House Republicans released a hyper-partisan unredacted memo prepared by Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) that purports to show that the FBI and DOJ committed biased surveillance on the Trump campaign.
Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee have accused Nunes of cherrypicking intelligence which paints an inaccurate picture. The FBI released a statement this week that said “we have grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo's accuracy.”
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CBS News' Jeff Pegues reports that the memo will focuses in part on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant which authorized the surveillance of former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page. Federal law enforcement sources as well as congressional sources briefed on the intelligence during the 2016 campaign say that well before Page joined the Trump campaign, there were concerns about his contacts with Russian spies.
Pegues reports, however, that based on talking to multiple law enforcement and intelligence sources, it is incorrect that the warrants would not have happened without the dossier.
Carter Page statement on now-declassified memo: "The brave and assiduous oversight by Congressional leaders in discovering this unprecedented abuse of process represents a giant, historic leap in the repair of America's democracy." https://t.co/RoMeL4VUkh pic.twitter.com/QrDomLrqxF
— CBS News (@CBSNews) February 2, 2018
No doubt there will be lots of reaction to this in the days and weeks to come. We'll follow up in subsequent posts.