The Nunez Memo was released this week and it turned out to be a little more than we initially thought it would be. I have to be honest with you: I did not think it was going to be anything. But it turned out to be a tad bigger than we initially thought. In this post, I am going to talk about what the memo is and what led to it. In the next post, I will talk about what was learned from the memo and the impact it will have.
The Story
So, what is happening. It is a long story but one that must be understood before one can understand what5 the memo is about and why it is such a big deal.
It starts with the financial troubles at the Democratic National Committee (DNC). Barrack Obama spent a lot of the DNC’s money during his campaigns. So much so, they went broke. That is where the Clintons come in. They bailed the DNC out and actually began running the DNC. All DNC decisions were made by the Clintons. Even their finances were run by a Clinton accountant. Many believe that the ouster of Bernie Sanders was fixed by the DNC due to Clinton influence (that is a whole other story).
During the election, the DNC hired a company (Fusion GPS) to find dirt on Donald Trump. Fusion GPS hired a former British spy named Christopher Steele. Christopher Steele used former Russian KGB agents to gain the dirt (most of which, apparently, was unverified and just flat out untrue). This is the Trump Dossier that everyone is talking about.
The DNC took that dossier and, somehow, it ended up in the hands of the FBI. The FBI, with orders from the Department of Justice (DOJ) requested a FISA warrant from the secretive FISA courts to spy on Donald Trump’s foreign relations advisor, Carter Page. The warrant was given and Carter Page was monitored.
What’s the Big Deal
It should be pretty obvious the problems this all causes.
Spying on citizens of the United States should not be that easy. Yet, the FBI was able to get a warrant on very flimsy, unsubstantiated evidence. The other problem is the DNC paid for this dossier and gave it, presumably, to Hilary Clinton who gave it to the DOJ. Using the FBI to spy on another campaign is a huge problem and illegal. This is why this is called the next Watergate (when Nixon hired people to break into and bug the DNC during his election).
Democrats did not want this memo released (and I assume the soon-to-be released of the FISA warrant application). The reason: this could destroy the Democratic party and lead all the way up to Hilary Clinton and Barrack Obama.
What is the Nunez Memo
The Nunez memo was written in January 2018 by staffers of Republican congressman Devin Nunez. It was written after an ethics investigation of the FBI’s conduct during the Russian probe into Donald Trump and how the gained access to a FISA warrant. The purpose of the four page memo was to summarize the findings of the probe.
At fist, the memo was classified Top Secret. But, for the purposes of transparency (or something else), was voted to be declassified (along party lines) by congress and was officially declassified by President Trump.
The Controversy
Democrats did not want this memo released. They saw it as an attack on the institutions of the DOJ and FBI. They also saw it as an attempt by the Trump administration to derail the Trump-Russia collusion probe by Robert Mueller. The Republicans see this as a way to expose the corruption within the FBI and DOJ. Corruption that may lead all the way to the highest levels of the Obama administration up to and including Hilary Clinton and Barrack Obama.
Conclusion
A lot of what I said above has been assumptions for the most part. It is logical but unsubstantiated. The goal of the memo is to bring all the happenings to the forefront. This is only the beginning. The memo will need to be confirmed. The way to do that is to release the FISA application given to the court by the DOJ.
But firsts things first. Let's go through the memo and see if it fills any holes to the narrative that I just posted. Let us see if this is another Watergate or it is just more political posturing by the Republicans who are pissed off about the Trump/Russia probe (that is the Democratic stance). That will be the next blog entry.
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