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The Grassley-Graham referral of Christopher Steele is more substantive than the Nunes memo. And it does raise important points, notably about the possibility it included disinformation. But there are still problems with the argument.
DOJ presumably believes the release of the Nunes Memo hurt national security in three ways: it helped those Mueller is trying to investigate, provided another reason for our foreign partners to hesitate before sharing intelligence with us, and makes it more likely some defendants will get to review their FISA application going forward. The latter is actually the sole benefit of this release, though it’s probably the biggest worry DOJ has about it.
How did McGahn’s threat to quit if Trump fired Mueller work if he never told Trump about it?
Not a single of the Republicans squawking most loudly about Devin Nunes’ hack document claiming abuse at the FBI voted the way you’d expect if they really believed what they were saying.
It’s becoming fairly clear that Nunes is using the House Intelligence Committee to shadow Mueller’s investigation for the benefit of Donald Trump.
In an last ditch effort to spook Congress into passing a long-term 702 reauthorization, the spooks say that Congress had it right in 2008 when they authorized a Section 702 that didn’t have many of the most invasive aspects.
I agree that the release of the Strzok and Page text messages the other day is different than Jim Comey’s fateful speech about not charging Hillary. But the release responds to the same right wing playing of the refs.
Back door searches violate the FBI’s own requirement to use the least intrusive investigative methods. But national security swallows up that rule.
The spooks and their congressional servants know they have to cheat to codify dangerous parts of Section 702. So they’re trying to do it in secret.
Some early documents from the Keith Gartenlaub case suggest the government used Section 702 as part of it.
