It appears that the already-infamous Nunes memo could be released soon. The memo, which is a brief summary of classified information alleging FBI surveillance abuses, has been divorced from the underlying intelligence and as such is said to be deeply decontextualized and biased.
It appears to be nothing more than a cynical attempt to undermine the FBI in the hopes of delegitimizing special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
The FBI has already stated that they only had a “limited opportunity” to review the memo and even then only the day right before the Republicans in the House Intelligence Committee voted to release it against the wishes of the Democrats, while at the same time refusing to let the Democratic response refuting the memo’s contentions be released. The FBI has “grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo’s accuracy.”
CNN’s Jake Tapper now reports that White House sources reveal President Trump has been telling people that he sees releasing the memo as a good way to discredit the investigation into possible collusion between the Trump Team and Russia.
The admission sounds similar to his previous confession that he fired FBI Director James Comey to make the Russia investigation go away. It seems at a glance that either incident could be interpreted as Trump trying to obstruct justice to save himself. He just can’t help himself. If true, these reports could be of serious interest to Mueller.
President Trump continues to tell his associates he believes the highly controversial Republican memo alleging the FBI abused its surveillance tools could help discredit the Russia investigation, multiple sources say https://t.co/wac8Py7FPK pic.twitter.com/WBH6y0ZPzw
— The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) February 1, 2018