BackInTex wrote: Bob#s was so worried because the FBI had "grave concerns" regarding its release. As I thought, those concerns were primarily for their reputation. Nothing, absolutely nothing, in that document poses a risk to national security.
And as far as I can tell, nothing in this memo hasn't been out in public for months already. The only thing this memo does is put the "official" seal of approval of the Republican members of the committee.
The gist of the memo is that the Steele dossier was the only or the primary evidence in support of the FISA warrant, and there's no documentation to back that up because the actual presentation to the FISA court is classified (and it probably should be since it could well list confidential sources for some of the facts it provided). There is also a statement from McCabe that "no surveillance warrant would have been sought from the FISC without the Steele dossier information." Of course, that's obviously a paraphrase, and McCabe's testimony before the Committee has not been made public so it's impossible to know just what he actually said and in what context.
Now, the usual Trump flunkies like Flock and Hannity will have a field day with this "definitive proof" but without context it means nothing.
Three observations and ruminations:
1) I don't think the FBI was inclined against Trump before all this, but I doubt he's got many friends there now and it won't get better if he fires his most recent appointee Wray and replaces him with a toady.
2) I wonder how long it's going to take the Democratic response to this memo to get leaked to the press. My guess is shortly after Trump refuses an official request to make it public.
3) I have a feeling that winter (in the sense of big name indictments) is coming sooner rather than later although it may be a while if ever before the land the Big Kahuna. And unlike this memo, when someone gets indicted, the facts in the indictment become part of the public record and will be made public almost immediately, so people can judge whether it's a hatchet job or not. And, while prosecutors often hold back a lot of cards in an indictment to avoid tipping off the defense, Mueller will lay it on here.