Thread by @Mean_Adam

Talking Points After Memo Release

Memo Confirms Investigation Began With Papadopoulos, Not Dossier

H/T @Zac_Petkanas Thread 👇

#NunesHoax #NunesMemo
#MemoDay #MemoGate

Kyle Cheney, Politico: THE MEMO reveals that the counterintelligence investigation of Trump's campaign was, in fact, launched by Peter Strzok as a result of the PAPADOPOULOS information -- not the dossier.

Memo Does NOT Say Dossier Was Basis For FISA Warrant

Greg Sargent, Washington Post: Read this carefully. The warrant "would not have been sought" without the "information" in the Steele Dossier is not the same as saying the Dossier was the basis for getting the warrant.

Byron York, Washington Examiner: House Intel memo key point: The FBI's Andrew McCabe confirmed to the committee that no FISA warrant would have been sought from the FISA Court without the Steele dossier information. Story posting soon.

Sam Stein, Daily Beast: This is the critical line. But the key word is "sought." Sought is not the same as "granted"

FISA Warrant Extensions Indicate Surveillance Was Yielding Information

Jim Sciutto, CNN: NB: Warrant on Carter Page was renewed THREE times after initial issuance, for which the @FBI would have had to show to judge it was getting valuable intelligence Page was acting as an agent of foreign Govt.

Dan Merica, CNN: Even if the dossier was used as part of the application, a FISA renewal indicates that a judge was convinced that the surveillance was yielding information about the target acting as an agent of a foreign power that merited continued monitoring LINK

Memo Released First To Right-Wing, Partisan Outlets

Sam Stein, The Daily Beast: If you have a bombshell memo that is existential in its exposure of corruption at the highest levels of the FBI then you don’t release exclusive excerpts to one (partisan) outlet. You let the details stand on their own.

David Corn, Mother Jones: So now Nunes and GOPers on HPSCI are releasing excerpts to friendly conservative media. No partisan games here, right?

Chuck Todd, NBC: Not a good look by the House GOP to release cherry-picked excerpts through friendly media outlets in order to build a narrative. Only reinforces the partisan look to all this. A truly nonpartisan act would have been a complete release without cherry picks

Ezra Klein, Vox: I keep seeing people write that the memo being released early to Fox News and the Washington Examiner feeds the narrative of this all being a partisan sham. This isn't a narrative. This is a partisan sham and has been from the start.

Warner: Underlying Intelligence Doesn’t Support Memo Conclusions

Tim Mak, NPR: Sen Warner, top Dem on Senate Intel, just now: "Unlike almost every House member who voted in favor of this memo's release, I have actually read the underlying documents on which the memo was based. They simply do not support its conclusions."

Memo Is a Dud

Chris Hayes, MSNBC: The memo reminds of a million different smoking gun Benghazi scoops that fell apart once the full context became known. Or even the bombshell Peter Strzok texts that fell apart like a day after they were released.

Garrett Graff, CNN contributor: My VERY quick read—the Nunes memo is, as @axios predicted, a big let-down. Will shore up Trump base, sure, and muddy waters, but no real surprise/shock. bit.ly/2GHB9vm

Daniel Dale, Toronto Star: This does not seem like explosive news, but I am not Sean Hannity.

Republicans Are Slamming The Memo

John McCain: The latest attacks on the FBI and Department of Justice serve no American interests – no party’s, no president’s, only Putin’s.

John Weaver, GOP strategist: What a nothing burger.

Tim Miller, GOP strategist: Some pre-memo facts that all conspiracists should have to answer for in interviews today:

1. Russia hacked Trumps opponents private email to influence election
2. Trump gleefully used that hacked info
[...]

[...]
3. Trump team had meetings with Russians explicitly about dirt on Hillary
4. They lied about those meetings repeatedly.
5. The FBI’s only public action during campaign actually targeted Hillary, not these actions by Trumpworld.

GOP Congressman Chris Stewart on @CNN just now says he's not calling for the resignation of Wray or Rosenstein after memo release.

Josh Schwerin: Remember when Republicans were furious that the FBI was looking into the claims in Bannon/Breitbart funded Clinton Cash?
I don’t either.

Steve Reilly: Memo says the FISA application was based on information about Carter Page's July 2016 Moscow trip that was "leaked" by Steele.
Page's speech in Moscow was public domain information.

Final thought from Rep. Schiff on the memo --

"This wasn’t about oversight. This was about telling a political story that’s helpful to the president."

Kyle Cheney: MEMO UPDATE: SCHIFF tells reporters that only portions of the Steele Dossier -- the ones about Page -- were presented to the FISA Court.

"Some of those things were already subject to corroboration." [...]

[...]
Schiff also says that the memo's contention that MCCABE said the warrant wouldn't have happened without the dossier was "cherrypicked" and that he was talking about how all elements of FISA applications are interconnected and important.

The memo released by House Republicans falls short of what some promised: that it would cast doubt on the origins of the Russia investigation and possibly undermine it.

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Greg Sargent: The Nunes memo is such a joke that even pro-Trump twitter seems half-hearted in their trolling of those who are pointing out its huge flaws.

statement torches @GOP attacks on #FBI

#NunesMemo #NunesHoax