Read the Nunes Memo

House Republicans on Friday discharged a formerly mystery update that was composed by Republican individuals from the House Intelligence Committee and declassified by President Trump. The reminder asserts that F.B.I. authorities mishandled their power and supported Democrats in the beginning periods of the Russia examination.

Our columnists are perusing the notice and will include their examination soon. For more scope, read here.

THE WHITE HOUSE

WASHINGTON

February 2, 2018

The Honorable Devin Nunes

Director, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence

Joined States Capitol

Washington, DC 20515

Dear Mr. Director:

On January 29, 2018, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (hereinafter "the Committee") voted to uncover freely a notice containing grouped data furnished to the Committee regarding its oversight exercises (the "Reminder," which is joined to this letter). As gave by proviso 11(g) of Rule X of the House of Representatives, the Committee has sent this Memorandum to the President in view of its assurance that the arrival of the Memorandum would serve people in general intrigue.

The Constitution vests the President with the expert to shield national security privileged insights from divulgence. As the Supreme Court has remembered, it is the President's duty to group, declassify, and control access to data bearing on our knowledge sources and strategies and national guard. It couldn't be any more obvious, e.g., Dep't of Navy v. Egan, 484 U.S. 518, 527 (1988). Keeping in mind the end goal to encourage proper congressional oversight, the Executive Branch may depend grouped data to the suitable boards of Congress, as it has done regarding the Committee's oversight exercises here. The Executive Branch does as such on the suspicion that the Committee will dependably ensure such grouped data, predictable with the laws of the United States.

The Committee has now verified that the arrival of the Memorandum would be fitting. The Executive Branch, crosswise over Administrations of the two gatherings, has attempted to oblige congressional solicitations to declassify particular materials in general society intrigue. Be that as it may, open arrival of grouped data by one-sided activity of the Legislative Branch is to a great degree uncommon and raises noteworthy partition of forces concerns. In like manner, the Committee's ask for to discharge the Memorandum is translated as a demand for declassification in accordance with the President's power.

The President comprehends that the insurance of our national security speaks to his most astounding commitment. In like manner, he has guided legal counselors and national security staff to survey the declassification ask for, steady with built up gauges representing the treatment of arranged data, including those under Section 3.1(d) of Executive Order 13526. Those principles allow declassification when people in general enthusiasm for divulgence exceeds any need to ensure the data. The White House survey process likewise included contribution from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Justice. Reliable with this audit and these measures, the President has confirmed that declassification of the Memorandum is Appropriate.

In light of this appraisal and in light of the critical open enthusiasm for the reminder, the President has approved the declassification of the Memorandum. To be clear, the Memorandum mirrors the judgments of its congressional creators. The President comprehends that oversight concerning matters identified with the Memorandum might be proceeding. In spite of the fact that the conditions prompting the declassification through this procedure are uncommon, the Executive Branch stands prepared to work with Congress to suit oversight demands steady with pertinent principles and procedures, including the need to secure knowledge sources and techniques.

Genuinely,

Donald F. McGahn II

Direction to the President

cc: The Honorable Paul Ryan

Speaker of the House of Representatives

The Honorable Adam Schiff

Positioning Member, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence

UNCLASSIFIED

Declassified by request of the President — February 2, 2018

January 18, 2018

To: HPSCI Majority Members

From: HPSCI Majority Staff

Subject: Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Abuses at the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation

Reason

This reminder gives Members a report on noteworthy actualities identifying with the Committee's progressing examination concerning the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and their utilization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) amid the 2016 presidential decision cycle. Our discoveries, which are itemized beneath, 1) raise worries with the authenticity and lawfulness of certain DOJ and FBI cooperations with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), and 2) speak to an upsetting breakdown of lawful procedures built up to shield the American individuals from manhandle identified with the FISA procedure.

Examination Update

On October 21, 2016, DOJ and FBI looked for and got a FISA reasonable justification arrange (not under Title VII) approving electronic observation on Carter Page from the FISC. Page is a U.S. national who filled in as a volunteer counsel to the Trump presidential battle. Steady with prerequisites under FISA, the application must be first ensured by the Director or Deputy Director of the FBI. It at that point required the endorsement of the Attorney General, Deputy Attorney General (DAG), or the Senate-affirmed Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division.

The FBI and DOJ acquired one introductory FISA warrant focusing on Carter Page and three FISA recharges from the FISC. As required by statute (50 U.S.C. §1805(d)(1)), a FISA arrange on an American native must be recharged by the FISC each 90 days and every restoration requires a different finding of reasonable justification. At that point Director James Comey marked three FISA applications being referred to for the benefit of the FBI, and Deputy Director Andrew McCabe marked one. At that point DAG Sally Yates, at that point Acting DAG Dana Boente, and DAG Rod Rosenstein each marked at least one FISA applications in the interest of DOJ.

Because of the delicate idea of outside insight movement, FISA entries (counting recharges) before the FISC are grouped. Accordingly, people in general's trust in the uprightness of the FISA procedure relies upon the court's capacity to hold the legislature to the most elevated standard especially as it identifies with observation of American subjects. Notwithstanding, the FISC's meticulousness in securing the privileges of Americans, which is strengthened by 90-day reestablishments of observation orders, is essentially subject to the administration's creation to the court of all material and important certainties. This ought to incorporate data conceivably positive to the objective of the FISA application that is known by the legislature. On account of Carter Page, the legislature had no less than four free open doors previously the FISC to precisely give a bookkeeping of the pertinent realities. In any case, our discoveries demonstrate that, as depicted underneath, material and important data was overlooked.

1) The "dossier" ordered by Christopher (Steele dossier) in the interest of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Hillary Clinton battle shaped a fundamental piece of the Carter Page FISA application. Steele was a long-lasting FBI source who was paid over $160,000 by the DNC and Clinton battle, by means of the law office Perkins Coie and research firm Fusion GPS, to get injurious data on Donald Trump's connections to Russia.

a) Neither the underlying application in October 2016, nor any of the recharges, unveil or reference the part of the DNC, Clinton battle, or any gathering/effort in subsidizing Steele's endeavors, despite the fact that the political sources of the Steele dossier were then known to senior DOJ and FBI authorities.

b) The underlying FISA application notes Steele was working for a named U.S. individual, yet does not name Fusion GPS and vital Glenn Simpson, who was paid by a U.S. law office (Perkins Coie) speaking to the DNC (despite the fact that it was known by DOJ at the time that political performers were included with the Steele dossier). The application does not specify Steele was at last taking a shot at benefit of—and paid by—the DNC and Clinton crusade, or that the FBI had independently approved installment to Steele for a similar data.

2) The Carter Page FISA application likewise refered to widely a September 23, 2016, Yahoo News article by Michael Isikoff, which centers around Page's July 2016 trek to Moscow. This article does not validate the Steele dossier since it is gotten from data spilled by Steele himself to Yahoo News. The Page FISA application mistakenly surveys that Steele did not straightforwardly give data to Yahoo News. Steele has conceded in British court filings that he met with Yahoo News—and a few different outlets—in September 2016 at the heading of Fusion GPS. Perkins Coie knew about Steele's underlying media contacts since they facilitated no less than one gathering in Washington D.C. in 2016 with Steele and Fusion GPS where this issue was talked about.

a) Steele was suspended and after that ended as a FBI hotspot for what the FBI characterizes as the most genuine of infringement—an unapproved revelation to the media of his association with the FBI in an October 30, 2016, Mother Jones article by David Corn. Steele ought to have been ended for his past undisclosed contacts with Yahoo and different outlets in September—before the Page application was submitted to the FISC in October—yet Steele dishonorably hid from and misled the FBI about those contacts.

b) Steele's various experiences with the media disregarded the cardinal govern of source taking care of—looking after classification—and exhibited that Steele had turned into a not as much as dependable hotspot for the FBI.

3) Before and after Steele was ended as a source, he kept up contact with DOJ through then-Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr, a senior DOJ official who worked intimately with Deputy Attorneys General Yates and later Rosenstein. Soon after the decision, the FBI started talking with Ohr, reporting his interchanges with Steele. For instance, in September 2016, Steele admitted to Ohr his emotions against then-hopeful Trump when Steele said he "was urgent that Donald Trump not get chose and was enthusiastic about him not being president." This reasonable confirmation of Steele's predisposition was recorded by Ohr at the time and along these lines in official FBI documents—yet not reflected in any of the Page FISA applications.

a) During this same day and age, Ohr's significant other was utilized by Fusion GPS to aid the development of resistance inquire about on Trump. Ohr later furnished the FBI with the greater part of his better half's restriction inquire about, paid for by the DNC and Clinton battle by means of Fusion GPS. The Ohrs' association with Steele and Fusion GPS was mysteriously covered from the FISC.

4) According to the leader of the FBI's counterintelligence division, Assistant Director Bill Priestap, authentication of the Steele dossier was in its "early stages" at the season of the underlying Page FISA application. After Steele was ended, a source approval report directed by an autonomous unit inside FBI evaluated Steele's announcing as just negligibly validated. However, toward the beginning of January 2017, Director Comey informed President-elect Trump on an outline of the Steele dossier, despite the fact that it was—as indicated by his June 2017 declaration—"obscene and unconfirmed." While the FISA application depended on Steele's past record of trustworthy providing details regarding other disconnected issues, it overlooked or disguised his against Trump budgetary and ideological inspirations. Moreover, Deputy Director McCabe affirmed before the Committee in December 2017 that no reconnaissance warrant would have been looked for from the FISC without the Steele dossier data.

5) The Page FISA application likewise says data with respect to kindred Trump battle consultant George Papadopoulos, yet there is no confirmation of any collaboration or intrigue amongst Page and Papadopoulos. The Papadopoulos data set off the opening of a FBI counterintelligence examination in late July 2016 by FBI operator Pete Strzok. Strzok was reassigned by the Special Counsel's Office to FBI Human Resources for dishonorable instant messages with his paramour, FBI Attorney Lisa Page (no known connection to Carter Page), where they both exhibited an unmistakable predisposition against Trump and for Clinton, whom Strzok had additionally examined. The Strzok/Lisa Page messages additionally reflect broad exchanges about the examination, coordinating breaks to the media, and incorporate a gathering with Deputy Director McCabe to talk about a "protection" approach against President Trump's race.