The Nunes Memo

The Obama Department of Justice and FBI had a number of people in high places that put politics above their real responsibilities. There was even a discussion about a plan to ensure that Trump wouldn’t win the election. Those involved should be roundly criticized and, in some case, indicted.

In spite of all their bad behavior, I they are being treated unfairly regarding their investigation of Carter Page. Page was briefly a voluntary foreign affairs advisor to the Trump campaign. He has strong pro-Russia views. The FBI interviewed him in 2013 and had him under surveillance in 2014. The FBI obtained a FISA warrant against Page on October 21, 2016.

Congress has been investigating this matter for some time. The staff of Devin Nunes, the Republican chair of the intelligence committee, put together a memo declaring that the FISA warrant was based on the phony Russia dossier that either the DNC or Clinton campaign commissioned. The memo had been classified until President Trump ordered that it be declassified. The Justice Department, FBI and Democrats claim the memo is full of errors. If the charges are true, obviously the FBI was sloppy in its investigation.

Republicans are using the memo as proof for much more than sloppy work.  Many are stating that the FBI and Justice Department deliberately used the dossier to spy on the Trump campaign.  That is utterly ridiculous. Page was a low level person who had left the campaign when the warrant was issued. If their goal was to spy on the campaign, they would have gone after top level staffers.
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It used to be that standard of judgment was whether something is true or false. The new standard is whether or not it hurts the opposition. This is another reason why I am disgusted with both sides.
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