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On Nunes Memo, Rogers says Americans deserve to know the truth

By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter

Congressman Mike Rogers, R-Saks, said Thursday that the Nunes memo “must be released to the public” for the American people to see.

“There is nothing more fundamental to our Republic than free elections, equal justice under the law and honest government,” Rep. Rogers wrote in a statement. “Any threat to them can shake the foundations of our Constitution.  Recently, some very disturbing information about the actions of a few high- ranking officials at the FBI and Justice Department has come to light. This information describes an effort to use the most sensitive law enforcement techniques to discredit and potentially nullify the 2016 election.”

Congressman Rogers continued, “We’ve all heard by now about the shady Steele dossier. We are learning the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and possibly even some officials at the FBI were behind the dossier.  Then that same unreliable information was used by the FBI to get a secretive surveillance warrant to spy on the Trump campaign – or in other words, a warrant to spy on fellow Americans for political purposes.”

“We have also learned of a small group of senior FBI officials seemingly scheming to get Donald Trump,” Rogers stated. “Talks of an “insurance plan” against Mr. Trump, of secret “offsite” meetings and over 50,000 texts over 50,000 missing text messages many of which highlighted these efforts. And remember one week we are told the 50,000 texts were forever lost due to a technical error and the next week we are told the FBI Inspector General was able to recover them. Sounds a lot like missing emails doesn’t it?”

“There is growing interest in the public release of a four-page document written by my colleague, Congressman Devin Nunes, R-CA, who serves as Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee that outlines many of these suspicious actions,” said Rogers. “Especially the potentially illegal use of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to spy on President Trump. This document, which I had the opportunity to read in secured area in the U.S. Capitol, was very troubling to me. The memo must be released to the public. The American people have the right to know the truth.”

The FBI put out a statement Wednesday night calling for the Nunes memo not to be released.

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

Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, warned that the FBI and the Justice Department have been “weaponized” politically for the Democrats.

“President Obama ‘guaranteed’ no political influence in ANY CASE investigated by the FBI/Justice Department. The facts show the FBI and DOJ were weaponized against Republican political opponents on Obama’s watch,” Rep. King said. “The trail of conspiracy at FBI/DOJ leads upward, perhaps to the top.”  King said that this, “Begs the question of Obama, “What did you know and when did you know it?””

The Nunes memo reportedly cast light unfavorably on Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.  When newly confirmed Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the Russia collusion investigation, it fell on Rosenstein as acting Attorney General to head the investigation.  Rosenstein made the decision to appoint a special prosecutor to lead that probe and was the one who selected former FBI Director Robert Mueller to that role.

Rosenstein was appointed a U.S. Attorney in Maryland by President George W. Bush, then re-appointed by President Barack Obama.  He was one of 47 U.S. Attorneys who were asked to resign by Trump and Sessions.  Trump then refused Rosenstein’s resignation and appointed him as Deputy Attorney General.  Sources in the White House claim that  Trump is now weighing possibly firing Rosenstein.

When Rosenstein made the decision to appoint a special prosecutor he reportedly relied on information from the now largely discredited Steele dossier, which was prepared by the Democratic National Committee with cooperation from various intelligence sources possibly including some with ties to Russian intelligence in order to discredit Donald Trump.

CNN says that their sources are concerned that release of the Nunes memo will help undermine the credibility of the investigation.

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Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee claim that Nunes’ staff may have coordinated the writing of the memo with the White House.

Congresswoman Terri Sewell, D-Selma, represents Alabama on the House Intelligence Committee.

“Today’s partisan vote in the House Intelligence Committee to release the GOP memo and PROHIBIT the release of a corresponding Democratic memo is a charade meant to distract from the investigation of Russia’s ties to Trump’s campaign. It is absolutely disgraceful that the GOP don’t have the backbone to stand up to this President. To my constituents and all those Americans who are concerned about the integrity of our democracy, please know that I and other Democratic Members of the Intelligence Committee will continue pushing to follow the facts even in the face of partisan sabotage,” Sewell charged.

The president will make the decision on whether or not to release the Nunes memo within hours.

Original reporting by Time and CNN contributed to this report. Wikipedia was also consulted.

Brandon Moseley is a former reporter at the Alabama Political Reporter.

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