On February 2, 2018, President Donald Trump declassified a top-secret FBI Memo against the agency’s wishes. The memorandum is unofficially titled the “Nunes memo” and was written by U.S. Representative and member of the Republican Party Devin Nunes and his staff members.
The formal title of the memo is Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Abuses at the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It presents allegations that the FBI may have received a FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) warrant from questionable or politically motivated sources. This warrant allowed the FBI to investigate on Carter Page (Trump Advisor) and the Trump Administration for ties to the Russian Interference in the 2016 election.
Many say that the FBI may have been influenced by opponents of the Trump administration, such as the Democratic party. Nunes and the Republican party, in the memo, accuse the FBI of this many times.
Republic legislators that wanted the memo to be public state that the FBI misused the FISA process to sabotage the Trump administration and election and that the warrant was obtained via unsupported allegations about a Russian connection in the Trump Administration.
On February 3, 2018, President Donald J. Trump tweeted about the memo.
“This memo totally vindicates “Trump” in probe. But the Russian Witch Hunt goes on and on. Their was no Collusion and there was no Obstruction (the word now used because, after one year of looking endlessly and finding NOTHING, collusion is dead). This is an American disgrace!”
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 3, 2018
Trump states that his administration should be completely clear of blame or suspicion of ties to Russia because of this memo.
On the other side, the FBI released a statement about how the integrity of the Nunes memo is questionable.
“As expressed during our initial review, we have grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo’s accuracy,” stated the FBI on January 31.
The release of this memo is a major win for the Trump administration, as the Nunes memo publicly questioned the whole investigation into Trump’s presidency and how both sides have secrets waiting to be revealed.
