Politics

Actions

Here's What You Need To Know About The Democratic Memo

The memo details the FBI and Justice Department's surveillance, the investigation into Carter Page and the Steele dossier.
Posted at 11:31 AM, Feb 25, 2018

Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee released a redacted memo about FBI surveillance and the Trump campaign Saturday. 

Here's what you need to know: The 10-page document repeatedly states that the FBI and Department of Justice did not use the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to spy on President Donald Trump or his campaign.

But it goes on to say the "DOJ and the FBI would have been remiss in their duty to protect the country had they not sought a FISA warrant" to look into former campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page.

The memo says the FBI was looking into Page well before he joined then-presidential candidate Donald Trump's team. That's because the FBI reportedly had reason to believe Page had relationships with Russian intelligence agents who targeted him for recruitment.

The memo also details the DOJ's knowledge about the Steele dossier. It says Christopher Steele's report had nothing to do with the FBI's decision to launch an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

It says the dossier didn't even get to the FBI until more than seven weeks after the the investigation was opened.

And in a direct contradiction of what the GOP memo said, the Democratic memo says the DOJ told the court it knew Steele was hired by "politically-motivated U.S. persons," and that his work "appeared [to be] intended for use 'to discredit' Trump's campaign."