Why didn't FBI tell court about Christopher Steele bias?
by Byron York
| July 26, 2018 09:49 PM
There has been bitter debate about the release of a heavily-redacted version of the FBI's application for a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant to wiretap onetime Trump foreign policy adviser Carter Page. The debate centers on whether the FBI gave the FISA court judges enough information to assess the anti-Trump motives of the people behind the Steele dossier.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., set off the argument last February, with the release of the so-called Nunes memo. In the memo, Nunes wrote, "Neither the initial application in October 2016, nor any of the renewals, disclose or reference the role of the DNC, Clinton campaign, or any party/campaign in funding Steele's efforts."
The release last weekend of blacked-out copies of the original application and three renewals confirmed Nunes' description; the documents did not mention the DNC or Clinton campaign's role in funding Steele. Nevertheless, defenders of the FBI's actions in this case argued that even if the FBI did not specifically include the words "Clinton campaign" or "DNC," the bureau fully informed the court that the people involved with the dossier had a political motive against candidate Donald Trump. To support their position, defenders pointed to a multi-paragraph footnote in the FISA application that contained this sentence: "The FBI speculates that the identified U.S. person was likely looking for information that could be used to discredit Candidate #1's campaign."
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