FBI challenges accuracy of GOP’s surveillance memo - The Washington Post
Description: Officials express ‘grave concerns’’ about omissions in the document as Republicans prepare to make it public.
Keywords: congress, congress trump, memo, nunes, state of the union, dossier, sotu, steele, clinton, dnc, russia, rosenstein, wray, FBI, DOJ, justice department, Duncan, intelligence

PowerPost
Follow @powerpost
Get The Daily 202 Newsletter
Subscribe
PowerPost
Follow Stories

# FBI challenges accuracy of GOP’s surveillance memo

After delivering his State of the Union address on Jan. 30, President Trump told Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) that he will “100 percent” release a memo alleging abuse by the FBI. (The Washington Post)
By Devlin Barrett, Karoun Demirjian and Elise Viebeck By Devlin Barrett, Karoun Demirjian and Elise Viebeck Email the author January 31 at 1:29 PM Email the author Follow @DevlinBarrett Follow @karoun Follow @eliseviebeck

The FBI spoke out forcefully Wednesday against a GOP memo criticizing the bureau’s use of surveillance authorities, challenging the classified document’s accuracy as the White House and congressional Republicans are expected to make its contents public.

“As expressed during our initial review, we have grave concerns about the material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo’s accuracy,’’ the FBI said in a statement.

FBI Director Christopher A. Wray and Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein went to the White House on Monday, meeting with Chief of Staff John F. Kelly with hopes of preventing the memo’s release.

That private lobbying effort now has morphed into a public fight — a rare and remarkable standoff between the White House and the FBI over surveillance powers and politics.

In its statement, the bureau also said it carefully follows the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which provides a legal framework for national security investigations.

FBI Director Christopher A. Wray. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

“The FBI takes seriously its obligations to the FISA Court and its compliance with procedures overseen by career professionals in the Department of Justice and the FBI. We are committed to working with the appropriate oversight entities to ensure the continuing integrity of the FISA process,’’ the statement said.

The public statement underscores the concerns among federal law enforcement and intelligence officials who say the memo, written by House committee staff, is an inaccurate attack on the FBI, and that its release will set a dangerous precedent for future releases of classified information that touch on political issues.

Current and former law enforcement officials said a major concern inside the FBI is that the rules governing classified information will leave them handcuffed in trying to respond to the memo’s accusations. Senior FBI officials believe the allegations of abuse are inaccurate and unfair, but they also believe the FBI will not be able to effectively counter those claims because many of the details of any counter-argument would be classified, according to current and former officials.

[Trump tells GOP lawmaker he’ll ‘100 percent’ release the memo]

The FBI statement follows President Trump’s remarks to a Republican lawmaker Tuesday night indicating he would “100 percent” authorize the memo’s release. The exchange following Trump’s State of the Union address was caught by television cameras filming his departure from the House chamber.

The president’s comments appeared to jump ahead of plans to assure critics that the White House is putting the memo through a formal vetting process before he makes a decision about its release. It was the latest sign that Trump is out of step with parts of his administration when it comes to whether, or how, the memo ought to be made public.

On Wednesday morning, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told CNN that Trump had not “seen or been briefed” on the memo’s contents before he made those comments Tuesday night. Sanders also said the White house planned to “complete the legal and national security review that has to take place” before deciding whether the memo should be released.

After the House Intelligence Committee voted to release a classified memo created by Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), Republicans lauded the vote as a victory while Democrats criticized it as a political deception. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

“There’s always a chance” the memo won’t be released, she added. “No one here is going to make a decision that jeopardizes national security.”

Later Wednesday morning, White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly told Fox News radio that the memo will “be released here pretty quick,” just as soon as the White House’s national security lawyers finish “slicing and dicing and looking at it so that we know what it means.”

[Justice Department officials appealed to White House to halt release of memo alleging FBI abuses related to author of Trump dossier]

The House Intelligence Committee voted along party lines Monday to make the four-page document available to the public, something that will happen if Trump does not act to block its release within five days. The subsequent meeting between Wray, Rosenstein and Kelly was not the first time Justice Department officials had warned that its release could compromise intelligence gathering sources and methods, and threaten national security. But Trump has made his desire to release the memo clear despite those warnings.

The memo was written by staffers for House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) earlier this month, after the panel procured from the FBI and Justice Department long sought-after documents related to a now-famous dossier of allegations concerning Trump and his purported ties to Kremlin officials. Sanders told CNN Wednesday that Trump was “not aware of any conversation or coordination” between Nunes and the White House on the production or release of the memo, but she didn’t rule out the possibility entirely, saying: “I just don’t know the answer.”

The memo alleges that the former British spy who wrote the dossier, Christopher Steele, passed bad information to the FBI — though people familiar with the document said it does not determine whether he did so intentionally or by mistake. The memo alleges that information was used in an application to conduct surveillance against former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, according to people familiar with the matter.

Republicans have long been suspicious of the dossier, particularly since learning that Steele’s work was paid for by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee. Democrats, however, allege that the GOP memo is nothing but a hit job designed to weaken the federal law enforcement agencies behind special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 election, including Trump’s alleged ties to Russian officials. They have prepared a memo countering the allegations in the GOP memo written by Nunes’s staff, but the Democrats’ document is only available to members to read in a secure facility.

John Wagner contributed to this report.

Read more at PowerPost

Close
Now Playing