Democrats protested wildly when Republicans led by House Intelligence Committee Co-Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) released Feb. 2 a secret memo detailing abuses at the FBI and Justice Department with regard to wiretapping Trump campaign officials. Released over the objections of Democrats, FBI and Justice Department officials, the Nunes’ memo essentially confirmed what’s been known for over some time that the FBI and Justice Department overreached their authority, using the national security apparatus to spy on Trump campaign officials. Today, House Intelligence Co-Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) got his way, releasing a redacted rebuttal memo, claiming that the FBI and Justice Department did nothing wrong seeking a warrant in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act [FISA] Court to wiretap former Trump campaign aid Carter Page.
Schiff insists in his rebuttal memo that the FBI and Justice Department did nothing wrong, following the necessary protocol to wiretap Page. What Schiff’s rebuttal memo doesn’t say is that Page was never charged with anything, despite making the case to the FISA court that he was potentially a double-agent. Schiff also doesn’t mention that the FBI’s probable cause to seek the FISA Court warrant on Page was based primarily from former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the Democratic National Committee’s paid opposition research AKA “the dossier” to discredit the campaign of President Donald Trump. Schiff’s rebuttal memo only focuses on Page but ignores incidental data collection on former Russian Amb. Sergei Kislyak, unmasking former National Security Adviser Gen. Michael Flynn and Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions, both of whom spoke to Kislyak during the transition.
Page was the perfect excuse to seek a FISA court warrant because he’d been under prior surveillance by the FBI for his consulting work in the Russian Federation. While Page has been exonerated, he was the right stooge for the FBI and Justice Department to wiretap. “Out extensive review of the initial FISA application and three renewals failed to uncover any evidence of illegal, unethical or unprofessional behavior by law enforcement and instead revealed that both the FBI and DOJ made extensive showings to justify all four requests,” said Schiff. Schiff fails to mention that the FISA Court judge or judges were never told that the evidence against Page was primarily from Hillary’s paid opposition research, the so-called “dossier.” Schiff’s extensive review doesn’t mention anything about the FBI and DOJ using the “dossier” as probable cause before the FISA Court.
Schiff’s vehement objections over Nunes’ memo stemmed from realizing Republicans were closing in on former Barack Obama’s role in authorizing his Atty. Gen. Loretta Lynch and National Security Adviser Susan Rice to help Hillary’s campaign by wiretapping Trump campaign officials. Hillary’s campaign advisers, Sidney Blumenthal and her former campaign chairman John D. Podesta, sought to discredit Trump’s campaign by tying him to the Kremlin. Getting the FBI and DOJ involved in looking into the Trump campaign was the best way to discredit the Trump campaign and help Hillary win the election. Schiff’s rebuttal memo claims that the Feb. 2 GOP memo cherrypicked the facts, failing to mention that Page was under prior FBI surveillance. But when you really look at the Democrats’ memo, it’s the Democrats’ that are withholding key facts.
Democrats and their friends in the press refuse to implicate Obama for letting Hillary infiltrate the DOJ and FBI to use the national security apparatus to wiretap Trump campaign officials. Democrats and the anti-Trump media spent weeks attacking his assertion that Obama “tapped his wires,” meaning ordered wiretaps or eavesdropped on key campaign officials. Schiff’s memo is designed to cover-up Obama’s role in wiretapping the Trump campaign to give Hillary and unfair advantage heading into the Nov. 8, 2018 presidential election. When their strategy backfired with Trump winning the election, Democrats and the press continued the Russian collusion narrative hoping to win back the House and Senate in the 2018 Midterm elections. Schiff claims the FBI and DOJ followed the letter of the law but won’t admit that Obama used the national security apparatus to wiretap Trump and help Hillary win the election.
Democrats’ rebuttal memo tries to divert attention away from Obama’s unprecedented use of the national security apparatus to help Hillary win the 2016 election. Schiff wants to focus the Trump-bashing press on Carter Page when the real egregious abuse had to do with incidental data collection by “unmasking” Flynn and Sessions. Listening in on Flynn and Sessions’ conversations with Kislyak showed nothing unusual or out-of-the-ordinary. Yet Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein pressured Sessions to recuse himself March 2, 2017 from the Russian meddling probe, appointing Mueller May 17, 2017 as Special Counsel. Democrats’ rebuttal memo shows how partisan Democrats led by Schiff want no part of a wider investigation into the Obama DOJ and FBI under former Director James Comey. Schiff’s rebuttal memo does everything possible to justify wiretapping Trump campaign officials.
