Central Contention Of Nunes Memo Now In Doubt

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WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 30: Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, walks away from a meeting with House GOP members, on Capitol Hill January 30, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

We don’t want to get too deep into the weeds here but this is a really important development in the “memo” story that’s being reported by the New York Times, The Washington Post, even Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal.  The central contention of the Nunes memo was that the Justice Department didn’t tell the FISA court the whole story, that the Steele dossier (dirt on Trump) was paid for by the Clinton campaign and therefore politically motivated.  It was, for all intents,  The Department of Justice out to get Donald Trump.  Or, maybe not.

Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee allege the court was never told of this political bias when DOJ asked for warrants to wiretap a Trump campaign aide.  But in fact, according to sources for three major newspapers, the court WAS told a political campaign paid for the information that led to the surveillance.

That’s huge because if true, the central allegation of this long exercise would be completely baseless.  So, maybe not bigger than Watergate.  The clever hashtag on Twitter is #mehmo.

And, finally, there’s this.  CNN is reporting that Devin Nunes didn’t bother read the FISA warrant applications before writing the memo.  What a transparent mess.