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?

[Anonymous Coward]

The DNC/Clinton machine paid for the Steele Dossier which was used as justification for FISA warrant to spy on the opposition campaign.

It was used as a supporting piece of evidence, not the entire basis for the warrant request.

Hillary masked her purchase through two legal proxies (one of whom pled the fifth in a deposition) and hired a foreign spy as part of gathering the intel.

A foreign spy as in a formally recognized British expert in Russian affairs? Maybe she should have hired some guy named Curveball?

This is big stuff, Watergate big, I mean using Oppo Research to spy on people in the middle of an election. Watergate was just a third-rate burglary. This is 50 times what that was.

Bullshit.

Nothing about this warrant allowed for the spying of the Trump campaign and I would appreciate it if you would stop making shit up. As to this being worse than Watergate, it's pretty obvious that you have no idea what you're talking about. Watergate wasn't a "third-rate burglary" it was a clandestine operation meant to steal the opposition's plans as well as bug the Democratic Party's headquarters - but if you need to bend the facts to make your case, the truth isn't going to stop you.

This is no longer some pie-in-the-sky conspiracy. There is massive evidence, including statements from the co-conspirators, that highlights this exact operation in detail.

And yet, you supply nothing to support this conspiracy theory. Imagine that!

It is almost certain that the FBI used the dossier to get FISA court warrants to spy on Trump associates, meaning it used the opposition research of the party in power to convince a court to let it spy on the candidate of the other party - likely without telling the court of the dossier's political link.

More bullshit.

It not almost certain or any other kind of certain that this warrant was used to spy on the Trump campaign. The truth is, once Flynn was caught speaking to the Russian ambassador and discussing a quid pro quo deal, tapping the Trump phone lines became a legal and responsible action for law enforcement to take.

This goes well beyond basic criminality. We're getting into serious sedition, high crimes, and treason territory here.

Agreed, once Flynn promised the Russians he would get the sanctions lifted in return, for (what did he get again?) we passed the threshold to hit sedition, high crimes, and treason. Making a deal with the "Empire of evil" to influence an American election is treason of the highest order.

The FBI and NSA aren't "accidentally losing" hundreds of text messages and emails because nothing is at stake.

Keep flinging the bullshit, comrade, none of it is sticking to the wall. Even better, Mueller is closing the noose.

Did you know Manafort worked for the Podesta Group in helping seal up the Uranium One deal, and the Podestas worked directly with the Russian government to do it?

How about we let the liberals at Fox News explain the Uranium One deal to you before you embarrass yourself any further.

Re: How is this news for nerds?

[DNS-and-BIND]

Negative, that is fake news. Fusion GPS was contacted by a GOP member (Washington Free Beacon) for opposition research. The Steele Dossier was separate. There were two separate work contracts for Fusion GPS. The media / DNC are pushing that narrative, but it's flat out wrong. The GOP didn't ask for the Steele Dossier, they asked for separate Opposition Research. The DNC / HRC campaign started the Steele Dossier.

Robert Mueller found such strong evidence of Trump colluding with Russia that he decided to chase down a couple of tax evaders instead. Fun fact: you know who wrote the infamous WMD memo that got us into the Iraq War? Robert Mueller. Yup, the same one. The smoking gun here.

Re:How is this news for nerds?

[dwpro]

Steele Dossier which was used as justification for FISA warrant to spy on the opposition campaign

As has been publish widely but you choose to ignore, there was other justification, specifically George Papadopoulos's drunken leak and the fact that carter page himself bragging that he was an advisor to the Kremlin.

It would be a dereliction of duty for the FBI to not spy on a political campaign that is a riddled with Russian intermediaries as this one. We don't even have all the facts yet and we've had 3 people plead guilty to lying to the FBI about these Russian contacts, including the deputy campaign chairman and the man who became the national security advisor. The campaign chairman is up to his eyeballs in debt to a Russian oligarch.

However, there may be something to this Uranium one thing, we'll see.

Also, I believe they found those missing texts.

it accuses Nunes of having never read the FISA app

[Camel Pilot]

Nunes never read the referenced document? I wonder if Nunes is a slashdot poster.

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

Mueller Time

[PopeRatzo]

Twenty-two indictments so far. Five convictions, and counting.

Over 100 Trump officials who have been unable to pass FBI background checks, including the President's son-in-law.

It took over 2 years for the Watergate investigation to nail Nixon. Special Prosecutor Mueller's been at it only 10 months.

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:Mueller Time

[PopeRatzo]

Manafort's conviction has nothing to do with Trump.

Manafort hasn't been convicted yet, and the indictment unsealed this week have a lot to do with Trump. Manafort was in deep in debt to some very dangerous Russians and tried to help them in their war with the Ukraine while he was Trump's campaign manager. And THEN he had the RNC change their party platform making it more friendly to Russia. And then had his flunky Rick Gates commit bank fraud to try to get out from under.

So, two possibilities: either 1) Trump had to know all this was going on, or 2) Trump had no clue about the guy he hired to chair his campaign and that's even worse because those are the kinds of useful idiots the Russians love to cultivate.

I realize you guys will defend Trump to the last breath, because if he goes down, it shakes your entire worldview. But Trump is already the administration with the most indictments and convictions and officials resigning in disgrace in history. He's crooked and he's losing his mojo.

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.

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.