On Friday the memo by House Republican Devin Nunes was made public after Trump declassified it then approved it for release. (Nunes’ hometown newspaper termed him “Trump’s Stooge”.) Trump acted despite FBI Director Christopher Wray telling the White House that the memo was not accurate.
The memo allegedly showed that a 2016 FISA warrant to surveil then-former Trump campaign aide Carter Page was improperly granted because it was based on the Steele dossier. The memo further alleged the judge granting the warrant did not know the Steele dossier was paid for in part by a Democratic organization. Republicans claimed that this was worse than Watergate.
The House Intelligence Committee, which has a majority of Republicans, refused to allow the release of a response memo by the Democrats on the Committee who had seen the underlying documents.
After the memo was released, Trump tweeted in typical Trump-speak that “This memo totally vindicates ‘Trump’ in probe.” In fact, the memo was a dud. (Here’s an annotated version, if you are so inclined.) Former FBI Director James Comey’s reaction was “That’s it?”
In actuality, the FBI had been watching Carter Page since 2013 when the Russians tried to recruit him – we don’t know whether successfully – and he visited Russia. Those events happened long before Trump began his presidential campaign.
In addition, FISA warrant requests typically rely on many sources of information. It is extraordinarily unlikely that a judge would approve such a warrant based on the Steel dossier alone. The Nunes memo conveniently does not discuss the other documents that were submitted to the judge. According to the Nunes memo, FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe had testified that “no surveillance warrant would have been sought from the FISC [the FISA court] without the Steele dossier information”. In reality his testimony showed that “Mr. McCabe presented the material as part of a constellation of compelling evidence”. Intriguingly, the Nunes memo did not dispute the facts set out in the Steele Dossier.
Further, it turned out that the judge had been informed of a political party’s role in later funding the Steele dossier. (It should be noted that project was initially funded by a conservative web site seeking to prevent Trump from winning the Republican nomination.) Finally, the memo itself stated that the request for the warrant was not prompted by Carter Page, who had resigned from the Trump campaign several weeks earlier. Instead it was triggered by the boast of another Trump advisor, George Papadopoulos, to an Australian government official that Russia had emails that would be damaging to Hillary Clinton.
The purpose of the release of the Nunes memo was twofold. Rod Rosenstein, Deputy Attorney General, had approved the request for the 2016 warrant. He is also the overseer of the Robert Mueller Russia investigation and can fire Mueller or prevent Mueller from making a recommendation to impeach Trump. Trump would love to remove Rosenstein and replace him with a Trump loyalist. In part, the release of the Nunes memo is a test to see whether it generates enough cover to allow Trump to fire Rosenstein, then have Rosenstein’s replacement fire Mueller.
Even if that fails, the Nunes memo is designed to portray the Department of Justice and the FBI as biased against Trump with respect to the Russia investigation so as to provide defenses against indictments and impeachment. There was some evidence that the Trump administration participated in the creation of the Nunes memo. Further, the Speaker of the House, Republican Paul Ryan, abandoned any pretense of objectivity, announcing his support for the public release of the memo, further evidence that many Republicans are placing party above country.
FISA warrants have to be renewed every 90 days and FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe signed one of the renewal requests on the Carter Page warrant. On Monday McCabe resigned, due to pressure from Trump. In his mendacious State-of-the-Union speech, Trump called for cabinet officials to have the power “to remove federal employees who undermine the public trust” – meaning those Trump deems disloyal.
The FBI also publicly condemned the Nunes memo, citing “grave concerns” with inaccuracies and omissions. Former FBI Director James Comey responded with a tweet stating “All should appreciate the FBI speaking up. I wish more of our leaders would. But take heart: American history shows that, in the long run, weasels and liars never hold the field, so long as good people stand up. Not a lot of schools or streets named for Joe McCarthy.” After Trump cleared the Nunes memo for release, Republican Senator John McCain said that “The latest attacks on the FBI and Department of Justice serve no serve no American interests…only Putin’s.”
Lost in the usual Trump-generated distractions was the fact that on Monday Trump refused to impose sanctions against Russia that were approved by almost unanimous votes in Congress.
It brings to mind a story about the founding of the United States. On the last day of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, a woman asked Benjamin Franklin, “Well, Doctor, what have we got—a Republic or a Monarchy?” Franklin’s memorable response was “A Republic -- if you can keep it.” That is particularly the issue now.
(These pieces are posted on www.thereviewsalon.com.)