For the last few weeks, Washington has been focused on the controversial memo written by Devin Nunes, Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, which described alleged bias against Trump and improprieties by the FBI and Justice Department in the process used to obtain a FISA surveillance warrant targeting Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. While the FBI, Justice Department, former intelligence officials and most Democrats condemned the decision by the House Intelligence Committee and White House to release the memo, due to concerns regarding classified material, most of the information in the 3½-page document had already been published.
Although President Trump erroneously declared that the Nunes memo had vindicated him in allegations that he colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election, many observers have concluded that the memo had in fact backfired. In cherry-picking the information in his memo, Nunes misrepresented important facts, and failed to discredit Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Trump-Russia investigation.
House Democrats are now waiting for the White House to authorize release of their own 10-page memo which is said to refute the Nunes allegations point-by-point. Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Mel Goodman, former senior CIA analyst at the Office of Soviet Affairs and author who currently serves as a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy. Here, Goodman assesses the partisan conflict triggered by the Nunes memo, in what many fear is part of a gathering and dangerous Constitutional crisis.
Goodman’s latest book is titled, “Whistleblower at the CIA.” For more perspectives on the Nunes memo and the Trump- Russia probe, visit Mel Goodman’s website at melvingoodman.com and his page at the Center for International Policy.
