Well,the day that so many Trump fans, Russian bots and increasingly desperate congressmen have been waiting for has arrived. The House is going to release Devin Nunes totally accurate, not fabricated, assessment of the FBI’s conduct in acquiring FISA warrants today. Never you mind that this memo comes from the GOP’s own Inspector Clouseau himself, Devin Nunes, this information must come to light! The four page memo has been heavily criticized not just by the House Democrats, whose own rebuttal is being prevented from wide release, but also the DOJ and FBI on the grounds of its accuracy (“material omissions of fact“)and its threat to exposure of methods and sources. So not only is this thing likely cherry-picked data (FISA requests are typically 50-60 pages in length, this is four) but also could seriously endanger the work the intelligence community does every day.
Even Trump’s newly appointed FBI Director, Christopher Wray, is pushing against it’s release.
All of this is particulary interesting in light of some late night reporting suggesting that Nunes changed the memo substantially after it was approved by the committee and before it was sent to the White House. A year later and we’re still playing the “Is Devin Nunes coordinating the White House”.
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
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) February 1, 2018
Really, the fact that he can do any of this right now is kind of confounding. He was supposed to have stepped away from his position on the House committee (he hasn’t), and he was supposed to have an ethics investigation conducted on his activities (he wouldn’t allows the House Ethics committee access to the documents he released so it was inconclusive). Never have I seen a more desperate person kick around for so long.
Anyway, lots of stuff happening. Hope Hicks may or may not have obstructed justice, Rosenstein was asked point blank whether he was on Trump’s team, and Melania’s been using taxpayer money to stay as far away from her toad-like husband as possible.
Welcome to Thursday, everyone!
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