The Democrats' Rebuttal Memo

I often start these kinds of posts by reminding everyone that I am neither a lawyer nor an expert on FISA warrants.  What I am, however, is someone who used to teach English to college students, and in that capacity, I give Republican Devin Nunes a giant red F.  As we knew from the release of the Nunes Memo, and as we see again today, Devin Nunes paid other people to write his book report.  He himself did not bother to read the book.  The people he paid, meanwhile?  Yeah, he should have picked people who got As in English class.  Let's review with a little point-counterpoint.

• Majority (i.e. Republican / Nunes) Memo.  The integrity of the FISA process "is necessarily dependent on the government's production to the court of all material and relevant facts. This should include information potentially favorable to the target of the FISA application . . . In the case of Carter Page . . . material and relevant information was omitted."
• "The 'dossier' compiled by Christopher Steele (Steele dossier) on behalf of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Hillary Clinton campaign formed an essential part of the Carter Page FISA application."
• "Neither the initial application in October 2016, nor any of the renewals, disclose or reference the role of the DNC, Clinton campaign, or any party/campaign in funding Steele's efforts."
• Minority (i.e. Democrat / Schiff) Memo.  "DOJ's October 21, 2016 FISA application and three subsequent renewals carefully outlined for the Court a multi-pronged rationale for surveilling Page, who, at the time of the first application, was no longer with the Trump campaign.  DOJ detailed Page's past relationships with Russian spies and interaction with Russian officials during the 2016 campaign.  [REDACTED.]  DOJ cited multiple sources to support the case for surveilling Page - but made only narrow use of information from Steele's sources."
• "DOJ's warrant request was based on compelling evidence and probable cause to believe Page was knowingly assisting clandestine Russian intelligence activities in the U.S."
• "The FBI had an independent basis for investigating Page's motivations and actions during the campaign, transition, and following the inauguration.  As DOJ described in detail to the court, Page had an extensive record as [REDACTED] prior to joining the Trump campaign."  
• "As early as [REDACTED], a Russian intelligence officer [REDACTED] targeted Page for recruitment.  Page showed [REDACTED]."
• "The FISA applications also detail Page's suspicious activity after joining the Trump campaign in March 2016."
• "It is in this specific sub-section of the applications that DOJ refers to Steele's reporting on Page and his alleged coordination with Russian officials.  Steele's information about Page was consistent with the assessment of Russian intelligence efforts to recruit him and his connections to Russian persons of interest."
• "In subsequent FISA renewals, DOJ provided additional information obtained through multiple independent sources that corroborated Steele's reporting."  [Information on those sources REDACTED.]
• "Far from 'omitting' material facts about Steele, as the Majority claims, DOJ repeatedly informed the Court about Steele's background, credibility, and potential bias."
• Democrats then quote a large chunk of a document provided to the court, which ends: "The FBI speculates that the identified U.S. Person was likely looking for information that could be used to discredit Candidate #1's campaign."  Put in plainer English, Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS was being paid to tank Trump. 
• Majority Memo. "The initial FISA application notes Steele was working for a named U.S. person, but does not name Fusion GPS and principal Glenn Simpson."   
• Minority Memo.  "The Committee Majority, which had earlier accused Obama Administration officials of improper 'unmasking,' faults DOJ for not revealing the names of specific U.S. persons and entities in the FISA application and subsequent renewals.  In fact, DOJ appropriately upheld its longstanding practice of protecting U.S. citizen information by purposefully not 'unmasking' U.S. person and entity names, unless they were themselves the subject of a counterintelligence investigation."
• Majority Memo.  "The Carter Page FISA application also cited extensively a September 23, 2016 Yahoo News article by Michael Isikoff, which focuses on Page's July 2016 trip to Moscow.  This article does not corroborate the Steele dossier because it is derived from information leaked by Steele himself to Yahoo News" (emphasis in original).
• Minority Memo.  "The Majority falsely claims that the FISA materials 'relied heavily' on a September 23, 2016 Yahoo! News article by Michael Isikoff . . . In fact, DOJ referenced Isikoff's article, alongside another article the Majority fails to mention, not to provide separate corroboration for Steele's reporting, but instead to inform the Court of Page's public denial of his suspected meetings in Moscow, which Page also echoed in a September 25, 2016 letter to FBI Director Comey."
• Majority Memo.  "Steele was suspended and then terminated as an FBI source for what the FBI defines as the most serious of violations - an unauthorized disclosure to the media of his relationship with the FBI in an October 30, 2016 Mother Jones Article by David Corn.  Steele should have been terminated for his previous undisclosed contacts with Yahoo and other outlets in September - before the Page application was submitted to the FISC [FISA court]."
• Minority Memo.  "The FBI properly notified the FISC after it terminated Steele as a source for making unauthorized disclosures to the media."  The FBI didn't know about the September disclosures, and "[t]he Majority cites no evidence" that the FBI "actually knew or should have known."
• Majority Memo.  "Before and after Steele was terminated a a source, he maintained contact with DOJ via then-Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr, a senior DOJ office who worked closely with Deputy Attorneys General Yates and later Rosenstein."
• Minority Memo.  "The Majority describes Bruce Ohr as a senior DOJ official who 'worked closely with the Deputy Attorneys General, Yates and later Rosenstein," in order to imply that Ohr was somehow involved in the process, but there is no indication this is the case.  Bruce Ohr is a well-respected career professional whose portfolio is drugs and organized crime, not counterintelligence."
• Majority Memo: "In September 2016" - that is, after everything he had discovered about Donald Trump - "Steele admitted to Ohr his feelings against then-candidate Trump when Steele said he 'was desperate that Donald Trump not get elected and was passionate about him not being president.  This clear evidence of Steele's bias was recorded by Ohr at the time and subsequently in official FBI files - but not reflected in any of the Page FISA appplications.  During this same time peirod, Ohr's wife was employed by Fusion GPS . . . The Ohrs' relationship with Steele and Fusion GPS was inexplicably concealed from the FISC."
• Minority Memo: "There is no evidence that [Ohr] wold have known about the Page FISA applications and their contents. . . .By the time Ohr debrief[ed] with the FBI, it had already terminated Steele as a source and was independently corroborating Steele's reporting about Page's activities.  Bruce Ohr took the initiative to inform the FBI of what he knew, and the Majority does him a grave disservice by suggesting he is part of some malign conspiracy."
• Majority Memo: Peter Strzok opened the investigation in July 2016 when he dug into Papadopoulos!  PETER STRZOK!  Lisa Page!  The texting lovers! "[T]hey both demonstrated a clear bias against Trump and in favor of Clinton."
• Minority Memo: "Peter Strzok and Lisa Page's text messages are irrelevant to the FISA application.  The Majority gratuitously includes reference to [them] at the end of their memorandum, in an effort to imply that political bias infected the FBI's investigation and FISA applications.  In fact, neither Strzok nor Page served as affiants on the applications, which were the product of extensive and senior DOJ and FBI review.  in demonizing both career professionals, the Majority . . . omits inconvenient text messages, in which they critiqued a wide range of other officials and candidates from both parties."  And of course, the Democrats point out that Strzok co-signed that Comey memo that nuked Clinton's campaign just days before the election.

Let's end with Trump's own view of the Minority Memo, which (as we all know) he read and studied carefully, highlighter in hand.  Tweet #1: "The Democrat memo response on government surveillance abuses is a total political and legal BUST. Just confirms all of the terrible things that were done. SO ILLEGAL!"  And Tweet #2: "Dem Memo: FBI did not disclose who the clients were - the Clinton Campaign and the DNC.  Wow!"  I don't want to alarm you, but the President of the United States may in fact not be a genius.