DEMS' MEMO IS OUT
Rebuttal for ‘distorted’ GOP intel
Democrats and Republicans waged war Saturday — using tweets, Congressional memos and even a presidential TV appearance — over whether the FBI misused federal surveillance resources against President Trump’s 2016 campaign.
“FBI and [Justice Department] officials did not ‘abuse’ the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) process, omit material information or subvert this vital tool to spy on the Trump campaign,” a Democratic memo declares.
The memo, by Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee, led by California Representative Adam Schiff, denies GOP allegations that the FBI relied on evidence from a former British spy to justify surveilling the Trump campaign.
Trump’s answer was a tweet charging, “Congressman Schiff omitted and distorted key facts. So, what else is new. He is a total phony!’’
Speaking later on Fox News’ Jeanine Pirro show, Trump called Schiff a “bad guy,’’ who leaks information from private meetings.
“So illegal,’’ the president fumed.
Schiff answered by tweeting some other nasty names he said he’s been called by the president — and cheekily asking to be set straight on his nickname.
“Wait a minute Mr. President,’’ Schiff ’s counter-tweet reads.
“Am I a phony, or sleazy, or little. Surely you know the key to a good playground nickname is consistency.
“I thought you were supposed to be good at that.’’
The GOP’s allegations were outlined in a memo released Feb. 2 by California Representative Devin Nunes, who chairs the Intelligence Committee.
The Nunes memo said the FBI should have disclosed that Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee paid for the report by former British secret agent Christopher Steele.
Schiff tweeted Saturday that the GOP memo “omitted and distorted key facts in order to mislead the public and impugn the integrity of the FBI.”
Nunes and other Republicans had charged that the FBI used an unverified dossier prepared by ex-MI6 agent Steele to get permission to spy on former Trump foreign-policy adviser Carter Page.
Schiff ’s memo counters that the FBI probe of Trump campaign associates began seven weeks before the agency received Steele’s dossier.
Democrats say the FBI probe was “based on troubling law enforcement and intelligence information” unrelated to Steele’s research.
Democrats also claim that Page was on the FBI’s radar since 2013, and that the department did not rely solely on the Steele dossier to renew a surveillance warrant against Page.
Instead, they say, the department used a “multipronged rationale” to renew the surveillance warrant three additional times.
FISA warrants expire after 90 days unless investigators produce fresh evidence justifying renewal.
The Dems’ memo describes Page as “someone the FBI assessed to be an agent of the Russian government.”
The White House called that memo “politically driven.”
Trump spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Democrats failed to note that “the deputy FBI director told the committee that had it not been for the dossier, no surveillance order would have been sought.”