Vox - Nunes memo adds new wrinkle to Robert Mueller’s Trump-Russia investigationhttps://cdn.vox-cdn.com/community_logos/52517/voxv.png2018-03-28T18:20:02-04:00http://www.vox.com/rss/stream/167245172018-03-28T18:20:02-04:002018-03-28T18:20:02-04:00The Justice Department is launching an investigation into the controversial Carter Page warrant
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<img alt="Carter Page, former foreign policy adviser for the Trump campaign, speaks to the media after testifying before the House Intelligence Committee on November 2, 2017 in Washington, DC." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/di7K8enaYNwLNLQ5mbbEYVEq6aU=/128x0:2795x2000/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/59194299/GettyImages_869515864.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Carter Page, former foreign policy adviser for the Trump campaign, speaks to the media after testifying before the House Intelligence Committee on November 2, 2017, in Washington, DC. | Mark Wilson/Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>Republicans have pushed for an investigation since February.</p> <p id="W056gC">The Justice Department launched an internal investigation <a href="https://oig.justice.gov/press/2018/2018-03-28b.pdf">on Wednesday</a> into how the FBI got permission to spy on former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. </p>
<p id="XbMrrH">Republicans have been <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/house-republicans-seek-special-prosecutor-fisa-requests-n854316">pushing</a> for some kind of investigation since February, after a GOP memo was released <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/2/1/16956290/nunes-memo-release-the-memo-fbi-russia">accusing</a> the Justice Department and the FBI of tricking a federal judge so that they could surveil Carter Page. </p>
<p id="uLkli4">The FBI watched Page, who was a foreign policy adviser to Trump, for almost a year <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/2/2/16956014/nunes-memo-carter-page">beginning in October 2016</a>. A judge from the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/1/11/16878220/house-vote-surveillance-spying-fisa">Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Court</a> has to give the FBI permission if it wants to spy on a US citizen it thinks might be working with a foreign government.</p>
<p id="fkX5nz">Republicans and Democrats have been fighting over the surveillance of Page since February, when Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) released a memo with his accusations that the <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/2/1/16956290/nunes-memo-release-the-memo-fbi-russia">FBI wasn’t honest</a> with a FISA judge. Democrats responded with a memo that said that law enforcement officials <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2018/2/24/17048936/democrat-rebuttal-nunes-schiff-memo">had acted honestly</a>, and disputed most of the Republican claims about deception.</p>
<p id="Fw5zXq">At the heart of the fight is the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/1/5/16845704/steele-dossier-russia-trump">Steele dossier</a>, a report compiled by a former British intelligence operative that claimed Page had met with Russian officials during a July 2016 trip. The dossier said that Page was trying to help Russia meddle in the 2016 presidential election.</p>
<p id="X4AUB8">Reports <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/carter-page-coordinated-russia-trip-top-trump-campaign-officials-n818206">confirmed</a> that Page did travel to Russia and met with officials, although Page has <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/06/politics/carter-page-trump-good-morning-america/index.html">denied</a> working with Russians to undermine the election.</p>
<p id="7EnDpU">The Justice Department’s independent watchdog issued a cryptic <a href="https://oig.justice.gov/press/2018/2018-03-28b.pdf">press release</a> Wednesday afternoon, saying that it was opening an investigation into surveillance of an unnamed person. A Justice Department official confirmed to Vox that the person is Page.</p>
https://www.vox.com/world/2018/3/28/17174242/justice-department-carter-page-warrant-investigationZachary Fryer-Biggs2018-02-24T19:53:49-05:002018-02-24T19:53:49-05:00Read: Democrats’ response to the Nunes memo was just released
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<p>Here’s the full text of the Schiff memo, with some redactions.</p> <p id="ChJcdp">Earlier this month, Republicans released the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/2/2/16957588/nunes-memo-released-full-text-read-pdf-declassified">Nunes memo</a>, which <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/2/1/16956290/nunes-memo-release-the-memo-fbi-russia">alleged improprieties</a> in the Department of Justice and the FBI’s surveillance of former Trump adviser <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/2/2/16956014/nunes-memo-carter-page">Carter Page</a>. But Democrats on the committee led by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) said the memo was misleading, and put together their own memo in response.</p>
<p id="2L76d0">Now, after a <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/2/9/16991324/trump-schiff-memo-nunes-mcgahn">back-and-forth with the Trump administration</a>, Democrats finally got permission to release their own memo in response, with some redactions. You can read the memo below, <a href="http://docs.house.gov/meetings/ig/ig00/20180205/106838/hmtg-115-ig00-20180205-sd002.pdf">or at this link</a>.</p>
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https://www.vox.com/2018/2/24/17048764/schiff-memo-nunes-read-full-text-pdfAndrew Prokop2018-02-24T19:16:20-05:002018-02-24T19:16:20-05:00The Democratic rebuttal to the Nunes memo tears it apart
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<figcaption>Adam Schiff and Devin Nunes. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff brought receipts.</p> <p id="a56ITD">Late on Saturday afternoon, House Democrats surprised the country by releasing their <a href="http://docs.house.gov/meetings/ig/ig00/20180205/106838/hmtg-115-ig00-20180205-sd002.pdf">rebuttal</a> to the so-called <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2018/2/2/16965086/nunes-memo-dud-release">Nunes memo</a> — the document, prepared by Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), that has become a key part of the conservative argument that the FBI is biased against President Donald Trump. The Democrats’ rebuttal memo, written by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), argues that the Nunes memo is full of “distortions and misrepresentations” that don’t stand up to scrutiny based on the underlying classified evidence.</p>
<p id="Nw687H">Having now read both memos, I can say with confidence: Schiff makes his case. He quotes key FBI documents that explicitly contradict the Nunes memo’s core arguments. Any fair-minded observer who reads these two documents side by side can only conclude one thing: Nunes is either deeply misinformed or straight-up lying.</p>
<p id="YvrI1X">“This is a pretty thorough demolition,” <a href="https://twitter.com/normative/status/967522959664533504">Julian Sanchez</a>, an expert on surveillance at the libertarian Cato Institute, tweeted after reading Schiff’s memo.</p>
<h3 id="0d1P0g">The core of the Nunes-Schiff argument</h3>
<p id="O6Ly1F">The Nunes memo’s core allegation is that the FBI and Department of Justice misled at least one federal judge on a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court during the Trump-Russia investigation.</p>
<p id="q4fPfB">In October 2016, the FBI requested a FISA warrant to spy on former Trump campaign aide Carter Page. FBI and DOJ officials argued that Page had troubling connections to the Kremlin, and wanted to check him out as part of their overall investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia.</p>
<p id="cyThdi">An “essential part” of the application, <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2018/2/2/16965086/nunes-memo-dud-release">Nunes argues</a>, came from the so-called Steele dossier — the document containing major allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia that was put together by former British spy Christopher Steele (it’s also the source of the “pee tape” rumors). The problem, Nunes argues, is that Steele’s research was partially funded by Democrats — but the FBI purposely neglected to tell the court about that source of funding.</p>
<p id="fsQows">In essence, Nunes alleges that the FBI used opposition research put together by a Democratic political operative to go after the Trump campaign without disclosing that clear conflict of interest to the court. This was, according to Nunes, “a troubling breakdown of legal processes established to protect the American people from abuses related to the FISA process.”</p>
<h3 id="IgenJI">The Schiff memo argues that this isn’t true. And it has the receipts to prove it.</h3>
<p id="Lpjo8C">Schiff quotes a lengthy passage from the actual application the FBI sent to the FISA court asking for permission to snoop on Page. In the key line, the application explicitly notes that “the FBI speculates” that Steele had been hired to find “information that could be used to discredit Candidate #1’s [Trump’s] campaign.”</p>
<p id="RPd5M0">That’s it. That’s the ballgame. The FBI clearly states right there in the FISA application that they believe Steele was hired to find dirt on Trump. Since the core contention of the Nunes memo is that the FBI <em>didn’t do that</em>, Nunes’s entire argument falls apart.</p>
<p id="pPASC6">After the Schiff memo was released on Saturday, House Republicans <a href="https://intelligence.house.gov/uploadedfiles/democrat_memo_charge_and_response.pdf">released a document</a> rebutting its core claims. Their response to this damning citation is — and I am not making this up — that the vital line in which the FBI discloses the information about Steele was “buried in a footnote.”</p>
<p id="VXqfvy">“This is clearly an attempt to avoid informing the Court, in a straightforward manner that the DNC and Clinton campaign paid for the dossier,” the Republican rebuttal argues.</p>
<p id="rxp5N9">It’s true that it was in a footnote. But that’s about as far as it goes.</p>
<p id="sDF2zT">At this point, it’s unclear whether the FBI did in fact know who specifically was funding Steele’s work, or that it was the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign. But regardless, the FBI clearly told the judge that some of the information it was using to justify the FISA warrant request came from a partisan source. And the judge — who presumably read the footnotes — decided it was compelling enough to approve the application anyway. Case closed.</p>
<h3 id="uVMD1c">The Schiff memo tears apart Nunes’s argument in other ways too</h3>
<p id="SREjFb">There’s more in the Schiff memo that’s important than just that one devastating point.</p>
<p id="Iy5sh8">The conceptual problem with Nunes’s argument, as opposed to the factual one, is that it doesn’t really matter if Steele was biased. The FBI relies on sources with axes to grind all the time; people typically don’t go to the authorities with damaging information about people they like. </p>
<p id="Kh4KRe">The key question in an application like this isn’t whether the source liked the target; it’s whether the specific claims they’re making are credible. And the Schiff memo points out that the FBI had independent reasons to believe that Steele’s arguments were credible.</p>
<p id="ykbf5g">For one thing, Page had been on the bureau’s radar for some time — as he had been approached by Russian spies in the past as a potential intelligence asset. According to Schiff, the October FISA application laid out Page’s connections to the Kremlin “in detail.” For instance, while Page was working for Trump, in July 2016, he traveled to Moscow to give a commencement speech at a Russian university, which certainly would have raised some red flags at the bureau.</p>
<p id="8gJUDL">The Steele dossier, per Schiff, was used as <em>supporting</em> evidence to further establish that this trip was sketchy. Specifically, Steele’s sources said that Page met with two Russians close to Putin during his trip (which Page <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/11/7/16616912/carter-page-testimony-trump-russia">insists didn’t happen</a>).</p>
<p id="eJ65ar">But then something interesting happened. After the FISA warrant was approved, Schiff writes, “[the] DOJ provided additional information obtained through multiple independent sources that corroborated Steele’s reporting.” The precise nature of those sources is included in the Schiff memo, but it’s redacted in the public copy, to the point where it’s not even clear which specific Steele claims have been vindicated.</p>
<p id="czAnAi">Nonetheless, it’s incredibly important. It suggests that Steele’s information was <em>born</em><em>e</em><em> out by the FBI’s </em><em>own </em><em>work</em>. Citing him wasn’t some kind of intelligence malpractice, or anti-Trump bias, but rather the result of a source who has a track record of providing relevant, correct intelligence.</p>
<p id="7KzS4X">This is perhaps why the FISA warrant, which has to be renewed every 90 days by law, was renewed three subsequent times — all by judges appointed by Republican presidents.</p>
<p id="WAcz0f">So how did Nunes get this so wrong? A <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/devin-nunes-didnt-read-the-intel-behind-his-own-memo">February interview</a> he did with Fox News provides a bit of a clue. In it, host Bret Baier asks Nunes if he read the October 2016 FISA warrant that figures so prominently in his explosive memo.</p>
<p id="ikn35F">“No, I didn’t,” Nunes told Baier.</p>
https://www.vox.com/world/2018/2/24/17048936/democrat-rebuttal-nunes-schiff-memoZack Beauchamp2018-02-10T10:54:44-05:002018-02-10T10:54:44-05:00Trump defends decision to keep “political and long” Democratic memo under wraps
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<p>Trump declassified the Republican memo, but it seems he now has reservations about the Democratic rebuttal. </p> <p id="naEXPu">In a tweet on Saturday morning, President Donald Trump defended his <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/2/9/16991324/trump-schiff-memo-nunes-mcgahn">decision not to release</a> a potentially politically damaging Democratic memo. The “very political and long” document had to be redone and sent back “in proper form,” the president said. His decision — and defense — comes just a week after he <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/2/1/16956290/nunes-memo-release-the-memo-fbi-russia">approved the release</a> of a Republican memo on the same subject matter that the Democratic memo contradicts. Democrats <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/2/4/16971212/democrats-nunes-memo-schumer-trump-schiff">have been calling</a> on Trump to release their memo for days. </p>
<p id="LmSI9v">White House counsel Don McGahn on Friday wrote a <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2018/02/09/politics/democratic-memo-white-house-response/index.html?sr=twCNN020918democratic-memo-white-house-response0816PMVODtop">letter</a> to Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), the chair of the House Intelligence Committee and author of the Republican memo, that Trump is “inclined to declassify” the Democratic memo — but, he said, because the document contains “numerous properly classified and especially sensitive pages,” the president isn’t able to do so. McGahn said Trump would reconsider the decision <em>if </em>certain changes were made to “mitigate the risks identified” by the Department of Justice.</p>
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<p lang="en" dir="ltr">The Democrats sent a very political and long response memo which they knew, because of sources and methods (and more), would have to be heavily redacted, whereupon they would blame the White House for lack of transparency. Told them to re-do and send back in proper form!</p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/962330457886076928?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 10, 2018</a>
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<h3 id="Ro0FE2">So <em>now </em>Trump is worried about what the Department of Justice might think</h3>
<p id="PT533J">On Monday, the House Intelligence Committee <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/2/5/16974516/democrat-memo-schiff-nunes-trump-house-intelligence-vote">voted to release</a> the Democratic memo, which was written by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), its ranking member. The Schiff memo is a 10-page document that responds to the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/2/2/16957588/nunes-memo-released-full-text-read-pdf-declassified">Nunes memo</a>, which alleges that the FBI abused its powers when it opened its investigation into Russia’s meddling with the 2016 election.</p>
<p id="hjcorS">McGahn’s Friday letter says that Trump would be willing to review a new draft of the Schiff memo with the assistance of the Justice Department; the counsel said he’d identified portions of the memo that would “create especially significant concerns for the national security and law enforcement interests.” That’s odd because the FBI — which is administered by the DOJ — <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/1/31/16955674/fbi-statement-memo-nunes-trump-russia">vigorously objected</a> to the release of the Nunes memo over “material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo’s accuracy.” Trump had no problem releasing that document,<strong> </strong>which many consider highly partisan.</p>
<p id="GqIaj0">In a statement on Saturday, Schiff noted the incongruity. “The White House ignored [the DOJ and FBI’s] concerns and approved the publication of the Republican memo with no redactions even though the action was described by the agencies as extraordinarily reckless and omitting material facts,” the representative said. He added that Democrats would review the recommended redactions and confer with the agencies “to determine how we can properly inform the American people.”</p>
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<p lang="en" dir="ltr">After ignoring urging of FBI & DOJ not to release misleading Nunes memo because it omits material facts, <a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a> now expresses concerns over sharing precisely those facts with public and seeks to send it back to the same Majority that produced the flawed Nunes memo to begin with: <a href="https://t.co/qNVyS99eXs">pic.twitter.com/qNVyS99eXs</a></p>— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) <a href="https://twitter.com/RepAdamSchiff/status/962140601130110977?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 10, 2018</a>
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<p id="jXNGp8">House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi slammed Trump’s decision on Twitter. “The hypocrisy is on full display,” <a href="https://twitter.com/NancyPelosi/status/962137276154294273">she said</a>.</p>
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<p lang="en" dir="ltr">This move by <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDonaldTrump</a> confirms what we have all known for weeks — that his decision to release the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NunesMemo?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NunesMemo</a> was a blatantly political move made without concern for national security. The hypocrisy is on full display. What does the President have to hide?</p>— Nancy Pelosi (@NancyPelosi) <a href="https://twitter.com/NancyPelosi/status/962137276154294273?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 10, 2018</a>
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<p id="EAVwf7">Nunes, for his part, said it was <a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/house/373241-nunes-no-surprise-dem-memo-wasnt-released">“no surprise”</a> the Schiff memo wasn’t released, given its lack of redactions. He said Democrats should make the “appropriate technical changes and redactions” as recommended “so that no sources and methods are disclosed and their memo can be declassified as soon as possible.”</p>
<p id="NkaPDu">As Vox’s Alex Ward <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/2/9/16991324/trump-schiff-memo-nunes-mcgahn">pointed out</a>, the situation has always been awkward for the president: If he released the Schiff memo, the public might have seen how Nunes left information out of his memo in order to insinuate that the FBI is biased against Trump. The president may have felt keeping the memo secret was his best option.</p>
<p id="lh5q4c">Trump has clearly sided with Nunes over Schiff in releasing one memo and not the other. The House of Representatives, however, could still vote to release the Democratic memo despite his opposition. </p>
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/2/10/16998876/trump-democratic-schiff-memo-fbi-nunesEmily Stewart2018-02-09T20:35:51-05:002018-02-09T20:35:51-05:00Trump decides not to release the Schiff memo
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<p>Trump had no problem releasing the so-called Nunes memo. But he feels differently about the Schiff one, apparently.</p> <p id="MKUBlv">The White House just further escalated its war with federal law enforcement, including the FBI. But it’s not because of something President Trump did. It’s because of something that President Trump refused to do.</p>
<p id="qB0ocp">Trump <a href="https://twitter.com/PaulaReidCBS/status/962125223846924288">just decided</a> not to release a potentially damaging memo — written by congressional Democrats — that rebuts a previous Republican-authored document alleging anti-Trump bias in the FBI. Trump made the <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/2/1/16956290/nunes-memo-release-the-memo-fbi-russia">GOP document</a> public last week, but won’t do the same with the Democratic memo.</p>
<p id="bCXzxV">In a letter sent late Friday to Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), the chair of the House Intelligence Committee and the author of the GOP memo, White House counsel Don McGahn<strong> </strong><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2018/02/09/politics/democratic-memo-white-house-response/index.html?sr=twCNN020918democratic-memo-white-house-response0816PMVODtop">writes</a> that “although the President is inclined to declassify the February 5th Memorandum, because the Memorandum contains numerous properly classified and especially sensitive passages, he is unable to do so at this time.”</p>
<p id="KTWUXH">However, the letter adds that the president would be willing to review a new draft of the memo if they classify some portions. “Given the public interest in transparency and in these unprecedented circumstances, the President has directed that Justice Department personnel be available to give technical assistance to the Committee, should the Committee wish to revise the February 5th Memorandum to mitigate the risks identified by the Department.”</p>
<p id="ND1Un0">That’s curious. Trump had no problem allowing Congress to release the GOP’s memo without any redactions, even though the FBI said it had <a href="https://twitter.com/rebeccaballhaus/status/962132180775440384">“grave concerns”</a> about him doing so. By deciding not to release the Democrats’ version and sending it back to the House Intelligence Committee for a possible rewrite, Trump is essentially refusing to release the memo while making it seem like he’s open to the idea.</p>
<p id="Fs5lAJ">Still, Trump will have to withstand attacks from Democrats arguing he’s a hypocrite. But more than that, Trump will have to bat down charges he decided to keep the memo secret to hide the fact that the GOP document was widely derided as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/08/opinions/nunes-memo-house-intelligence-priorities-vinograd-zelizer-opinion/index.html">partisan spin</a>.</p>
<h3 id="keDWrC">The backstory on the dueling memos</h3>
<p id="5PqqIt">Last week, Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/29/us/politics/release-the-memo-vote-house-intelligence-republicans.html">voted</a> to release the so-called <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/2/2/16957588/nunes-memo-released-full-text-read-pdf-declassified">“Nunes memo.”</a> The four-page document, prepared by committee chair Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), focuses on surveillance of Carter Page, a Trump campaign foreign policy adviser with <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/how-a-classified-four-page-russia-memo-triggered-a-political-firestorm/2018/01/29/42f94628-0516-11e8-94e8-e8b8600ade23_story.html?utm_term=.2f690449d981">business ties to Russia</a> and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/how-a-classified-four-page-russia-memo-triggered-a-political-firestorm/2018/01/29/42f94628-0516-11e8-94e8-e8b8600ade23_story.html?utm_term=.2f690449d981">open sympathies</a> with the Kremlin’s foreign policy.</p>
<p id="prjAhk">Page went to Moscow in July 2016 while he was serving on the Trump campaign, a move that raised eyebrows among the FBI agents investigating the Trump team’s ties to Russia. So the FBI and Department of Justice put together an application to a <a href="http://www.fisc.uscourts.gov/">Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)</a> court — a court that approves surveillance warrants pertaining to national security and foreign intelligence — to start watching Page. The court <a href="http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/04/12/why-surveillance-of-carter-page-is-such-a-bombshell/">granted</a> the application in the fall of 2016, giving the FBI the green light.</p>
<p id="glrSX5">Nunes’s memo <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/2/1/16956290/nunes-memo-release-the-memo-fbi-russia">claims</a> that this surveillance was not properly vetted by the court; specifically, that it relied on <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/1/5/16845704/steele-dossier-russia-trump">the now-infamous Steele dossier</a>, the document prepared by former British spy Christopher Steele alleging widespread collusion between<strong> </strong>Trump and the Russian government. The dossier, partially and indirectly funded by the Clinton campaign, is the report claiming, among other things, the existence of the so-called “pee tape.”</p>
<p id="M6BRk2">House Republicans and conservative media cast the Nunes memo as proof of Trump’s <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/10/politics/donald-trump-witch-hunt-justice-department/index.html">long-running allegations</a> of FBI bias against him. But Democrats <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/rep-nuness-memo-crosses-a-dangerous-line/2018/01/31/cbdabedc-0696-11e8-b48c-b07fea957bd5_story.html?utm_term=.0b7582d058f3">said</a> it’s a deeply misleading document, twisting and cherry-picking classified intelligence to support the president. </p>
<p id="9djOQV">Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the top Democrat on the intelligence committee, compiled his objections into his <em>own</em> memo — a 10-page document that is reportedly a detailed rebuttal to his colleague’s claims. Schiff’s paper also, according to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/30/politics/democrats-rebuttal-nunes-memo-criticism/index.html">CNN</a>, attacks his Republican colleague’s motivations — arguing that Nunes’s memo is a political sham, designed to aid Trump’s attack on the FBI.</p>
<p id="lu16Af">In somewhat of a surprise move, Nunes’s committee unanimously <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/2/5/16974516/democrat-memo-schiff-nunes-trump-house-intelligence-vote">voted</a> on Monday to release Schiff’s memo — putting pressure on Trump to make it public within five days. Now we know Trump won’t do that. </p>
<p id="TwGV3h">The situation was always awkward for the president. If he released the Schiff memo, the public might have seen how Nunes left out information to insinuate the FBI is biased against Trump. He may have felt keeping the memo secret — and withstanding Democratic barrages — was his best option.</p>
<p id="yrQZhI">Trump’s decision fits into a systematic effort by conservatives to harm special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe, which, among other things, looks into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. By not releasing Schiff’s account, the public can only verify Nunes’s story (which, as Vox’s Zack Beauchamp <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2018/2/2/16965086/nunes-memo-dud-release">pointed</a> out, didn’t add up).</p>
<h3 id="A6haqE">Read McGahn’s letter here:</h3>
<div id="B9Dodg"><div class="DC-embed DC-embed-document DV-container"> <div style="position:relative;padding-bottom:129.42857142857142%;height:0;overflow:hidden;max-width:100%;"> <iframe src="//www.documentcloud.org/documents/4375780-Letters-From-White-House-Counsel-and-DOJ.html?embed=true&responsive=false&sidebar=false" title="Letters From White House Counsel and DOJ (Hosted by DocumentCloud)" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-forms" frameborder="0" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:1px solid #aaa;border-bottom:0;box-sizing:border-box;"></iframe> </div> </div></div>
https://www.vox.com/2018/2/9/16991324/trump-schiff-memo-nunes-mcgahnAlex Ward2018-02-06T12:20:02-05:002018-02-06T12:20:02-05:00Most Republicans believe the FBI is “working to delegitimize Trump”
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<figcaption>Trump supporters at a manufacturing plant in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania. | Jeff Swensen/Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>New data makes it official: Republicans are the anti-FBI party.</p> <p id="3wgdhs">One of the most important questions in the <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/1/24/16919910/releasethememo-explained-trump-russia">Trump administration’s war on the FBI</a> and the <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/2/1/16956290/nunes-memo-release-the-memo-fbi-russia">recent Nunes memo controversy</a> is how Republican voters would respond to all of it. New data is shedding light on the answer to this question — and it’s not very promising.</p>
<p id="n79dY0">According to a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-poll/most-republicans-believe-fbi-justice-dept-trying-to-delegitimize-trump-reuters-ipsos-poll-idUSKBN1FP2UH">Reuters/IPSOS</a> poll released on Monday evening, a huge majority of Republicans — 73 percent — believed that “members of the FBI and Department of Justice are working to delegitimize Trump through politically motivated investigations.”</p>
<p id="mfvaG8">There’s no evidence so far of such a massive, sweeping conspiracy theory — not in the Nunes memo, not in <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2018/1/23/16923126/missing-fbi-texts-strzok-page">text messages between FBI employees</a> released to the public, not anywhere. But it’s a theme that’s been repeated again and again by the president, conservatives, and Fox News — and apparently, most Republicans have gotten the memo.</p>
<p id="6M1Ii6">The Reuters poll isn’t a one-off. <a href="https://www.vox.com/latest-news/2018/2/3/16968372/trump-fbi-republican-poll-confidence">A SurveyMonkey poll</a> released over the weekend found that only 38 percent of Republicans have a “favorable” view of the FBI, while a plurality, 47 percent, have an unfavorable view. </p>
<p id="LCPQ6w">This is a striking decline in GOP views of the bureau: <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-poll/most-republicans-believe-fbi-justice-dept-trying-to-delegitimize-trump-reuters-ipsos-poll-idUSKBN1FP2UH">In 2015</a>, per Reuters, a huge majority of Republicans — 84 percent — reported favorable views of the FBI. A <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/republican-confidence-in-the-fbi-has-dropped-since-2015_us_5a721bbbe4b09a544b5616a7">Huffington Post poll</a> released last week also found a large decline in Republican views of the FBI from 2015 to today.</p>
<p id="MPW0ue">This is discouraging, because it indicates that many Republican voters are willing to believe whatever Trump and House Republicans are saying, regardless of its connection to actual facts. And that says something very troubling about the health of American democracy.</p>
<h3 id="bBESzt">How partisanship threatens democracy</h3>
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<img alt="Trump" data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Cr7nGEQGmUCFSVOPTuD6CACc39E=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/6111593/GettyImages-501657342.jpg">
<cite>Ralph Freso/Getty Images</cite>
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<p id="u00BnF">In their new book <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com/?id=66960X1516588&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fdp%2FB071L5C5HG%2Fref%3Ddp-kindle-redirect%3F_encoding%3DUTF8%26btkr%3D1"><em>How Democracies Die</em></a>, Harvard political scientists <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/2/2/16929764/how-democracies-die-trump-book-levitsky-ziblatt">Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt</a> analyze the strategies used by leaders who have taken over a democracy and turned it into an authoritarian state. They found three common tactics: seizing control of courts and security services, marginalizing prominent individuals in the opposition and civil society, and changing election rules to rig the game against their political opponents.</p>
<p id="YQDELc">“Trump,” they write, “attempted <em>all three </em>of these strategies.”</p>
<p id="V3mti3">Would-be authoritarian leaders often undermine democracy by mounting attacks on state institutions that are supposed to be neutral, like federal law enforcement and the courts. They attempt to turn them into a tool of the executive, rather than a check on their power. </p>
<p id="VT0cIW">No individual change like this, Ziblatt and Levitsky explain, destroys democracy. Instead, they quietly erode democratic norms until elections are no longer truly competitive — a process that’s often invisible to the public. </p>
<p id="tufpUC">One of the best checks on this degradation, <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2018/1/30/16924454/state-of-the-union-trump-democracy">experts say,</a> is public resistance. If there are large demonstrations<strong> </strong>or other forms of major public outcry when a leader takes undemocratic actions, then the would-be authoritarian can’t get away with their attempts to consolidate power. </p>
<p id="lXnl53">We have indeed seen mass protest in the US. But the protesters are mostly Democrats — and the way the president and conservative media have twisted mainstream Republican opinion in the FBI saga is troubling. It shows that partisan identity in the United States can blind voters to creeping authoritarianism in their own party. It also shows that when confronted with a clear attempt to corral the FBI and undermine special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of the president, many Republicans will side with their president. </p>
<p id="nSz1Qd">At a certain level, this isn’t surprising. Political scientists have found that partisanship plays a profound role in shaping the way that people understand facts about the world.</p>
<p id="M5FD1R">“Misinformation is much more likely to stick when it conforms with people’s preexisting beliefs, especially those connected to social groups that they’re a part of,” Temple University professor Kevin Arceneaux told me <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2017/5/19/15561842/trump-russia-louise-mensch">last year</a>. “In politics, that plays out (usually) through partisanship: Republicans are much more likely to believe false information that confirms their worldview.”</p>
<p id="Syv6k1">This effect is especially troubling when dealing with a leader like Trump, who has authoritarian instincts. It makes his supporters blind to his excesses, to the threat he poses to basic American institutions, and likely to see moves that threaten the foundations of American democracy — like, say, firing FBI Director James Comey for pursuing the Russia investigation and being insufficiently <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/i-expect-loyalty-trump-told-comey-according-to-written-testimony/2017/06/07/46413298-4bab-11e7-a186-60c031eab644_story.html">“loyal”</a><strong> </strong>— as justified.</p>
<p id="6x9iUj">This is part of why Levitsky and Ziblatt ultimately conclude that partisanship and political polarization, and not Trump specifically, poses the greatest long-term threat to American democracy. Trump, so far, hasn’t succeeded in most of his attempts to undermine neutral institutions.</p>
<p id="tzN5cY">But strong partisan identities can blind people to the importance of political tolerance. They can make them inclined to see anything and anyone who poses a threat to their party — most notably the opposition — as an enemy that must be crushed. Today, it’s the FBI; tomorrow, it could be the Supreme Court, or the Democratic Party.</p>
<p id="sUudFt">“When partisan rivals become enemies, political competition descends into warfare, and our institutions turn into weapons,” Levitsky and Ziblatt write. “The result is a system hovering constantly on the brink of crisis.”</p>
<p id="hqhg2t"></p>
https://www.vox.com/world/2018/2/6/16978558/nunes-memo-republicans-fbi-trump-pollZack Beauchamp2018-02-06T08:20:01-05:002018-02-06T08:20:01-05:00#ReleaseTheMemo succeeded. Here’s how the mainstream media helped.
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<p>The Nunes memo was insulting to journalism.</p> <p id="PGmqYu">#ReleaseTheMemo <a href="https://twitter.com/jayrosen_nyu/status/960533786189619200">won</a>.</p>
<p id="NoRzhC">Sean Hannity, <a href="https://www.vox.com/2017/11/15/16649292/hannity-conspiracy-theorist-transcript-data">king of conspiracy theories</a>, <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/02/04/cnns_brian_stelter_on_nunes_memo_hannity_won_america_lost.html">won</a>.</p>
<p id="Z7TF3R">Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), the Congress member who orchestrated this drama, won.</p>
<p id="Pvlvr2">They successfully made the entire news cycle revolve around <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/2/1/16955472/nunes-memo-release-diagram">a memo</a> that alleges the FBI is out to take down President Trump, while hinting that the bureau had a mutually beneficial relationship with Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee. They successfully distracted us from news that Trump <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/25/us/politics/trump-mueller-special-counsel-russia.html">tried to fire FBI special counsel Robert Mueller</a>, who is investigating his ties to Russia.</p>
<p id="sNpkYl">The temptation will be to say Fox News did this. After all, they peddled this conspiracy theory, the president bought into it, and that’s how it commanded our attention for a week. But we have to confront how it was also the lead story on virtually every news website and every news broadcast. The mainstream media played its part in allowing this story to fester, grow, and dominate.</p>
<p id="3Wx0au">We can see this in the <a href="https://blog.archive.org/2017/09/21/tv-news-chyron-data/">chyron</a> data of the top three cable news networks — CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC. When we compared how often they read “Nunes memo” or “fire Mueller” in the past week, it wasn’t even close:</p>
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<p id="VO1Cm2">This isn’t the first time mainstream media has been party to the proliferation of a conspiracy theory. We’ve been here before: the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2017/11/17/16658080/uranium-one-clinton-russia-chart">Uranium One</a> conspiracy; the allegation that Clinton colluded with Russia; the theory that the DNC killed a staffer who was supposedly the source of the email leak; the stories about the <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2017/2/22/14598834/trump-deep-state">“deep state”</a> trying to undermine Trump; and even <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/12/5/13842258/pizzagate-comet-ping-pong-fake-news">Pizzagate</a>.</p>
<p id="3o2v7c">Those stories won too.</p>
<p id="FqVmcK">We know the playbook of these right-wing propagandists: They inject these conspiracy theories into America’s nervous system, understanding that the stories, or even just portions of them, will draw attention from media, even if it’s to debunk them. But for the public, that very reaction ends up muddying what is actually going on in Washington. The whole process ends up sowing distrust in media. That’s how the conspiracy theorists win.</p>
<h3 id="QdRwwZ">It’s easy to see the right-wing conspiracy formula on Fox News</h3>
<p id="o2UywW">Right-wing leaders and conservative media have used this formula time and again when they need to distract the president’s base from the unflattering news coming out of Washington. A few months ago, when I <a href="https://www.vox.com/2017/11/15/16649292/hannity-conspiracy-theorist-transcript-data">analyzed Hannity’s show</a>, it was apparent that he ramped up his conspiracy theory rhetoric when the prevailing storylines about Trump threatened his presidency:</p>
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<p id="xDSUL7">I also looked at how Fox News <a href="https://www.vox.com/2017/10/31/16571350/fox-news-mueller-credibility">ramped up coverage</a> of Clinton conspiracies when Mueller started to indict high-level Trump campaign officials:</p>
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<p id="Pjquv0">FoxNews.com and Breitbart.com also <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/5/18/15646098/right-wing-media-collective-memories">ramped up conspiracy theory coverage</a> shortly after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, which <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/5/11/15615456/trump-superpowered-russia-story">superpowered the Russia story</a>. </p>
<p id="ccCQad">And we know the right will use the formula again, because there are dozens of conspiracy theory saplings, growing away on the internet and in the heads of the movement’s leaders. In fact, the roots of the Nunes memo go back <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/aug/07/donald-trump-russia-dossier-christopher-steele-devin-nunes">six months</a> or maybe even <a href="https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/nunes-judgment-call-brief-trump-incidental-collection">a year</a>, even though it was only last month that it was picked off the vine and injected into news cycles.</p>
<h3 id="6QwfMQ">But other media outlets can’t help but get in on the right-wing conspiracies</h3>
<p id="5P494v">Yes, Fox News, the White House, and some congressional Republicans are creating an alternate reality of Washington and the Trump administration.</p>
<p id="nnYmDX">But as the rest of the media tries to make sense of the spectacle, these conspiracy theories end up completely dominating news cycles. Making these storylines mainstream doesn’t work unless CNN, MSNBC, the nightly shows, the morning shows, and even <em>Saturday Night Live</em> engage seriously with the topic. And they do, time and again.</p>
<p id="vWukIU">A few months ago, I <a href="https://www.vox.com/2017/11/15/16649292/hannity-conspiracy-theorist-transcript-data">wrote a data-driven piece about Hannity</a>, saying he serves as a megaphone for these conspiracy theories. But it’s hard to ignore the amount of conspiracy talk on other shows — <em>MSNBC Live</em>, CNN’s <em>New Day</em>, <em>Anderson Cooper 360</em>, <em>Morning Joe</em>. A huge portion of their coverage was based around conspiracy theories as well:</p>
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<p id="Q612Ry">To be sure, those shows didn’t push conspiracies. But they gave massive amounts of attention to them. And that’s all the conspiracy needs: immense attention that muddies the issue and confuses the public.</p>
<p id="7ghMC2">The justification for the mainstream coverage is that these conspiracy theories are real threats because a seemingly large and prominent contingent of people believe them — our president, Congress members, and television hosts with massive followings.</p>
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<p lang="en" dir="ltr">This memo totally vindicates “Trump” in probe. But the Russian Witch Hunt goes on and on. Their was no Collusion and there was no Obstruction (the word now used because, after one year of looking endlessly and finding NOTHING, collusion is dead). This is an American disgrace!</p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/959798743842349056?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 3, 2018</a>
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<p lang="und" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ReleaseTheMemo?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ReleaseTheMemo</a> ! <a href="https://t.co/8SpV9CkI3i">https://t.co/8SpV9CkI3i</a></p>— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) <a href="https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/958784728861114368?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 31, 2018</a>
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<p id="wRqiTU">Sometimes they see something trending on Twitter or Facebook and use that as an indication that a conspiracy theory has become<strong> </strong>mainstream, which means it needs to be covered and debunked. After all, if there is a massive disinformation campaign that confuses Americans, it is the media’s responsibility to react with accurate, clarifying information. This is despite <a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/02/04/trump-twitter-russians-release-the-memo-216935">report</a> after <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/pizzagate-anatomy-of-a-fake-news-scandal-w511904">report</a> showing that these social media numbers can be manipulated — that users can be bought and bots can be made to give a false sense of how big a story really is.</p>
<p id="wK22pc">To the media, that’s the conundrum: To not cover a conspiracy at all, and not separate fact from lie, is a dereliction of our duty. But to cover the conspiracy, even critically, is to give it life.</p>
<h3 id="9FnEI6">The Nunes memo is insulting to journalism</h3>
<p id="LzXCFz">I understand the fear that not covering these stories actually plays into the narrative of right-wing conspiracy theorists, who have convinced a massive audience that the mainstream media can’t be trusted. The fear is especially real in a time of <a href="https://kf-site-production.s3.amazonaws.com/publications/pdfs/000/000/242/original/KnightFoundation_AmericansViews_Client_Report_010917_Final_Updated.pdf">failing trust in media</a>.</p>
<p id="3ryjTE">But if we take a step back, one thing becomes clear: Coverage of the Nunes memo, especially in the past week, was a journalistic failure.</p>
<p id="tXHu1H">A Congress member, with the help of right-wing media and organized technological efforts, created a pseudo-event with the promise of new information at the end of it. The president pushed this misinformation effort. The campaign took valuable resources away from the coverage of <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/2/5/16966726/trump-show">actual crises, actual suffering, actual problems</a>. Eventually, we learned we’d been led down this road for nothing — and when we pointed out it was nothing, the Congress member and president doubled down and tried to convince us it was the treasure they’d been describing all along.</p>
<p id="eFTo1D">It would be one thing if this were the first time, but it’s not. Time and again, mainstream media is enamored of the spectacle, to the point that much of the news is observing it and trying to make sense of it. There is a real conundrum in how much to cover these conspiracy theories, and how to do it. But eventually, we will get real, hugely consequential information — and the true indicator of whether the conspiratorial right has won will be whether the media can get the public to listen to that signal amid all the noise.</p>
https://www.vox.com/2018/2/6/16973878/nunes-memo-mainstream-mediaAlvin Chang2018-02-02T20:43:21-05:002018-02-02T20:43:21-05:00The campaign to oust Mueller’s boss is heating up
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<img alt="Department Of Justice Holds Summit On Combatting Human Trafficking" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/8o3XZtquTlyn9WlO3nfynydt30A=/0x0:2330x1748/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/58556489/913441036.jpg.0.jpg" />
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<p>A new ad from a conservative group calls on the deputy attorney general “to do his job or resign.”</p> <p id="dyHEWF">The Nunes memo <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/2/2/16957588/nunes-memo-released-full-text-read-pdf-declassified">has been released</a> — and the conservative drumbeat demanding the firing of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is getting louder. </p>
<p id="ULig0J">The <a href="https://www.teapartypatriots.org/">Tea Party Patriots</a>, a conservative activist group, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9G9I1p_Ptw4">put out an ad Friday</a> that bluntly states: “It’s time for Rod Rosenstein to do his job or resign.”</p>
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<p lang="en" dir="ltr">It’s time for DAG Rod Rosenstein to do his job or resign! Watch the new ad from Tea Party Patriots Action <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TeaParty?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TeaParty</a> <a href="https://t.co/KhwKCkm6hJ">pic.twitter.com/KhwKCkm6hJ</a></p>— Tea Party Patriots (@TPPatriots) <a href="https://twitter.com/TPPatriots/status/959539940098035713?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 2, 2018</a>
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<p id="yne072">The ad claims that Rosenstein’s “incompetence and abuse of power” have “undermined congressional investigations” and tarnished the reputation of the Justice Department. </p>
<p id="3ufPan">It also calls him “a weak careerist at the Justice Department, protecting liberal Obama holdovers and the deep state, instead of following the rule of law.” (Trump <a href="http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/blog/bal-trump-to-nominate-rod-rosenstein-deputy-attorney-general-20170131-story.html">appointed</a> Rosenstein to his position in the Justice Department; he had previously served as the longtime US attorney in Maryland. He was appointed to that position by George W. Bush, in 2005.)</p>
<p id="b9Z4Dz">The clamor for Rosenstein’s dismissal among Trump allies <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2018/1/30/16950782/numes-memo-release">was all but expected</a> with Friday’s release of the Nunes memo, whose advocates say reveals anti-Trump bias and abuse of power at the highest levels of the FBI and the Justice Department. Many observers believed Trump might <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/2/1/16956290/nunes-memo-release-the-memo-fbi-russia">use the declassified memo</a> as justification to fire his deputy attorney general — who also happens to be Mueller’s boss.</p>
<p id="ovPGmt">Rosenstein has overseen the Trump-Russia investigation since Attorney General Jeff Sessions <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/02/us/politics/jeff-sessions-russia-trump-investigation-democrats.html">recused himself</a> in March; he appointed special counsel Robert Mueller to lead the investigation. Trump has made no secret his disdain for the “Russia hoax,” and he has <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/1/31/16956972/rod-rosenstein-trump-team-russia">reportedly questioned Rosenstein’s</a> loyalty to him.</p>
<p id="mGQBEN">Trump can’t fire Mueller without Rosenstein’s go-ahead. But Trump can fire Rosenstein. The theory goes that Trump could then install a crony in Rosenstein’s place, who could fire Mueller or quash in the Trump-Russia investigation.</p>
<p id="UaYk4C">Back to the memo: It says that Rosenstein <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/2/2/16957588/nunes-memo-released-full-text-read-pdf-declassified">signed off on</a> at least one FISA application to surveil Carter Page, a former Trump campaign adviser. The memo suggests this was inappropriate because FBI and Justice Department officials relied on the controversial <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/1/5/16845704/steele-dossier-russia-trump">Steele dossier</a> to obtain this warrant. The dossier alleges ties between Trump and Russia; it was compiled by a former British spy and partly funded by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee. </p>
<p id="L2eDUa">The memo insinuates (<a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/2/2/16965146/nunes-memo-dud-analysis">with little hard evidence</a>) that the FBI and Justice Department knew of the “political origins” of the dossier. (It’s been noted, but worth saying again, that Democrats <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/2/2/16965270/democrats-nunes-memo-effort-to-suppress-the-full-truth">disagree</a> with Nunes’s “misleading” narrative, and the FBI and DOJ <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/1/31/16955674/fbi-statement-memo-nunes-trump-russia">strongly objected</a> to its release.) The implication, nevertheless, is that the Trump-Russia investigation, now led by special counsel Robert Mueller, was tainted with political bias from the start. </p>
<p id="bJ78pQ">The Nunes memo <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/2/2/16965146/nunes-memo-dud-analysis">proved to be sketchy</a> and <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2018/2/2/16965086/nunes-memo-dud-release">underwhelming</a> as far as supposed bombshell revelations go. Yet a coordinated effort to oust Rosenstein is a chilling potential consequence because of what it might mean not just for the Trump-Russia investigation, but for the independence of the Justice Department.</p>
<p id="56WLnj">The Tea Party Patriot ad hints that Trump allies are getting fired up about Rosenstein’s fate. <a href="https://www.axios.com/conservative-group-ad-rod-rosenstein-resign-3cd8aec1-af54-49fa-906e-d30cbf19fd0d.html">Axios reports</a> that though the initial reach of the ad is small for now — “a six-figure spend on digital and TV in Washington D.C.” — it is being passed around conservative circles. Indeed, a conservative movement leader <a href="https://www.axios.com/conservative-group-ad-rod-rosenstein-resign-3cd8aec1-af54-49fa-906e-d30cbf19fd0d.html">told Axios’s Jonathan Swan</a> that Rosenstein is “becoming a conversation at every conservative gathering.”</p>
<p id="jCYliD">Trump, when asked Friday if he was thinking about firing Rosenstein, cryptically told reporters: “You figure that one out.”</p>
https://www.vox.com/2018/2/2/16966208/nunes-memo-rod-rosenstein-tea-party-patriots-adJen Kirby