The Nunes memo and the Steele dossier

Here are some excerpts from points made at Bookworm Room about the Nunes memo.

One, several of the top people at the FBI and the DOJ, using both lies of omission and commission, falsified applications for FISA warrants to use on Carter Page, a member of Trump’s campaign team.

Two, a person can infer from the memo that those warrants did not result in any useful information.

…Three, the fact that the Steele Dossier, rather than independently developed or corroborated facts, was the basis for a finding of probable cause to get a FISA warrant calls throws into stark relief the question of whether Rod Rosenstein acted lawfully when he appointed Robert Mueller to conduct an intelligence, not a criminal investigation.

…Four…The memo’s central point is that various people in the FBI and DOJ leadership knowingly applied for and received four FISA warrants under false pretenses. …Further, FBI and DOJ officials knew, but did not include in the request for the warrant, that the Steele Dossier on which they relied was opposition research for which the DNC paid. Nor did the FBI and DOJ officials include in the warrant that Steele had stated that he was “desperate that Donald Trump not get elected and was passionate about him not being President.”

…Another point made in the House Memo, it seems to me, is the most critical. A separate FBI unit had attempted to validate the information in the Steele Dossier. The unit declared it “minimally validated.” As I read that, it means that there were some innocuous facts that could be validated; e.g., that Carter Page in fact took a trip to Russia and while there, spoke at the Higher Economics School.

She goes on to take a look at the dossier allegations here.