If the Democrat memo reveals that Comey lied during the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, and the FISA court was never told who paid for the phony Steele dossier that was used to spy on Trump campaign, why is this being called a “nothingburger” by the left?
President Trump on Saturday dismissed a Democratic rebuttal to the GOP memo outlining government surveillance abuses in the 2016 campaign as a “total political and legal bust,” claiming that it only confirms the ”terrible things” that were done by the nation’s intelligence agencies.
The rebuttal, written by Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee, concluded that officials at the FBI and Justice Department “did not abuse the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) process, omit material information, or subvert this vital tool to spy on the Trump campaign.”
Democrats sought to counter claims made in a Republican memo released this month that the FBI and DOJ relied on a Democrat-funded anti-Trump dossier to ask the FISA court for a warrant to monitor Trump adviser Carter Page.
Democrats have vehemently claimed that the Republican memo left out important information.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/967538684789739520
But Trump was unimpressed by the 10-page memo that resulted.
Ranking Democrat Adam Schiff, D-Calif., countered by saying it confirmed that intelligence officials acted appropriately.
Wrong again, Mr. President. It confirms the FBI acted appropriately and that Russian agents approached two of your advisors, and informed your campaign that Russia was prepared to help you by disseminating stolen Clinton emails. https://t.co/G128SNicdn
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) February 24, 2018
Watch Catherine Herridge break down the Dems rebuttal to the GOP FISA memo:
Catherine Herridge: "This does appear to be in direct conflict to what then-@FBI Director James @Comey testified to before the Senate Intelligence Committee." https://t.co/1epxkUIGHV pic.twitter.com/LQmIeSFsAs
— Fox News (@FoxNews) February 24, 2018
Republicans had found that the DOJ and FBI left out Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton campaign funding of the dossier, as well as the anti-Trump motivations of the author and former British spy Christopher Steele, in its request for a warrant. Indeed, Republicans have pointed to this as proof that intelligence agencies abused surveillance powers.
The Democratic rebuttal, though it did not directly challenge some of the key findings of the earlier one from Republicans, backed the FBI and DOJ in their pursuit of that FISA warrant to surveil Page.
“In fact, DOJ and the FBI would have been remiss in their duty to protect the country had they not sought a FISA warrant and repeated renewals to conduct temporary surveillance of Carter Page, someone the FBI assessed to be an agent of the Russian government,” the rebuttal said, adding that the DOJ met the “rigor, transparency, and evidentiary basis” needed to meet FISA’s probable-cause requirement. – FOX News