Dear Editor,
The 3½-page Nunes memo, written by members of his staff, is a tremendous farce. It relies upon the Steele report as being the only basis for the FBI’s application for an order from the Court, without identifying the other reasons the FBI was seeking an order to survey Carter Page, including the fact that in 2014 the FBI was investigating him because of his contacts with a Russian spy. The Nunes memo also highlights that a Democratic group paid for the Steele report, without a word that a right-wing group also had paid Steele for his work. Implicitly, they are in effect also saying the Court, in issuing its order, had acted without justification.
It has been confirmed that Nunes had had unusual direct contacts with the Trump White House before issuing the memo which Is designed to obstruct the on-going investigation of the President who had said he was “100 percent In support” of releasing the memo before he had even had received it. (They say he rarely reads anything, relying on Fox News for information.) Supposedly having read it, he announces nationally that the memo “vindicates” him for any wrongdoing. Does he understand what he read, if indeed he even read the memo? He also stated that the conduct of the FBI and Justice Department has been “the worst in history.” This memo looks like a political ploy which was cooked up.
I think that ultimately this will hurt Trump and the GOP members who are supporting him, particularly if and when the Democrats’ more detailed memo is released, which the Republicans on the Committee originally had voted against but recently voted to release it, subject to Trump’s approval. It will be more proof that the Nunes memo was simply a political maneuver.
Stephen A. Hopkins
