When the House Intelligence Committee voted on Monday to release a classified four-page memorandum detailing what many believe are abuses by ranking FBI and/or Justice Department officials of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court during Obama’s last year in office, not a single Democrat voted for transparency and upholding the integrity of our governing system.
To a person, all nine Democratic members voted to keep the so-called “FISA memo” suppressed. But after the vote, the panel’s ranking (minority) member, Rep. Adam Schiff of California, went straight to the media waiting outside the committee’s chamber to declare the release a mistake.
"I think we have crossed a deeply regrettable line," Schiff said, adding that he believes the memo’s release has "potentially compromised sources and methods" used by U.S. intelligence agencies to gather information.
Deep Staters within the Justice Department also claimed that releasing the memo would be “extremely reckless.”
Except that neither of these claims is true — as if panel chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., or any other Republicans on the committee would actually endanger intelligence and national security. After all, that was Hillary Clinton’s job.
As reported by Fox News’ national security reporter Catherine Herridge two senior FBI officials have reviewed the memo, according to a source familiar with the matter, and said they “could not point to any factual inaccuracies” contained within its pages.
The officials — one from the FBI’s counterintelligence division and the other from the legal division — “followed up after an initial review of the memo during a rare Sunday trip to Capitol Hill by FBI Director Christopher Wray.”
In fact, after he read it on Sunday evening, his deputy, Andrew McCabe, who is mentioned in the memo and is under investigation by the Justice Department inspector general for politicizing his position, left his job. We’re not sure if McCabe resigned or was forced out, but it doesn’t matter; he’s no longer in a position which allegedly allowed him to run cover for politically motivated operations to exonerate Hillary Clinton and persecute President Donald J. Trump’s campaign.
Speaking of the president, Trump was physically given the memo Monday night after the committee voted to release it. He now has five days to block it, but it is widely believed he won’t do that. In fact, as he headed out of the U.S. Capitol Building following his State of the Union Address Tuesday, Trump was overheard telling one lawmaker he would “100 percent” release the memo.
“Oh yeah, don’t worry, one hundred percent,” Trump told Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-S.C.
As for Democrat ‘concerns’ that the memo will reveal classified information and/or sources, Herridge noted that her source said the memo was “drafted deliberately to eliminate national security information” that could be damaging if viewed by individuals outside of Congress. (Related: Former US attorney: Country in ‘constitutional CRISIS’ after Comey THREW CASE against Hillary.)
She reported further:
House Republicans have indicated the memo speaks to whether the unverified anti-Trump dossier was used to secure or extend surveillance warrants for Americans, including a Trump associate.
“If you’re interested whether or not the dossier was used in court proceedings, whether or not it was funded by political opponents, you’ll want to see the memo,” Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., said on “Fox & Friends.” (Gowdy just announced plans to retire from Congress after his current term, by the way).
While, as of this writing, the memo has yet to be released, it almost never even got written. As Herridge notes, her source said the Deep Staters at the FBI and Justice Department “fought tooth and nail” for nearly a year to avoid providing any surveillance data to Congress whatsoever.
There’s more to come, which is good because it’s about time everything was revealed to the American people. But what’s really shameful is that this scandal occurred in the first place.
J.D. Heyes is also editor-in-chief of The National Sentinel.
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