FBI expresses 'grave concerns' over Republican memo's accuracy

[webfact]

FBI expresses 'grave concerns' over Republican memo's accuracy

By Jonathan Landay and John Walcott

 

White House Chief of Staff John Kelly listens as U.S. President Donald Trump delivers his first State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress inside the House Chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., January 30, 2018. REUTERS/Win McNamee/Pool

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The FBI said on Wednesday it had "grave concerns" about the accuracy of a top-secret House Intelligence Committee memo alleging anti-Trump bias within the Justice Department, challenging President Donald Trump's pledge to release it.

 

The rare public rebuke by the nation's top law enforcement agency came hours after White House Chief of Staff John Kelly said he expected the memo to be made public "pretty quick."

 

"The FBI was provided a limited opportunity to review this memo the day before the committee voted to release it," the FBI said in a statement. "As expressed during our initial review, we have grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo's accuracy."

 

The FBI declined to say if Director Christopher Wray approved the statement. Trump named Wray to head the Federal Bureau of Investigation after firing Director James Comey last May.

 

The memo has become a lightning rod in a partisan fight over investigations into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election and possible collusion by Trump's campaign, which Russia and Trump have both denied.

 

Justice Department officials have also said releasing the memo could jeopardize classified information.

 

Representative Devin Nunes, the intelligence committee's Republican chairman who commissioned the document, said in a statement on Wednesday that FBI and Justice Department objections to its release were "spurious."

 

Although White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Trump had not yet read the document, the president told lawmakers after his State of the Union address to Congress on Tuesday night that there was a "100 percent" chance the memo would be released.

 

A White House official said the four-page memo was delivered to the White House on Monday after the committee voted to release it. White House lawyers were working against a Friday deadline to determine if any of it should be redacted to protect national security, the official said.

 

Republicans, who blocked an effort to release a counterpoint memo by the panel's Democrats, say their document exposes anti-Trump bias by the FBI and the Justice Department in seeking a warrant to conduct an eavesdropping operation.

 

Democrats say the memo selectively uses highly classified materials in a misleading effort to discredit Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading the Justice Department's Russia probe, and Deputy U.S. Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who hired him.

 

SETTING THE STAGE?

 

In an opinion piece published on Wednesday in the Washington Post, Adam Schiff, the intelligence committee's senior Democrat, said the Republican memo was intended to set the stage for Trump to fire Mueller or Rosenstein.

 

Four sources familiar with the memo told Reuters it accused the FBI and Justice Department of misleading a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judge in seeking an extension in March 2017 of a warrant for a secret eavesdropping operation against Carter Page, an adviser to Trump's 2016 campaign.

 

Testifying in November before the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, Page said he met with Russian government officials during a July 2016 trip he took to Moscow while he was a foreign policy adviser to Trump’s campaign. He said he made the "benign" visit as a private citizen, according to the interview transcript.

 

The memo contends that the FBI and Justice Department failed to tell the judge that the request was based on a dossier compiled by a former British spy hired by a research firm partially financed by the Democratic National Committee and Democrat Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, the sources said.

 

The sources said the memo was misleading because all the dossier excerpts used in the application had been confirmed by U.S. or allied intelligence and law enforcement agencies. Moreover, said the sources, who requested anonymity, the application was based largely on material collected and verified by U.S. intelligence agencies.

 

Under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the government must report to the court every 90 days to show that a warrant was producing valuable foreign intelligence information to justify continuing an overseas eavesdropping operation on an American citizen.

 

(Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball, Steve Holland, Susan Heavey, Katanga Johnson, Doina Chiacu, Sarah N. Lynch and Dustin Volz; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Peter Cooney)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-02-01

[Samui Bodoh]

14 minutes ago, webfact said:

FBI expresses 'grave concerns' over Republican memo's accuracy

 

Unfortunately for the FBI, the issues are protection of Trump and partisan politics rather than accuracy and/or national security, and they overrule everything.

 

It is truly a sad thing to see a great nation built on the concepts of 'rule of law' and 'all men were created equal' fall so badly. 

 

I feel a deep sadness for my American friends and can only pray their troubles and travails end soon.

 

 

Edited January 31, 2018 by Samui Bodoh
Lack of coffee

[jackh]

Naturally the FBI and DOJ don't want it released. They will be exposed for the crimes they did and other ones they turned a blind eye to. Soon many people within these agencies will be resigning and try to get amnesty for their testimony which will put Comey, Rosenstein, Clinton, Rice, Huma and many others up on charges. 

 

Grab some popcorn and get ready to watch the biggest shakeup in the US govt in history. Over the next 2 years the Trump admin will lay waste the the Democratic deep state NWO agenda. The swamp is getting smaller by the day. MAGA

[Boon Mee]

The FBI is simply afraid of their dirty deeds coming fully to light. 

[anon537687643]

Ah the trump pimps are out on TV! Not interested in their psycho crook Leader’s attempts to subvert any investigation and remove Mueller! But rather some memo!


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[Emster23]

" Sarah Sanders said Trump had not yet read the document " Well, it is 4 pages... should take at least several days if it is that big. Maybe some artists are doing a quick job to make it into comic book form, and insert his name here and there.

 Nunes and his crowd doing all they can to muddy the investigation. Wasn't he supposed to at least step back after that incident of running up to WH to tell Trump some details months ago?

 Of course FBI is going to investigate these clowns for collusion, given their numerous unreported meetings and conversations with Russian operatives, including Nunes as part of transition team. To do less would be dereliction of duty.

[Jack Mountain]

LMAO

[lostlink]

Well if the FBI is "concerned" about the accuracy of the memo, The House can declassify supporting documents. Which is the same documents the FBI has in it's possession.

 

Golly, I wonder why Mueller requested a postponement in the Flynn sentencing today?

 

I can hardly wait for the IG Report documents to become available.

[jcsmith]

It's come out that Devin Nunes edited the memo, adding to it after congress approved it and before it went to the white house. I don't think there is any reasonable doubt that he's been acting as an agent of the white house. The goal of this is obviously to taint public perception of the FBI to make it okay to fire Rosenstein so they can fire Mueller. So when that happens the honus is on republicans to impeach. If they do not, the country is heading to a dangerous place.

[Sir Swagman]

4 hours ago, jackh said:

Naturally the FBI and DOJ don't want it released. They will be exposed for the crimes they did and other ones they turned a blind eye to. Soon many people within these agencies will be resigning and try to get amnesty for their testimony which will put Comey, Rosenstein, Clinton, Rice, Huma and many others up on charges. 

 

Grab some popcorn and get ready to watch the biggest shakeup in the US govt in history. Over the next 2 years the Trump admin will lay waste the the Democratic deep state NWO agenda. The swamp is getting smaller by the day. MAGA

I would suggest you don't know jackh

 

[lostlink]

30 minutes ago, jcsmith said:

It's come out that Devin Nunes edited the memo, adding to it after congress approved it and before it went to the white house. I don't think there is any reasonable doubt that he's been acting as an agent of the white house. The goal of this is obviously to taint public perception of the FBI to make it okay to fire Rosenstein so they can fire Mueller. So when that happens the honus is on republicans to impeach. If they do not, the country is heading to a dangerous place.

Do you have a fact source for this?

 

The only "editing" I saw reported was four FBI suits was at the White House today wanting to edit then shortly after the FBI gave their "concerned" statement.

[jcsmith]

12 minutes ago, lostlink said:

Do you have a fact source for this?

It's been reported all over:

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/01/31/politics/house-intelligence-transcript/index.html

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/371756-schiff-accuses-nunes-of-sending-trump-edited-memo
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/01/31/politics/house-intelligence-transcript/index.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/schiff-accuses-nunes-of-altering-memo-before-sharing-it-with-trump-for-release/2018/01/31/251423c8-06fe-11e8-8777-2a059f168dd2_story.html

 

Another important thing to note is that Nunes was cornered yesterday asking him if his staff was in consultation with the white house in writing this memo and he refused to answer. If that is the case then this would be the second time the white house has fed Nunes a document and he presented it otherwise. That of course is speculation but why not deny it?

Edited February 1, 2018 by jcsmith

[lostlink]

2 minutes ago, jcsmith said:

It's been reported all over:

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/01/31/politics/house-intelligence-transcript/index.html

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/371756-schiff-accuses-nunes-of-sending-trump-edited-memo
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/01/31/politics/house-intelligence-transcript/index.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/schiff-accuses-nunes-of-altering-memo-before-sharing-it-with-trump-for-release/2018/01/31/251423c8-06fe-11e8-8777-2a059f168dd2_story.html

Adam Shiff is hardly credible as he has been very dishonest and wants to thwart publication of the memo.

 

Here is today's requested edits:

 

  A) Unknown number of 'grammatical and clarifying' fixes. One change requested by FBI due to sources & methods concerns. C) One two-word change requested by Democrats for accuracy.

[jcsmith]

Just now, lostlink said:

Adam Shiff is hardly credible as he has been very dishonest and wants to thwart publication of the memo.

Adam Schiff isn't a credible source? First I've heard of that. He don't want the memo released for two reasons. First it contains classified information which the FBI and Trump's own justice department have warned against releasing. It is also compiled in a way that democrats claim is not including all of the facts. They drew up a counter-memo to illustrate just what that is, but of course the republican congress voted it down. Do you think that really is them trying to get the truth out there? They are muting the other side who will not release classified information to support their argument. 

 

...And Devin Nunes is? Devin Nunes has already had to recuse himself from Russia, but has been sitting in, requesting information, and being involved despite that. And the reason he was supposed to be recused was because he cooked up a conspiracy with the white house and it turned out he got the information from the white house. He's done it once already.

[lostlink]

10 minutes ago, jcsmith said:

Adam Schiff isn't a credible source? First I've heard of that. He don't want the memo released for two reasons. First it contains classified information which the FBI and Trump's own justice department have warned against releasing. It is also compiled in a way that democrats claim is not including all of the facts. They drew up a counter-memo to illustrate just what that is, but of course the republican congress voted it down. Do you think that really is them trying to get the truth out there? They are muting the other side who will not release classified information to support their argument. 

 

...And Devin Nunes is? Devin Nunes has already had to recuse himself from Russia, but has been sitting in, requesting information, and being involved despite that. And the reason he was supposed to be recused was because he cooked up a conspiracy with the white house and it turned out he got the information from the white house. He's done it once already.

 

1: The memo is an unclassified summery derived from classified documents.

 

2: The newly created Schiff memo was voted to move forward after A: It follows the same House procedures as the Nunes memo and B: The inaccuracies were corrected (based on the same classified documents). All this was televised on C-SPAN Monday and the Official House Transcript was published on Wednesday.

 

3: Nunes was completely exonerated after a 5 month investigation by the House Ethics Committee.

[Srikcir]

If the Nunes memo is released in full, FBI Director Christopher Wray should resign to protect the integrity of the FBI going forward. He has already threatened to resign if Deputy FBI Director McCabe was removed.

[heybruce]

5 hours ago, jackh said:

Naturally the FBI and DOJ don't want it released. They will be exposed for the crimes they did and other ones they turned a blind eye to. Soon many people within these agencies will be resigning and try to get amnesty for their testimony which will put Comey, Rosenstein, Clinton, Rice, Huma and many others up on charges. 

 

Grab some popcorn and get ready to watch the biggest shakeup in the US govt in history. Over the next 2 years the Trump admin will lay waste the the Democratic deep state NWO agenda. The swamp is getting smaller by the day. MAGA

Did you make that up yourself, or hear it on Faux News?

5 hours ago, Boon Mee said:

The FBI is simply afraid of their dirty deeds coming fully to light. 

You mean the time they threw the election to Trump by publicly investigating the HRC emails while keeping its investigation of Trump campaign links to Russia secret?  People already know about that.

2 hours ago, lostlink said:

Well if the FBI is "concerned" about the accuracy of the memo, The House can declassify supporting documents. Which is the same documents the FBI has in it's possession.

 

Golly, I wonder why Mueller requested a postponement in the Flynn sentencing today?

 

I can hardly wait for the IG Report documents to become available.

The Republican House has made it clear that they will only release select facts that support their claim that the FBI is tainted, and won't release information that put these isolated facts in perspective.

 

From the article:

 

"The memo contends that the FBI and Justice Department failed to tell the judge that the request was based on a dossier compiled by a former British spy hired by a research firm partially financed by the Democratic National Committee and Democrat Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, the sources said."

 

"The sources said the memo was misleading because all the dossier excerpts used in the application had been confirmed by U.S. or allied intelligence and law enforcement agencies. Moreover, said the sources, who requested anonymity, the application was based largely on material collected and verified by U.S." intelligence agencies.

Edited February 1, 2018 by heybruce

[SOUTHERNSTAR]

A country devided will fall, the USA have become so devided that no one can heal the devide. For the first time I see among Americans a hate for each other that surpass that what I saw in apartheid South Africa. Unless Americans learn to tollerate different opinions and allow one another to express their views without being called names you have no future. 

[jcsmith]

49 minutes ago, lostlink said:

 

1: The memo is an unclassified summery derived from classified documents.

 

2: The newly created Schiff memo was voted to move forward after A: It follows the same House procedures as the Nunes memo and B: The inaccuracies were corrected (based on the same classified documents). All this was televised on C-SPAN Monday and the Official House Transcript was published on Wednesday.

 

3: Nunes was completely exonerated after a 5 month investigation by the House Ethics Committee.

1. It did not go through the usual procedure of vetting from the intelligence officials. This often results in classified and unclassified versions. It has been insinuated that it has also given partial and intentionally deceptive information, though since only a few people have actually seen the intelligence it is referencing it is difficult to determine the truth to that.  

 

2. Both were voted in a party line vote. One party owns congress. However if republicans truly wanted the truth to come out here, why not allow both sides to be heard and rebutted? 

 

3. Nunes was exhonerated based on the information he gave not being classified, which was done based entirely on intelligence experts tellin them the information was not classified. He was however dishonest about the source of the information (white house) and was misleading on its contents, and refused to hand over documents, leading to his recusal. Despite his recusal Nunes was using his staffers to stay involved in the case and even issued subpoenas. 

Edited February 1, 2018 by jcsmith

[thaibeachlovers]

Misleading headline.

The "FBI" isn't concerned, only those in the FBI that are going to be exposed for their probable crimes, in the memo.

Several well known persons likely to joining McCabe in the wilderness, if not in jail.

[jcsmith]

2 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Misleading headline.

The "FBI" isn't concerned, only those in the FBI that are going to be exposed for their probable crimes, in the memo.

Several well known persons likely to joining McCabe in the wilderness, if not in jail.

If they are deserving of that then they should be. However nothing that has been said seems to indicate anything at all other than surveillance on Carter Page (who was already a known intelligence asset by Russia in a previous case) and the FISA warrant for that including reference to the democrat funded Dossier. Of course republicans also funded it originally and the FISA warrant has to be approved. 

[heybruce]

3 minutes ago, jcsmith said:

If they are deserving of that then they should be. However nothing that has been said seems to indicate anything at all other than surveillance on Carter Page (who was already a known intelligence asset by Russia in a previous case) and the FISA warrant for that including reference to the democrat funded Dossier. Of course republicans also funded it originally and the FISA warrant has to be approved. 

Also the information used from the dossier had been confirmed by other intelligence sources.  Apparently the carefully edited House memo doesn't mention that.

[thaibeachlovers]

3 minutes ago, jcsmith said:

If they are deserving of that then they should be. However nothing that has been said seems to indicate anything at all other than surveillance on Carter Page (who was already a known intelligence asset by Russia in a previous case) and the FISA warrant for that including reference to the democrat funded Dossier. Of course republicans also funded it originally and the FISA warrant has to be approved. 

If after a year of Mueller's investigation Page hasn't been indicted for something, it would seem that there was nothing to the accusation.

However, if the dossier is as fake as is claimed, and the spying warrant was based on that, as is claimed, the warrant may be invalid and Mueller's investigation may have no legal basis.

I am really looking forward to finding out when it is released.

[thaibeachlovers]

5 minutes ago, heybruce said:

Also the information used from the dossier had been confirmed by other intelligence sources.  Apparently the carefully edited House memo doesn't mention that.

Links to sources confirming the dossier please.

[thaibeachlovers]

26 minutes ago, SOUTHERNSTAR said:

A country devided will fall, the USA have become so devided that no one can heal the devide. For the first time I see among Americans a hate for each other that surpass that what I saw in apartheid South Africa. Unless Americans learn to tollerate different opinions and allow one another to express their views without being called names you have no future. 

Just give California the independence it wants and most of the division will be removed.

[thaibeachlovers]

This memo better be as explosive as it's being touted, or it's going to be the biggest anticlimax ever.

[isaanbanhou]

3 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Just give California the independence it wants and most of the division will be removed.

 

Spoken like a true patriot,  the country is not divided,  once we get rid of the parts that have different ideals than we do.  

[heybruce]

19 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

If after a year of Mueller's investigation Page hasn't been indicted for something, it would seem that there was nothing to the accusation.

However, if the dossier is as fake as is claimed, and the spying warrant was based on that, as is claimed, the warrant may be invalid and Mueller's investigation may have no legal basis.

I am really looking forward to finding out when it is released.

One year is nothing for an investigation of this complexity, and Page is just one part of it.

Parts of the dossier have been confirmed by other intelligence sources.  These parts were used to justify the warrant, along with other information.

Mueller's investigation is based on more than just Page.

[Odysseus123]

43 minutes ago, SOUTHERNSTAR said:

A country devided will fall, the USA have become so devided that no one can heal the devide. For the first time I see among Americans a hate for each other that surpass that what I saw in apartheid South Africa. Unless Americans learn to tollerate different opinions and allow one another to express their views without being called names you have no future. 

...And they have done it before.

 

April 12th,1861.

[heybruce]

24 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Links to sources confirming the dossier please.

No problem.  Interestingly, Carter Page is one of the sources:

 

http://www.businessinsider.com/carter-page-congressional-testimony-transcript-steele-dossier-2017-11

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-russia-dossier-a7574536.html