NEWSWATCH: “Why the Nunes Memo is a Devastating Blow to the ‘Deep State’; The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence has done its duty by releasing this memo” – The National Interest/Daniel McCarthy

February 4, 2018 JRL Russia List JRL NewsBlog, Spies, Spy Allegations, United States, U.S.-Russian Relations

Department of Justice Headquarters Building file photo, adapted from image at justice.gov

“In the midst of the 2016 election, bad actors at the Justice Department tried to turn the FBI into the police arm of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). That’s the bottom line of the January 18 House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence memo released today. … a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) was led, or misled, into authorizing spying on Carter Page, a Trump campaign volunteer, on the basis of information provided by Christopher Steele, a British spy-for-hire working for the opposition research firm Fusion GPS … itself ultimately working for the DNC.

FBI and Justice Department officials failed to reveal this context to the FISC, according to the memo, ‘even though it was known by DOJ at the time that political actors were involved in the Steele dossier.’ James Comey and Andrew McCabe, then the FBI’s director and deputy director, were among the officials who signed requests for authorization and renewal of surveillance of Page. Sally Yates and Rod Rosenstein, both deputy attorneys general at the time, also signed requests. …”