealing right now.

Once again GOP cherry picks and distorts the facts

[Anonymous Coward]

So happy so see that the Democrats called them on their dishonest bullshit. The Republicans have made it standard procedure to have one idiot spout off a lie, then the rest of him start saying the same crap citing the first moron as a valid source, until pretty soon the whole wingnut echo chamber is reverbrating with the misinformation was. Hopefully someone "leaks" the unredacted version.

Re:Sounds like old news to me.

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah. It's almost as if the President was obstructing the release of information from one side in a corrupt attempt at self-preservation.
#MAGA
Mueller Ain't Goin' Away

Yay! Political junk talk on Slashdot

[Anonymous Coward]

This isn't news for nerds, nor stuff that matters.

There isn't even a "right" or "wrong". It's just political junk talk for people who are into that sort of thing.

Total rubbish. Even a crappy Google or Bitcoin article would be better than this horse plop.

Re:Mueller Time

[PopeRatzo]

None of which is about Collusion with Russia to affect the election.

The indictments of the 16 Russian people and organizations are exactly about collusion. They were all about building a conspiracy case.

I'm old enough to remember when Republicans said, "There were crimes committed, but President Nixon knew nothing about it!"

Re:I wish they'd back off the Russia stuff

[quantaman]

and do more actual policy. The right wing corporate Dems seem to be trying to use this to try and win voters back without actually implementing populist policy (Medicare for All, universal college, a New New Deal, $15 min wage, ending the 8 wars, etc, etc). It's not going to work. Maybe if they were as good a fearmongering as the Republicans are, but they're not. Instead we're gonna get another 4 years of Trump + Republican Congress. Probably another big market crash out of all the deregulation that's going on right now.

The problem is ignoring the Russia stuff meant that Russia was able to wage a largely unopposed disinformation and propaganda campaign during the US election. And they potentially even colluded with and compromised members of the current administration.

The Dems need to expose and confront the Russian activities, especially since the GOP is more likely to cover it up than risk losing an election.

Trump won for two reasons. First, Hilary took victory for granted and didn't campaign in the swing states (she always was an arrogant bitch).

No argument that Clinton was a terrible campaigner but the two major email hacks (not to mention all the astroturfing) almost certainly had a large effect relative to the margin of victory.

But moreoever Trump ran as a left wing populist. He promised Health Care for all, Jobs for all, good pay for all. He promised the government wouldn't just stand idle while the working class got slapped around by the Invisible Hand. Sure, he lied through his teeth.

And if it weren't for the massive Russian smear campaign voters might have cared about the fact he was obviously lying.

Re:it accuses Nunes of having never read the FISA

[Anonymous Coward]

You mean this Trey Gowdy?

“There is a Russia investigation without a dossier,” Gowdy said. “The dossier has nothing to do with the meeting in Trump Tower. The dossier has nothing to do with an email sent by Cambridge Analytica. The dossier really has nothing to do with George Papadopoulos’ meeting in Great Britain. It also doesn’t have anything to do with obstruction of justice. So, there is going to be a Russia probe even without a dossier.”

Gowdy, who is not seeking reelection, remained resolute about the need for an investigation and pronounced himself “100 percent” behind Mueller. “Look, Russia tried to interfere with our election in 2016 with or without a dossier.”

Funny that the memo - and the response to the Democratic rebuttal - act as though the dossier is some core part of the Russia investigation, something that Gowdy fundamentally disagrees with. Where's your source that Gowdy "WROTE the FUCKING thing"? Because here's what I find Nunes himself saying:

Hours after the memo came out on Friday, Nunes gave an interview on Fox News during which anchor Bret Baier asked him if he wrote the memo. "Yes," Nunes replied, saying other Republican lawmakers, like House Oversight Committee chair Trey Gowdy, also contributed.

"Did you read the actual FISA applications," Baier asked, referring to the documents that the memo cites in part as evidence of improper conduct by US law-enforcement officials.

"No, I didn't," Nunes said, before adding that Gowdy was part of a designated group that reviewed the intelligence, took notes, and reported it back to committee members.

But hey... "wrote it" vs. "took notes", no real difference... And clearly the memo reflects Gowdy's view that the dossier has little significance to the Russia investigation as a whole! (/snark)

Re:Mueller Time

[SuricouRaven]

Neither option looks very good for them:
1. Trump worked with Russian intelligence to gain an advantage in the election.
or
2. Trump's campaign worked with Russian intelligence, but Trump himself was kept in the dark about what his own campaign was doing.

Trump's response so far has been to divert the issue: He claims that all the evidence against him is fabricated by a conspiracy within the FBI - and not only he he not working with Russia,but Hillary is a Russian secret agent charged with stealing the country's uranium.