How the major players in controversy are linked
You’ve probably heard all about the controversy surrounding the declassification and release of a memo that alleges government surveillance abuses.
To better understand what’s going on, you need to understand the people involved. The major players.
House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes
The California Republican has served as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee since 2015. He also served on Donald Trump’s transition team. He started making headlines last year when he denied early that there had been any contact between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Also last year, Nunes temporarily stepped aside from the investigation after he held a news conference to announce that the intelligence community had “incidentally collected” communications on the transition team.
Nunes is back in the headlines for driving the effort to release the memo. Republicans contend that the memo reveals surveillance abuses by the FBI and Justice Department.
House Intelligence ranking member Adam Schiff
The California Democrat is Nunes’ counterpart on the House Intelligence Committee. Schiff has become a vocal critic of Nunes’ actions, including saying he should step aside from the Russia investigation.
The latest: Schiff has argued that Nunes’ memo is merely a distraction from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe. He also said that Republicans had changed the memo after the committee voted to release it, but before it was sent to the White House for approval. Schiff and other Democrats have drafted their own memo providing a different analysis of the events recapped in the Nunes memo, but Republicans on the committee have so far blocked its release.
Carter Page
Page served as a foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign, he resigned after reports first surfaced about his contacts with Russia.
Page is possibly the entire point of the memo.
The memo accuses Justice Department officials of obtaining a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant on Page by using a dossier from a former British intelligence official funded by Trump opponents.
FBI Director Christopher Wray
Wray was handpicked by Trump to lead the law enforcement agency after the president fired James Comey. But the FBI director, only five months into his job, has defended the agency in the face of criticism and has been highly critical of the Nunes memo.
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein
Rosenstein has been under the spotlight throughout the Trump administration. Rosenstein wrote a scathing assessment of Comey’s performance prior to the FBI director’s firing. He then appointed special counsel Robert Mueller to lead the Justice Department’s Russia probe.
Now, Rosenstein is among the Justice Department officials who had argued against the release of the memo.
President Trump
The president has repeatedly attacked his own Justice Department.
In the latest move, he signed off on the release of the memo, despite pleas from Justice Department officials. Prior to the release, he slammed FBI and Justice Department officials once again.
“The top Leadership and Investigators of the FBI and the Justice Department have politicized the sacred investigative process in favor of Democrats and against Republicans — something which would have been unthinkable just a short time ago,” Trump tweeted Friday.
Honorable mentions: James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Sally Yates, Dana Boente
All were mentioned as signing off on FISA warrants to surveil Carter on behalf of the FBI and Justice Department. Comey and Yates, the ex-acting attorney general, were both fired by Trump last year. McCabe announced his resignation as deputy director from the FBI last week. Boente, a former deputy attorney general, was named as the FBI’s general counsel by Wray last month.