I Want to Read the Nunez Memo

The Full Text of the Nunes Memo

On Fri, the House Intelligence Committee released the controversial document, which alleges surveillance abuses by the FBI.

House Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes briefs reporters at the U.S. Capitol in Washington. ( Jonathan Ernst / Reuters )

On Friday, the House Intelligence Committee, which is chaired by Republican Representative Devin Nunes, released a four-page memo alleging surveillance abuses by the FBI. Earlier this week, Republicans on the committee voted to make the document public. The classified certificate has fatigued criticism from Democratic lawmakers, who argue it is misleading, every bit well as from police enforcement officials. In a rare statement, the FBI warned against the document'due south release, proverb it had "grave concerns" about its accuracy. Despite pushback from officials, the White House canonical the release of the memo Friday.

Below, read the memo in full.


Jan 18, 2018

To: HPSCI Majority Members

From: HPSCI Majority Staff

Subject field: Strange Intelligence Surveillance Act Abuses at the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation

Purpose

This memorandum provides Members an update on significant facts relating to the Commission's ongoing investigation into the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and their use of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) during the 2016 presidential ballot cycle. Our findings, which are detailed below, ane) enhance concerns with the legitimacy and legality of sure DOJ and FBI interactions with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Courtroom (FISC), and 2) represent a troubling breakdown of legal processes established to protect the American people from abuses related to the FISA process.

Investigation Update

On October 21, 2016, DOJ and FBI sought and received a FISA probable crusade order (not under Title VII) authorizing electronic surveillance on Carter Page from the FISC. Page is a U.S. denizen who served equally a volunteer counselor to the Trump presidential entrada. Consequent with requirements nether FISA, the application had to exist first certified by the Managing director or Deputy Director of the FBI. It then required the approval of the Attorney General, Deputy Attorney General (DAG), or the Senate-confirmed Assistant Attorney Full general for the National Security Partitioning.

The FBI and DOJ obtained one initial FISA warrant targeting Carter Page and three FISA renewals from the FISC. As required by statute (50 U.S.C. §,1805(d)(50)), a FISA order on an American citizen must exist renewed by the FISC every 90 days and each renewal requires a carve up finding of probable cause. Then-Director James Comey signed three FISA applications in question on behalf of the FBI, and Deputy Manager Andrew McCabe signed one. Then-DAG Sally Yates, and so-Acting DAG Dana Boente, and DAG Rod Rosenstein each signed 1 or more FISA applications on behalf of DOJ.

Due to the sensitive nature of foreign intelligence activeness, FISA submissions (including renewals) before the FISC are classified. As such, the public's confidence in the integrity of the FISA process depends on the courtroom's ability to agree the government to the highest standard—particularly equally it relates to surveillance of American citizens. Still, the FISC's rigor in protecting the rights of Americans, which is reinforced by xc-day renewals of surveillance orders, is necessarily dependent on the government'southward product to the court of all material and relevant facts. This should include information potentially favorable to the target of the FISA application that is known by the government. In the example of Carter Folio, the government had at least iv contained opportunities before the FISC to accurately provide an accounting of the relevant facts. However, our findings indicate that, as described below, material and relevant information was omitted.

1) The "dossier" compiled past Christopher Steele (Steele dossier) on behalf of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Hillary Clinton entrada formed an essential part of the Carter Page FISA awarding. Steele was a longtime FBI source who was paid over $160,000 by the DNC and Clinton campaign, via the law business firm Perkins Coie and research house Fusion GPS, to obtain derogatory information on Donald Trump's ties to Russia.

a) Neither the initial awarding in October 2016, nor any of the renewals, disclose or reference the function of the DNC, Clinton campaign, or any party/campaign in funding Steele's efforts, fifty-fifty though the political origins of the Steele dossier were and so known to senior DOJ and FBI officials.

b) The initial FISA application notes Steele was working for a named U.Due south. person, but does not proper noun Fusion GPS and principal Glenn Simpson, who was paid by a U.Due south. constabulary firm (Perkins Coie) representing the DNC (fifty-fifty though it was known past DOJ at the time that political actors were involved with the Steele dossier). The awarding does not mention Steele was ultimately working on behalf of—and paid past—the DNC and Clinton campaign, or that the FBI had separately authorized payment to Steele for the same information.

two) The Carter Page FISA application likewise cited extensively a September 23, 2016, Yahoo News article past Michael Isikoff, which focuses on Page'south July 2016 trip to Moscow. This article does not corroborate the Steele dossier considering it is derived from information leaked by Steele himself to Yahoo News. The Page FISA application incorrectly assesses that Steele did not direct provide information to Yahoo News. Steele has admitted in British court filings that he met with Yahoo News—and several other outlets—in September 2016 at the direction of Fusion GPS. Perkins Coie was enlightened of Steele's initial media contacts because they hosted at to the lowest degree 1 meeting in Washington D.C. in 2016 with Steele and Fusion GPS where this affair was discussed.

a) Steele was suspended and then terminated as an FBI source for what the FBI defines as the most serious of violations—an unauthorized disclosure to the media of his relationship with the FBI in an October 30, 2016, Female parent Jones article by David Corn. Steele should have been terminated for his previous undisclosed contacts with Yahoo and other outlets in September—before the Page application was submitted to the FISC in October—but Steele improperly concealed from and lied to the FBI about those contacts.

b) Steele's numerous encounters with the media violated the fundamental rule of source handling—maintaining confidentiality—and demonstrated that Steele had become a less than reliable source for the FBI.

three) Before and after Steele was terminated as a source, he maintained contact with DOJ via then-Associate Deputy Chaser General Bruce Ohr, a senior DOJ official who worked closely with Deputy Attorneys General Yates and later on Rosenstein. Shortly afterward the ballot, the FBI began interviewing Ohr, documenting his communications with Steele. For instance, in September 2016, Steele admitted to Ohr his feelings against then-candidate Trump when Steele said he "was desperate that Donald Trump not get elected and was passionate well-nigh him not being president." This articulate testify of Steele's bias was recorded by Ohr at the time and subsequently in official FBI files—but not reflected in any of the Folio FISA applications.

a) During this aforementioned time period, Ohr's wife was employed past Fusion GPS to help in the tillage of opposition research on Trump. Ohr later provided the FBI with all of his wife's opposition enquiry, paid for past the DNC and Clinton campaign via Fusion GPS. The Ohrs' relationship with Steele and Fusion GPS was inexplicably concealed from the FISC.

4) According to the head of the FBI'south counterintelligence partition, Assistant Manager Bill Priestap, corroboration of the Steele dossier was in its "infancy" at the time of the initial Page FISA awarding. Subsequently Steele was terminated, a source validation report conducted by an contained unit inside FBI assessed Steele's reporting as only minimally corroborated. Yet, in early on January 2017, Director Comey briefed President-elect Trump on a summary of the Steele dossier, fifty-fifty though it was—co-ordinate to his June 2017 testimony—"salacious and unverified." While the FISA application relied on Steele'south past record of credible reporting on other unrelated matters, it ignored or concealed his anti-Trump fiscal and ideological motivations. Furthermore, Deputy Director McCabe testified earlier the Committee in December 2017 that no surveillance warrant would have been sought from the FISC without the Steele dossier information.

5) The Page FISA application also mentions information regarding fellow Trump entrada advisor George Papadopoulos, but there is no prove of whatsoever cooperation or conspiracy between Page and Papadopoulos. The Papadopoulos information triggered the opening of an FBI counterintelligence investigation in tardily July 2016 by FBI amanuensis Pete Strzok. Strzok was reassigned by the Special Counsel'south Office to FBI Human Resources for improper text letters with his mistress, FBI Attorney Lisa Page (no known relation to Carter Folio), where they both demonstrated a articulate bias confronting Trump and in favor of Clinton, whom Strzok had also investigated. The Strzok/Lisa Page texts also reflect extensive discussions about the investigation, orchestrating leaks to the media, and include a meeting with Deputy Director McCabe to hash out an "insurance" policy against President Trump's election.

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Source: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/02/read-the-full-text-of-the-nunes-memo/552191/

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