A highly contested House Intelligence Committee memo was released on Friday after President Donald Trump gave his approval. The Nunes memo alleges that the FBI abused its surveillance authority in order to target members of the Trump campaign in its investigation into Russian meddling during the 2016 presidential election.

The memo, drafted by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), alleges that the infamous Steele Dossier that investigators say helped officials obtain surveillance warrants on key members of the Trump campaign was inappropriately used to targeted the President.

Full Text Of Devin Nunes Memo

The memo states that the FBI knowingly used the dossier assembled by Christopher Steele to obtain warrants on Trump campaign members, such as Carter Page, without disclosing to the FISA court that the dossier was partially funded by Democratic sources.

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The memo attempts to highlight Steele’s anti-Trump biased as motivations for assembling the dossier that were not previously disclosed by FBI officials to the court when they were obtaining the warrants.

“It’s clear that top officials used unverified information in a court document to fuel a counter-intelligence investigation during an American political campaign,” said Nunes in a statement earlier this week.

This comes amid efforts by the FBI and Department of Justice to withhold the memo from being released due to inaccuracies. In a rare statement on Wednesday, the FBI warned potential readers of the Nunes memo that it omits key information.

The warrants for continued surveillance on Trump campaign officials were renewed three times, according to the memo, following its initial filing. There was enough evidence already gathered to justify three-additional filings by investigators – contradicting the narrative being echoed by Republicans and Trump alike that the investigation into collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia was fueled by partisan bias.

 

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Eric Silverman

Article by Eric Silverman