Memo Would Potentially Backfire On Trump Administration Itself — Devin Nunes Leaves Key Fact In Memo

U.S. President Donald Trump has allowed a memo, which supposedly proves bias within the FBI against the president, to be released to the public. Months before, the Republican Party including Donald Trump Jr. were ecstatic about the memo. They believe this is the key document to put FBI’s Robert Mueller to rest.

Mueller has continued the investigation on the Trump-Russia collusion after James Comey was fired. Since then, a couple of key personnel from the Trump campaign in 2016 have already been questioned. Because the investigation is highly classified, there is very little information on Mueller’s progress, but some believe that he is getting close.

With this, the GOP’s move is the Nunes memo — named after the Republican representative who pushed for its release — but the million dollar question is, will this work?

According to the New Yorker, it may actually give the opposite effect. The GOP wanted to prove that the FBI’s investigation on the Trump-Russia collusion was biased and that it only began with the infamous “Steele dossier,” a compiled document created by British spy Christopher Steele claiming that the Russian government has been eyeing Donald Trump for years to manipulate the U.S. government in the future. The dossier also stated that the Russian government has a “kompromat” on Trump because they hold a highly scandalous sex tape.

GOP’s response was that it was Clinton who fabricated these claims and forced Steele to come up with this “fallacious” dossier. The right wing’s conspiracy theory on Clinton and the dossier goes as far as Clinton’s influence on the legal system that eventually moved the investigation to the Justice Department.

This is where Comey and the FBI comes in. For the GOP and their Nunes memo, this was all a plot to place Trump, his administration, and his family in jeopardy when, for them, there was really no collusion in the first place.

However, Representative Devin Nunes, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, may not be aware that his memo contradicts all of the right wing’s claims.

The memo, now available to the public, has one main claim and that is the FBI’s instigation on the collusion is solely based on the supposedly fabricated Steele dossier. Apparently, the memo left out one key fact that would disprove the entire memo the GOP has been depending on. According to VICE, the memo claims that the FBI started a surveillance on former Trump foreign policy adviser Carter Page in 2016 after the dossier was released. However, the FBI actually started surveillance on Page back in 2014, even before Trump campaigned for office.

According to CNN, the surveillance warrant was prompted after the FBI tracked a Russian spy communicating with another Russian spy and saying that Page is looking to work with them. From Page, the FBI has now expanded its efforts to unravel the depths of a potential Russian collusion now that Trump has successfully claimed the highest office in the United States of America.

These facts cut down the four-page memo to pieces.

“But, even after reading only the Republicans’ memo, we can say two things. First, the F.B.I. and the Justice Department didn’t base their application to monitor Page entirely on Steele’s work. And, second, and more important, the Trump-Russia investigation didn’t begin with the Steele dossier. “

So, even if the memo is out for the public, for the GOP, it’s more on creating traction on the overwhelming support they receive, and building a united front against the opposition, than whether or not the memo can actually shut the FBI down.