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

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.

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: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.