The memo's purpose is now clear. Trump wants to fire Rosenstein.
by digby
As I mentioned in my Salon piece this morning, this was already rumored but now we know for sure:
The FBI said it is gravely concerned about House Republicans’ memo alleging the bureau abused its surveillance powers. The memo is expected to be released publicly soon. In a statement released Wednesday, a bureau spokesperson questioned the memo’s accuracy.
“With regard to the House Intelligence Committee’s memorandum, the FBI was provided a limited opportunity to review this memo the day before the committee voted to release it. As expressed during our initial review, we have grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo’s accuracy,” the spokesperson said.
“The FBI takes seriously its obligations to the FISA Court and its compliance with procedures overseen by career professionals in the Department of Justice and the FBI,” the spokesperson continued. “We are committed to working with the appropriate oversight entities to ensure the continuing integrity of the FISA process.”
The memo reportedly alleges Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein withheld information from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court about the FBI's request to renew for a warrant to spy on Trump campaign aide Carter Page.
Keep in mind that Carter Page has been on the FBI's counter-intelligence radar since 2013, long before Trump announced for president. The suspicions about him are not based on politics. They are based upon the fact that actual Russian spies were found to have attempted to recruit him way back when. He got onto the Trump campaign in 2016 and it's entirely possible that he's continuing to do the work they've been observing him do for the past five years.
I don't know why Rosenstein signed the FISA memo to continue the surveillance on Page last year. But he had years and years of evidence going back before Trump to back up the suspicion that something was going on with him and the Russians. Contrary to the crazed GOP staffers insistence, he didn't need the Steele dossier to make the case and everyone who knows this process says that no judge would approve a warrant based solely on that in any case.
I have to say that this fixation on the dossier is really getting weird. Why they keep harping on something that only makes everyone think of Trump being compromised by Russian agents for cavorting with prostitutes is beyond me. Obviously, the dossier has much more than that that may be the real reason they need to discredit it, particularly the money laundering implications. But from a public relations standpoint it's insane to keep bringing it up.
FBI director Wray has now weighed in heavily against the release of the memo. I don't expect that will stop Trump. He was assuring everyone at the SOTU last night that he was going to release the memo. This probably means he's going to fire Rosenstein.
And then we really do have a constitutional crisis on our hands.
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