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[[File:HMTG-115-IG00-Transcript-20180129.pdf|thumb|January 29, 2018 - HPSCI Meeting Transcript]] |
[[File:HMTG-115-IG00-Transcript-20180129.pdf|thumb|January 29, 2018 - HPSCI Meeting Transcript]] |
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[[File:AdamSchiffModifiedMemo.pdf|thumb|Adam Schiff alleging Nunes of making material changes to memo after committee vote]] |
[[File:AdamSchiffModifiedMemo.pdf|thumb|Adam Schiff alleging Nunes of making material changes to memo after committee vote]] |
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The memo was produced by a small group of House Republicans and staff, led by Devin Nunes, as part of a secret partisan investigation (Democratic members of the relevant committee were not informed of the investigation) into how the FBI used the [[Trump–Russia dossier]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.politico.com/story/2017/12/20/house-republicans-quietly-investigate-doj-fbi-310121|title=House Republicans quietly investigate perceived corruption at DOJ, FBI|work=POLITICO|access-date=2018-01-25}}</ref> According to Adam Schiff, in composing the memo, Nunes didn't even bother reading all of the relevant source material, and referred to the contents as pushing a conspiracy theory.<ref>[http://www.newsweek.com/devin-nunes-adam-schiff-secret-memo-release-memo-794957]</ref> |
The memo was produced by a small group of House Republicans and staff, led by Devin Nunes, as part of a secret partisan investigation (Democratic members of the relevant committee were not informed of the investigation) into how the FBI used the [[Trump–Russia dossier]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.politico.com/story/2017/12/20/house-republicans-quietly-investigate-doj-fbi-310121|title=House Republicans quietly investigate perceived corruption at DOJ, FBI|work=POLITICO|access-date=2018-01-25}}</ref> According to Adam Schiff, in composing the memo, Nunes didn't even bother reading all of the relevant source material, and referred to the contents as pushing a conspiracy theory.<ref>[http://www.newsweek.com/devin-nunes-adam-schiff-secret-memo-release-memo-794957]</ref> Nunes had previously recused himself from the committee's investigation into Russia's interference in US elections,<ref>[http://www.newsweek.com/devin-nunes-adam-schiff-secret-memo-release-memo-794957]</ref> due to a House Ethics investigation into Nunes' secret coordination with the White House, which is being investigated by his committee. The House Ethics committee stated that "Nunes may have made unauthorized disclosures of classified information, in violation of House Rules, law, regulations, or other standards of conduct" (the ethics investigation ended when the committee was unable to obtain relevant classified information).<ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/house-intelligence-chairman-devin-nunes-recuses-himself-from-russia-probe/2017/04/06/8122b5bc-1ad2-11e7-855e-4824bbb5d748_story.html?utm_term=.4c0826a43367]</ref><ref>[http://theweek.com/speedreads/751784/report-ethics-investigation-into-nunes-ended-because-panel-couldnt-gain-access-classified-info]</ref> However, after offering to step aside from the investigation into Russian interference, Nunes began his own "parallel" investigation, whose purpose appeared to be to undermine the original investigation.<ref>[http://www.businessinsider.com/nunes-russia-investigation-subpoenas-fusion-gps-trump-2017-10]</ref> |
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The memo reportedly states that Deputy Attorney General [[Rod Rosenstein]] approved a [[FISA]] application to surveil [[Carter Page]] in the spring of 2017. The memo accuses the FBI and the Justice Department of failing to provide enough information about [[Christopher Steele]] to a FISA court judge.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Fandos |first1=Nicholas |last2=Goldman |first2=Adam |last3=LaFraniere |first3=Sharon |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/28/us/politics/rod-rosenstein-carter-page-secret-memo.html |title=Secret Memo Hints at a New Republican Target: Rod Rosenstein |date=January 28, 2018 |work=The New York Times |accessdate=January 29, 2018}}</ref> The memo "suggests that the FBI may have relied on politically motivated or questionable sources to justify its request for a secret surveillance warrant" in the early phases of the investigation into [[Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections]].<ref name="WaPo"/> Page had been the subject of FISA warrants by the FBI going back to 2014 when he was alleged to have been colluding with the Russian Government or having worked as an agent on its behalf.<ref>{{cite news |last=Phillips |first=Ariella |date=August 3, 2017 |title=Former Trump adviser Carter Page under FISA warrant since 2014: Report |url=http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/former-trump-adviser-carter-page-under-fisa-warrant-since-2014-report/article/2630576 |work=Washington Examiner |location=Washington, DC|quote="Carter Page, a foreign policy adviser to during President Trump's campaign, has been the subject of a foreign surveillance warrant since 2014... ...Page has long been the subject of federal investigators throughout the Russia investigation amid allegations he either worked as an agent of a foreign government or colluded with one. He runs a New York consulting firm that has done business with Russia."}}</ref> |
The memo reportedly states that Deputy Attorney General [[Rod Rosenstein]] approved a [[FISA]] application to surveil [[Carter Page]] in the spring of 2017. The memo accuses the FBI and the Justice Department of failing to provide enough information about [[Christopher Steele]] to a FISA court judge.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Fandos |first1=Nicholas |last2=Goldman |first2=Adam |last3=LaFraniere |first3=Sharon |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/28/us/politics/rod-rosenstein-carter-page-secret-memo.html |title=Secret Memo Hints at a New Republican Target: Rod Rosenstein |date=January 28, 2018 |work=The New York Times |accessdate=January 29, 2018}}</ref> The memo "suggests that the FBI may have relied on politically motivated or questionable sources to justify its request for a secret surveillance warrant" in the early phases of the investigation into [[Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections]].<ref name="WaPo"/> Page had been the subject of FISA warrants by the FBI going back to 2014 when he was alleged to have been colluding with the Russian Government or having worked as an agent on its behalf.<ref>{{cite news |last=Phillips |first=Ariella |date=August 3, 2017 |title=Former Trump adviser Carter Page under FISA warrant since 2014: Report |url=http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/former-trump-adviser-carter-page-under-fisa-warrant-since-2014-report/article/2630576 |work=Washington Examiner |location=Washington, DC|quote="Carter Page, a foreign policy adviser to during President Trump's campaign, has been the subject of a foreign surveillance warrant since 2014... ...Page has long been the subject of federal investigators throughout the Russia investigation amid allegations he either worked as an agent of a foreign government or colluded with one. He runs a New York consulting firm that has done business with Russia."}}</ref> |
Revision as of 11:09, 1 February 2018
The Nunes memo or HPSCI memo is a four-page memo written by Republican staff members for U.S. Representative Devin Nunes, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee (HPSCI), that alleges that the Federal Bureau of Investigation "may have relied on politically motivated or questionable sources" to obtain a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant in the early phases of the FBI's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections.[2] A social media campaign emerged in mid-January 2018 to publicly release the memo despite some of its classified contents. According to Hamilton 68, Russian-linked bots on Twitter helped spread the controversial hashtag.[3][4][5] The memo, and its release, have been part of an effort by Trump's political allies to shift focus away the ongoing Special Counsel investigation.[6]
Shortly after becoming a trending topic, the memo drew polarizing reactions from government officials and the media, generally along party lines.[7][8] The Justice Department (DOJ) released a letter to Congress calling a release of the memo without review reckless because it could expose intelligence sources and methods, while President Donald Trump called for its public release.[9] FBI Director Christopher A. Wray was allowed to read the memo and did so on January 28. On January 29, the majority of the House Intelligence Committee disregarded the DOJ's warnings and voted to approve its release.[10] In response to the memo, Democrats in the House Intelligence Committee drafted a ten-page rebuttal memo on January 24th. Both memos were released to the full house.[11] The Republicans also voted against making public a competing memo Democrats had crafted, according to Adam Schiff. The group also rejected a proposal to give the Justice Department and FBI more time to vet the Republican document but the President has five days to review it before it can be released.[12]
Purported contents of the memo
The memo was produced by a small group of House Republicans and staff, led by Devin Nunes, as part of a secret partisan investigation (Democratic members of the relevant committee were not informed of the investigation) into how the FBI used the Trump–Russia dossier.[13] According to Adam Schiff, in composing the memo, Nunes didn't even bother reading all of the relevant source material, and referred to the contents as pushing a conspiracy theory.[14] Nunes had previously recused himself from the committee's investigation into Russia's interference in US elections,[15] due to a House Ethics investigation into Nunes' secret coordination with the White House, which is being investigated by his committee. The House Ethics committee stated that "Nunes may have made unauthorized disclosures of classified information, in violation of House Rules, law, regulations, or other standards of conduct" (the ethics investigation ended when the committee was unable to obtain relevant classified information).[16][17] However, after offering to step aside from the investigation into Russian interference, Nunes began his own "parallel" investigation, whose purpose appeared to be to undermine the original investigation.[18]
The memo reportedly states that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein approved a FISA application to surveil Carter Page in the spring of 2017. The memo accuses the FBI and the Justice Department of failing to provide enough information about Christopher Steele to a FISA court judge.[19] The memo "suggests that the FBI may have relied on politically motivated or questionable sources to justify its request for a secret surveillance warrant" in the early phases of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections.[2] Page had been the subject of FISA warrants by the FBI going back to 2014 when he was alleged to have been colluding with the Russian Government or having worked as an agent on its behalf.[20]
Spread on social media
According to the Hamilton 68 project run by the bipartisan Alliance for Securing Democracy which tracks Russian propaganda efforts on Twitter, #ReleaseTheMemo was promoted by Russian twitter bot accounts, with a 230,000 percent spike in the promotion of the hashtag by these accounts.[21][4]
Russian-linked bots on Twitter helped spread the hashtag.[3][4][22] According to an analysis by CNN the hashtag was pushed by over a thousand newly created accounts, of which 460 were without a profile picture.[23] A source familiar with Twitter's internal analysis said that the accounts responsible for the widely trending hashtag were "organically American".[24] According to Twitter, although a large number of Russian accounts were also involved, they were insufficient to reach the top of Twitter's internal analysis which showed the retweets are coming from inside the United States from authentic American accounts.[24] WikiLeaks has offered a reward for anyone that submits the document to them and used the hashtag with a link to their upload site.[3]
Responses
On January 19, a growing number of Republicans began calling for the release of the memo.[25][26] In response to news surrounding the memo, Fox News host Sean Hannity directed a message at former FBI Director Robert Mueller, saying "Your witch hunt is now over. Time to close the doors."[26] Donald Trump Jr. has also been a major proponent of its release.
Democrats have pushed back on the memo, with Adam Schiff, Ranking Member of the House Intelligence Committee, releasing a statement saying that it is "[r]ife with factual inaccuracies" that is "meant only to give Republican House members a distorted view of the FBI."[27] In response to the memo, Democrats in the House Intelligence Committee drafted a ten-page rebuttal memo on January 24th.[28][29] However, it was denied a public release on the same day the original memo was approved for release.[10]
Republicans sought a committee vote that would request the release through the President which would keep the memo confined to committee members until the President responds.[30] The memo could be made public by a vote in the House of Representatives if the President does not act or denies the request but no vote is scheduled for the full House. Glenn Greenwald called the campaign "a bizarre spectacle" since the Republicans are "holding a document that only they can release, while pretending to be advocating for its release."[31] Nunes and the House Intelligence Committee have denied access to the memo to the Senate Intelligence Committee and to the FBI, who stated a desire to investigate any alleged wrongdoing.[30] The Justice Department sent a letter to Nunes and called the release of the memo reckless.[1] Nunes' panel also refused to allow the FBI and the Department of Justice to view the memo, despite their requests.[32]
Adam Schiff released a statement and a letter to Devin Nunes at 19:00 January 31, 2018 stating; "BREAKING: Discovered late tonight that Chairman Nunes made material changes to the memo he sent to White House – changes not approved by the Committee. White House therefore reviewing a document the Committee has not approved for release."[33][34]
References
- ^ a b Jarrett, Laura (January 24, 2018). "Justice Dept.: 'Reckless' to release Nunes memo without review". CNN.
- ^ a b Parker, Ashley; Helderman, Rosalind S.; Dawsey, Josh; Leonnig, Carol D. (2018-01-27). "Trump sought release of classified Russia memo, putting him at odds with Justice Department". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2018-01-29.
investigation into Russian meddling," "written by staff members for House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) and suggests that the FBI may have relied on politically motivated or questionable sources to justify its request for a secret surveillance warrant in the investigation's early phase.
- ^ a b c "Russia-linked Twitter accounts are working overtime to help Devin Nunes and WikiLeaks". Business Insider. Retrieved 2018-01-25.
- ^ a b c Ryan Sit (24 January 2018). "Russian Bots Might Be Behind Controversial #ReleaseTheMemo Campaign, Democrats Say". Newsweek. Retrieved 26 January 2018.
- ^ "Right's push to release memo on FBI 'abuses' endorsed by Russian bots". NBC News. Retrieved 2018-01-26.
- ^ Savage, Charlie (January 30, 2018). "The Real Aim of the Nunes Memo Is the Mueller Investigation". The New York Times.
- ^ Editorial, Reuters. "Justice Dept warned White House about releasing memo - Washington Post". U.K. Retrieved 2018-01-31.
{{cite news}}
:|first=
has generic name (help) - ^ "Conservatives Brought Russia Probe Demand to Shutdown Talks". Bloomberg.com. 2018-01-19. Retrieved 2018-01-31.
- ^ Parker, Ashley; Helderman, Rosalind S.; Dawsey, Josh; Leonnig, Carol D. (2018-01-27). "Trump sought release of classified Russia memo, putting him at odds with Justice Department". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2018-01-29.
- ^ a b Demirjian, Karoun; Barrett, Devlin (2018-01-29). "Republicans vote to release memo alleging FBI missteps while surveilling Trump campaign operative". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2018-01-29.
- ^ Nerb, Jeremy; Raju, Manu (30 January 2018). "Democrats' rebuttal memo criticizes Nunes as part of response". CNN. Retrieved 31 January 2018.
- ^ "House panel votes to release secret memo". POLITICO. Retrieved 2018-01-30.
- ^ "House Republicans quietly investigate perceived corruption at DOJ, FBI". POLITICO. Retrieved 2018-01-25.
- ^ [1]
- ^ [2]
- ^ [3]
- ^ [4]
- ^ [5]
- ^ Fandos, Nicholas; Goldman, Adam; LaFraniere, Sharon (January 28, 2018). "Secret Memo Hints at a New Republican Target: Rod Rosenstein". The New York Times. Retrieved January 29, 2018.
- ^ Phillips, Ariella (August 3, 2017). "Former Trump adviser Carter Page under FISA warrant since 2014: Report". Washington Examiner. Washington, DC.
Carter Page, a foreign policy adviser to during President Trump's campaign, has been the subject of a foreign surveillance warrant since 2014... ...Page has long been the subject of federal investigators throughout the Russia investigation amid allegations he either worked as an agent of a foreign government or colluded with one. He runs a New York consulting firm that has done business with Russia.
- ^ [6]
- ^ "Right's push to release memo on FBI 'abuses' endorsed by Russian bots". NBC News. Retrieved 2018-01-26.
- ^ O'Sullivan, Donie. "Hundreds of newly created Twitter accounts pushed #ReleaseTheMemo". CNNMoney. Retrieved 2018-01-26.
- ^ a b Collins, Ben; Ackerman, Spencer (2018-01-23). "Source: Twitter Pins #ReleaseTheMemo on Republicans, Not Russia". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 2018-01-25.
- ^ Schwartz, Sam. "What Is the Nunes Memo? Controversial Intelligence Document About Trump Campaign Surveillance Spawns #Releasethemem". No. 29 January 2018.
- ^ a b "GOP reps demand release of 'shocking' surveillance memo". The Hill. 19 January 2018.
- ^ "Republicans call for release of memo on alleged surveillance abuses". CBS News. 19 January 2018.
- ^ Demirjian, Karoun (2018-01-24). "House Democrats plan memo to counter GOP's, as calls to declassify files grow". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2018-01-25.
- ^ Eli Lake (25 January 2018). "Russian Bots Are Right: #Releasethememo". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 26 January 2018.
- ^ a b "Senate panel denied access to Nunes FISA memo". CNN. Retrieved 2018-01-25.
{{cite news}}
: Cite uses deprecated parameter|authors=
(help) - ^ Liautaud, Alexa (January 25, 2018). "These two deep-state conspiracy theories are driving Republicans nuts today". Vice News. Retrieved January 29, 2018.
- ^ [7]
- ^ Schiff, Adam (2018-01-31). "BREAKING: Discovered late tonight that Chairman Nunes made material changes to the memo he sent to White House – changes not approved by the Committee. White House therefore reviewing a document the Committee has not approved for release.pic.twitter.com/llhQK9L7l6". @RepAdamSchiff. Retrieved 2018-02-01.
- ^ Demirjian, Karoun (2018-01-31). "Schiff accuses Nunes of altering memo before sharing it with Trump for release". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2018-02-01.
External links
- Five Questions the Nunes Memo Better Answer by Yale Law professor Asha Rangappa