2nd February 2018, 10:10 PM
So, that Nunes memo is out... and there isn't much in it. The main thing it says, really, I think, is that the Republicans are still focused on the Steele dossier. First, they continue to pretend that it is "discredited" and false. The memo undercuts this argument by admitting that there are some things in the dossier that have been confirmed, in the middle of a very deceptive statement about the dossier, but the main focus is that later part, on trying to discredit the dossier.
The problem is, their attempts to discredit it do not touch any of the contents. Instead they're saying "don't believe the dossier because the Democrats helped fund it and Steele said he opposes Trump". The first part of that is deceptive because they always somehow forget to mention that a Republican group first funded the research behind the dossier, and the second isn't nearly as important as the actual contents. The context of why opposition research was collected matters, but so do the findings! And that is the problem with the Republicans' case against the dossier: they don't try to actually disprove it, but just to convince people to not believe it because of its funding and writer. Then they try to minimize admissions of the fact that the FBI has proven at least some things in the dossier to be true, while raising all kind of outrage about the idea of using the dossier as a source for anything, such as, here in the Nunes memo, for a FISA warrant for blatantly deserving target Carter Page.
This is interesting because, well, if they knew it was all false, wouldn't they be trying to disprove the CONTENTS of the dossier, and not only discredit its creation? But no, they don't... which is a tacit admission that there is truth to it. And if there is truth to it, of course the FBI should have been looking at it early in its Russia investigation.
Here's the thing, though: the usefulness of that dossier is surely now limited. Mueller must have found info by now that goes far beyond anything in that dossier, and those three FISA court extensions on Carter Page that Nunes gripes about so much here were surely based almost entirely on ongoing information they found out about Page's Russian connections, not anything relating to the Steele dossier! Because that information is all quite classified the public won't learn those details, but seriously, I find the Republicans' continued obsession with the Steele dossier kind of crazy on a factual basis because there is no way it has much relevance to whatever the current state of Mueller's investigation.
Seriously, as I've been hearing said quite a bit, it says a lot about how little Trump and the Republicans have that this is all they can come up with to try to undercut the investigation. Seriously, this is it? There's nothing here!
There is on way that their Steele obsession makes sense, though: as the best thing they can manage right now in their effort to try to come up with justifications to fire Rosenstein and Mueller. Unfortunately for Trump, while he may try to use this as cover to fire them, the Nunes memo here does nothing at all to undercut Mueller, and very little towards Rosenstein either. Trump doesn't care about such details of course, he only wants to not be embarrassed by having to leave office early, but these things matter and if he tries something based on this I think there would be a strong blowback.
The problem is, their attempts to discredit it do not touch any of the contents. Instead they're saying "don't believe the dossier because the Democrats helped fund it and Steele said he opposes Trump". The first part of that is deceptive because they always somehow forget to mention that a Republican group first funded the research behind the dossier, and the second isn't nearly as important as the actual contents. The context of why opposition research was collected matters, but so do the findings! And that is the problem with the Republicans' case against the dossier: they don't try to actually disprove it, but just to convince people to not believe it because of its funding and writer. Then they try to minimize admissions of the fact that the FBI has proven at least some things in the dossier to be true, while raising all kind of outrage about the idea of using the dossier as a source for anything, such as, here in the Nunes memo, for a FISA warrant for blatantly deserving target Carter Page.
This is interesting because, well, if they knew it was all false, wouldn't they be trying to disprove the CONTENTS of the dossier, and not only discredit its creation? But no, they don't... which is a tacit admission that there is truth to it. And if there is truth to it, of course the FBI should have been looking at it early in its Russia investigation.
Here's the thing, though: the usefulness of that dossier is surely now limited. Mueller must have found info by now that goes far beyond anything in that dossier, and those three FISA court extensions on Carter Page that Nunes gripes about so much here were surely based almost entirely on ongoing information they found out about Page's Russian connections, not anything relating to the Steele dossier! Because that information is all quite classified the public won't learn those details, but seriously, I find the Republicans' continued obsession with the Steele dossier kind of crazy on a factual basis because there is no way it has much relevance to whatever the current state of Mueller's investigation.
Seriously, as I've been hearing said quite a bit, it says a lot about how little Trump and the Republicans have that this is all they can come up with to try to undercut the investigation. Seriously, this is it? There's nothing here!
There is on way that their Steele obsession makes sense, though: as the best thing they can manage right now in their effort to try to come up with justifications to fire Rosenstein and Mueller. Unfortunately for Trump, while he may try to use this as cover to fire them, the Nunes memo here does nothing at all to undercut Mueller, and very little towards Rosenstein either. Trump doesn't care about such details of course, he only wants to not be embarrassed by having to leave office early, but these things matter and if he tries something based on this I think there would be a strong blowback.