It looks like the American public is going to be able to view the widely reported on FISA memo. On Monday, the House Intelligence Committee voted to release the memo.
Now, what’s interesting is that the memo was written by Republican Congressman Devin Nunes (CA) and there was also a counter memo written by Democrats, which was voted on as well, and will not be released… at least not officially. One does wonder if someone might just have a problem with their “mental faculties” like Senator Dianne Feinstein did and release it anyway.
The votes were along party lines.
Rep. Adam Schiff said it was a “very sad day, I think, in the history of this committee.”
take our poll – story continues below Completing this poll grants you access to Freedom Outpost updates free of charge. You may opt out at anytime. You also agree to this site’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
“Today this committee voted to put the president’s personal interests, perhaps their own political interests, above the national interests,” he added.
How in the world is releasing this memo about personal interests and political interests? Isn’t it pointing out that the previous administration’s interests and political interests were at the center of what the memo reveals? Isn’t violations of the law what the memo is supposed to be about?
We have congressman saying people could go to jail over what is contained in the document. Seriously, that is not said very often in DC.
“Chairman Nunes’ memo contains significant inaccuracies and omissions that misrepresent the underlying intelligence and jeopardize the effectiveness of our intelligence and law enforcement communities,” added House minority leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).
Of course, how would Pelosi know? She probably has not even read the report the memo is based on or the memo itself. This is a woman that doesn’t even seem to know what time of the day it is at times.
However, not one of these Democrats complaining about the memo even raised the possibility of the debunked Russian dossier being anything but authentic, and Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) pointed out some of that hypocrisy.
“If you … want to know whether or not the dossier was used in court proceedings, whether or not it was vetted before it was used. … If you are interested in who paid for the dossier … then, yes, you’ll want the memo to come out,” Gowdy told “Fox News Sunday.”
Here’s the text of that conversation:
Wallace asked about the memo: “The House Intelligence Committee is expected to vote this week on whether to release this four-page memo that you had a big hand in writing, that alleges abuse and bias inside the FBI and Justice Dept. As I discussed with Marc Short, the Washington Post is reporting this morning that the president wants to have the memo released. Do you agree with that?”
“I do, I’m sorry we’re at this point,” Gowdy replied. “This memo is nothing but a distilling, reducing of thousands of pages of documents provided to us by the [DOJ and FBI]. So there is nothing in this memo that the Bureau is not already aware of.”
“If you think your viewers want to know whether or not the dossier was used in court proceedings, whether or not it was vetted before it was used, whether or not it’s ever been vetted. If you are interested in who paid for the dossier, if you are interested in Christopher Steele’s relationship with Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee, then yes, you will want the memo to come out.”
“If you are Adam Schiff, who is consistently wrong when it comes to issues of disclosure. He didn’t want us to find out any of this information. He fought — in fact, Fusion GPS went to court to keep us from finding out that the Democrats paid for the dossier. If you are Adam Schiff, of course, you don’t want the information to come out. You didn’t want us to find it in the first place.”
“This memo answers what I think overly legitimate questions and I do think the FBI should look at it before it is released. I have provided that counsel to Chairman Nunes, and I think that he has taken that under advisement,” Gowdy said.
“I want to play face-off poker. I want the bureau to know everything that’s in the memo. I think you will be surprised, it is not a hit piece on the department and the FBI. I would not have participated in it if that’s what it was.”
“Are you interested in whether or not the world’s premier law enforcement agency relied on a work product produced and paid for by the Democratic National Committee?” Gowdy asked. “If they relied on [the dossier] half, is that significant enough for the American people to know? If they relied on it at all, would you want to know that? If you’re the judge, do you want to know if a third of what you’re providing to the court was paid for by a political opponent?”
“Whether it was relied upon 80% or 20%, do you want to know that the DNC paid for material that was never vetted, and was included in a court proceeding? Do you want to know whether or not the primary source in these court proceedings had a bias against one candidate? Do you want to know whether he said he’d ‘do anything’ to keep that candidate from being elected president?“
The Republicans claim that releasing the Democrats memo would possibly damage sources and intelligence methods, which does seem to be in line with Gowdy’s claims regarding Rep. Schiff, who is quite possibly one of the most dangerous politicians in America.
The Hill reports:
The document will not be immediately released. Under the arcane House rule Republicans used to override the classification of the four-page memo, President Trump now has five days to review and reject or approve its publication.
But the White House has signaled support for the document’s release and is widely expected to defy the DOJ in allowing the publication to go forward. The DOJ has opposed the release of the document, reportedly infuriating President Trump.
Some Republicans who have read the memo have hinted heavily that it contains information that could unravel the entire Mueller investigation, long described by the president as a “witch hunt.”
The precise contents of the memo remain unknown. However, it’s believed to contain allegations that the FBI did not adequately explain to a clandestine court that some of the information it used in a surveillance warrant application for Trump adviser Carter Page came from opposition research partially funded by the Clinton campaign, now known as the “Steele dossier.”
The document spotlights Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s role in approving the warrant application, according to The New York Times. Rosenstein appointed Mueller and has become a recent target on the right — as well as reportedly garnering the frustration of the president.
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant applications require multiple levels of authentication and require investigators to show probable cause that an individual is acting as an agent of a foreign power. To date, there has been no public evidence that DOJ officials abused the FISA process.
President Donald Trump now has five days to decide whether he has any objections before the memo can be released to the public.
Additionally, one wonders why he won’t just take to the microphone and read it to the public at the State of the Union address if it is that important.
If members of Congress could obtain a copy and read it on the floor of the House, why couldn’t the president? Especially, since we are hearing that this memo is exposing wide corruption and unlawful surveillance by the DOJ and FBI. These are crimes which the president, as head of the Executive Branch, has a sworn duty to prosecute under our Constitution.
In other words, it’s his job!
Let’s see if the memo contains what all we’re told it does first, which I don’t doubt it does, and then, let’s see if there will be any justice brought to bear on those who broke the law.
Don’t forget to Like Freedom Outpost on Facebook and Twitter, and follow our friends at RepublicanLegion.com.
