What’s the fuss? Devin Nunes is the Republican chair of the House Intelligence Committee investigating possible Russian meddling in the 2016 election. His (Republican) staff prepared the memo, a document that accuses the FBI of partisan “misconduct” and “abuse of power” in its Russian investigation especially in getting a secret surveillance warrant from the FISA (Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act) court.
This will be a series of three posts. This first post considers the action before the actual publication of the memo. It’s a complicated story:
In May of 2017, President Trump fired FBI Director James Comey for his alleged partisanship in the FBI’s Russia investigation. In part to counter the accusations of partisanship, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein immediately appointed Robert Mueller as special counsel to investigate. Mueller is a former FBI Director, appointed by Republican George W Bush and (was) deeply respected by both political parties.
In the course of his investigation, Mueller obtained from the secret court established under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) an order to surveil Carter Page, a former advisor to Trump. Republicans attacking the Mueller probe have claimed that the evidence submitted to the court was based on information provided by a Hillary Clinton supporter, Christopher Steele. Because the information was partisan, maintained the Republicans, the Mueller probe is guilty of misconduct and should be disbanded. One House member even said that the “FBI malfeasance showed ‘clear and convincing evidence of treason.’"
In mid-December 2017, Politico published a story that Nunes and Republican members of the House Intelligence Committee were secretly working on what would be called the “Nunes memo” that would, they claimed, reveal malfeasance by the Mueller probe. The memo would be based, however, on classified information. Democrats had no role in preparing the memo. The memo was not actually made public until February 2. During that time Republicans, however, leaked some information about the contents of the memo and claimed that the memo itself would be a “bombshell” and destroy the legitimacy of the Mueller probe. During those six weeks, however, Nunes:
- refused to publish the memo to back up his claims,
- refused to allow Democrats—even Democratic members of the Intelligence committee—to see the memo until weeks after news of it became public,
- refused to allow the Democrat members of the committee to use the same classified information to rebut the memo, and
- talked publicly and repeatedly about the information that would be in the memo, how earthshaking it would be, and how it would destroy the credibility of the Mueller investigation
Before publication of the memo, it was reviewed by the FBI, whose ability to respond publicly was hampered by its inability to use the classified information in rebuttal. The FBI rarely makes public statements but this time responded with unprecedented bluntness:
“[W]e have grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo’s accuracy.”
Both FBI Director Christopher Wray and Assistant Attorney General Rod Rosenstein argued strongly against the release of the memo. The Justice Department called it a “reckless act,” placing itself at odds not only with Nunes and the Republican majority in the committee but also with President Trump who wanted the memo released.
By the time the memo was finally released on February 2, the six-weeks of speculation, charges and counter-charges had had a profound public impact. Conservatives, including especially Fox News, used the unsubstantiated claims to hammer the FBI as a partisan tool of the “deep state.” Fox News host Jesse Watters told viewers that
the scary part is we may now have proof the investigation was weaponized to destroy [Trump’s] presidency for partisan political purposes and to disenfranchise millions of American voters. … Now, if that’s true, we have a coup on our hands in America.
Like the attacks on the press, the judiciary, science, academics, his own government offices, national intelligence agencies, the military, and the notion of objective truth itself, Trump, through the Nunes memo, is leaving himself as the only source of objective truth.
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1I'll examine the implications of this partisanship for democracy in a future post.
Next: What’s actually in the memo?
