Justice Department (Image: Wikipedia)
Needless to say, the traffic in and around the FISA memo, which was released shortly after noon, is pretty heavy, which means you may or may not be able to find a readable copy. We refer you to the PDF at this link.
From what we’ve been able to glean from the document so far, it reveals Christopher Steele’s intense loathing of candidate Donald Trump and his willingness to take any measures to ensure that Trump would be denied the presidency. From the memo:
Steele ‘was desperate that Donald Trump not get elected and was passionate about him not being president.’
Other key points via the Washington Examiner’s Byron York:
- The Steele dossier formed an essential part of the initial and all three renewal FISA applications against Carter Page.
- The four FISA surveillance applications were signed by, in various combinations, James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Sally Yates, Dana Boente, and Rod Rosenstein.
- The FBI authorized payments to Steele for work on the dossier. The FBI terminated its agreement with Steele in late October when it learned, by reading an article in Mother Jones, that Steele was talking to the media.
- The political origins of the Steele dossier were known to senior DOJ and FBI officials, but excluded from the FISA applications.
- DOJ official Bruce Ohr met with Steele beginning in the summer of 2016 and relayed to DOJ information about Steele’s bias.
We’ll have more as traffic abates.
