Fox News is reporting the Devin Nunes 4-page memo detailing potential abuses of the FISA court related to a dossier created by Fusion GPS was sent from the White House back to the House Intelligence Committee just before noon Friday. The House Committee is now releasing key details. Among those details, according to Catherine Herridge of Fox News, are:
- Outgoing Deputy Director of the FBI Andrew McCabe is the individual who testified to many of the details contained within the memo
- At least one of the FISA warrants used to conduct surveillance on Trump adviser Carter Page would not have been obtained without the controversial dossier from Fusion GPS
- The FISA court was not told that the Fusion GPS dossier was funded by the Clinton campaign, the DNC, or any party or campaign despite that information being known to senior FBI officials
- Dossier author Christopher Steele is said to have had a personal animus against Donald Trump, telling DOJ official Bruce Ohr he was “desperate” about the potential election of Donald Trump
- Media reports were being used to lend credibility to the dossier and there was an active campaign to provide information to media outlets toward that end
- A Yahoo news article was used to provide credibility for the reliability of the dossier to the FISA court despite the fact that the dossier author briefed the reporter for the story (“circular reporting”)
- Christopher Steele continued to provide information to Bruce Ohr despite having had his connection to the FBI officially terminated
- The warrant for surveillance of Carter Page became a building block for trying to similarly investigate former Trump low-level campaign volunteer George Papadopoulos
House Intel memo key point: The FBI's Andrew McCabe confirmed to the committee that no FISA warrant would have been sought from the FISA Court without the Steele dossier information. Story posting soon.
— Byron York (@ByronYork) February 2, 2018
More House Intel memo key point: DOJ official Bruce Ohr relayed information about Christopher Steele's bias. Steele told Ohr that he, Steele, was desperate that Donald Trump not get elected president and was passionate about him not becoming president. https://t.co/0RoIarYAah
— Byron York (@ByronYork) February 2, 2018
The memo may ultimately be posted to an official government website for general consumption later this afternoon.
Full House Intel memo to be posted here "shortly" https://t.co/6DshXapQsI
— Shannon Bream (@ShannonBream) February 2, 2018
Full memo here:
FULL MEMO: https://t.co/Nt3cVDYYhV
— Shannon Bream (@ShannonBream) February 2, 2018
President Donald Trump, from a White House meeting with Korean defectors, called the situation with the memo “a disgrace” and said that “a lot of people should be ashamed.” Per pool reports:
“I think it’s a disgrace. What’s going on in this country, I think it’s a disgrace,” Trump told reporters.
“The memo was sent to Congress,” the president continued. “A lot of people should be ashamed of themselves and much worse than that.. So I sent it over to Congress, and they will do what they’re going to do, whatever they do is fine. It was de-classified and let’s see what happens. A lot of people should be ashamed. Thank you very much.”
This is a breaking story and will be updated.