The long awaited democrat rebuttal to the Nunes memo has finally been released, however with heavy redactions.
According to BuzzFeed News, the 10-page document which was originally blocked by Donald Trump claims to rebut the original GOP memo released a few weeks ago which claimed the FBI “abused their spying powers” in the Russia investigation.
Over the past two weeks, Rep. Adam Schiff and his democratic colleagues on the House Intelligence Committee negotiated the redactions required by the White House (as directed by the Justice Department) prior to it being unclassified. Ironically it was those same directions from the Justice Department that Donald Trump chose to ignore when he decided to release the Nunes Memo a few weeks ago.
According to the Democratic/Schiff Memo:
- The FBI had already begun their investigation into members of the Trump Campaign prior to receiving the Christopher Steele dossier. The Steele dossier was financed by the Hillary Clinton campaign which the GOP says the Russia investigation as a whole was politically motivated.
- The memo reveals that the FBI’s FISA request on former Trump Campaign aide Carter Page was approved four different federal judges all of whom were appointed by republican presidents.
- The FBI did however corroborate some of the Steele dossier which it used to renew FISA warrants against Page.
- The memo also reveals that in March of 2016 the FBI interviewed Page.
Read the full memo here: