Tag: Memorandum

Rachel Maddow takes viewers page-by-page through Robert Mueller's freshly published and heavily redacted memorandum on the sentencing of disgraced former Donald Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn. » Subscribe to MSNBC: http://on.msnbc.com/SubscribeTomsnbc About: MSNBC is the premier destination for in-depth…

Special Counsel Robert Mueller filed a memorandum Tuesday recommending a lenient sentence -- with the possibility of no prison time -- for convicted former national security adviser Michael Flynn, and stating that Flynn has offered "substantial" help to investigators about "several ongoing investigations." The bombshell release comes as additional sentencing memorandums are expected within days in the cases of former Trump attorney Michael Cohen and ex-campaign chairman Paul Manafort, amid multiple reports and indications that the long-running Mueller probe into ties between President Trump's team and Russia is winding down. Responding to the documents' release, Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani told Fox News that Mueller was "spitting on the sidewalk, with major repercussions for many.” He added that there was nothing in the sentencing memo to suggest collusion between the Trump team and Russia, and denounced the Mueller team as “overzealous media inspired prosecutors" and "sick puppies.” The new documents do not provide specifics about what exactly Mueller has learned from Flynn, but they indicate he provided "documents and communications" about his time working with the Trump administration during the presidential transition period. Mueller's addendum to the memorandum states that Flynn has "assisted with several ongoing investigations," including the Russia probe and an apparently separate "criminal investigation." It continues: "Several senior members of the transition team publicly repeated false information conveyed to them by the defendant about communications between him and the Russian ambassador regarding the sanctions." Flynn was under investigation by the Justice Department for that work when he became national security adviser. The plea deal said Flynn’s cooperation may include answering questions, taking government-administered polygraph examinations, providing sworn statements and participating in “covert law enforcement activities.” Mueller’s team has entered plea agreements with several Trump associates, including former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who the special counsel now alleges breached their plea deal by lying to investigators. Mueller’s team also entered a deal last week with former longtime Trump personal attorney Michael Cohen, after he pleaded guilty to making false statements to Congress regarding his description of the Trump Organization’s plans to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. Former senior Justice Department official James Trusty told Fox News that the guilty pleas related to making false statements “do[] not suggest a particularly successful investigation.” “It’s heavy on false statements charges, and that doesn’t suggest that it’s moving in the right direction for the prosecution,” Trusty said. Trump has denied asking Comey to drop the investigation, but that conversation between the fired FBI director and the president is reportedly one under scrutiny by the special counsel’s office as he investigates whether Trump attempted to obstruct the Russia investigation.

The Democratic rebuttal to the House Intelligence Committee GOP’s memo asserts that the controversial dossier linking the Trump campaign to Russia “played no role” in the FBI launching its investigation into Russian interference in the election. The document alleges that the FBI was not presented with the information in the dossier until more than seven weeks after it had already opened its investigation. “Steele’s reporting, which he began to share with an FBI agent [redacted] through the end of October 2016, played no role in launching the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation into Russian interference and links to the Trump campaign,” the Democratic memo reads. “In fact, Steele’s reporting did not reach the counterintelligence team investigating Russia at FBI headquarters until mid-September 2016, more than seven weeks after the FBI opened its investigation,” the document continues. “By then, the FBI had already opened sub-inquiries into [redacted] individuals linked to the Trump campaign: [redacted] and former campaign foreign policy advisor Carter Page.” The new memo, a redacted version of which was released Saturday, is the committee’s Democrats’ response to the GOP memo, which alleged that FBI and Justice Department officials misused the FISA surveillance program to spy on Page. The GOP memo alleged that information from the dossier, a piece of opposition research on then-candidate Trump compiled by British ex-spy Christopher Steele, was “essential” in the officials seeking a FISA warrant to spy on Page. The content of the Democratic memo contradicts a key pillar of the GOP argument, that FBI and Justice Department officials with a bias against Trump improperly used the Steele dossier, which was funded in part by Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee. The GOP memo appeared to prove that the FBI investigation was launched because of information the agency received about former campaign aide George Papadopoulos's contacts with Russian nationals.

In a series of statements, Democratic leaders said that their version of the memo, authored by Democrats on the committee and led by ranking member Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), debunked claims made by Republicans and exposed inaccuracies in the GOP memo. “The Democratic response memo released today should put to rest any concerns that the American people might have as to the conduct of the FBI, the Justice Department and the [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court]," Schiff wrote. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) went further in her statement, calling on Republicans to end "political charades" surrounding the Russia investigation following the memo's release. In the upper chamber, Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee accused Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), who authored the GOP memo, and other Republicans of trying "mislead" Americans about the conduct of top law enforcement agencies for "partisan political" purposes. In his statement, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) lashed out at President Trump, who he accused of silencing Democratic opposition by delaying the release of the Democratic memo until redactions were made. Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu (Calif.) agreed with Schumer in a tweet, calling the redactions requested by the White House and Justice Department "unnecessary." I can say that the redacted materials all support the boldfaced points," Lieu tweeted. https://t.co/UTfRhV7GIC — Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) February 24, 2018 Nunes's Democratic challenger used the memo's release to attack his Republican opponent, saying that Nunes must be voted out of office before he could further undermine law enforcement. https://t.co/z9YVvzMMio — Andrew Janz (@JanzforCongress) February 24, 2018 The Democratic memo was released after days of negotiations between committee Democrats and the Justice Department over redactions of classified material. A final version posted Saturday on the House Intelligence Committee's website countered Republican claims about the FBI's investigation of the Trump campaign's alleged ties to Russia, and accused Nunes of cherry-picking information to mislead Americans while not reading the underlying documents.

The House Intelligence Committee on Saturday released a long-anticipated Democratic rebuttal that attempts to dismantle claims made in a GOP memo alleging the government used improper surveillance tactics during the 2016 presidential campaign. The rebuttal claims that officials at the FBI and Justice Department “did not abuse the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) process, omit material information, or subvert this vital tool to spy on the Trump campaign.” The Democratic rebuttal backed the FBI and DOJ in its pursuit of the FISA warrant, saying that the agencies “would have been remiss in their duty to protect the country had they not sought a FISA warrant and repeated renewals to conduct temporary surveillance of Carter Page, someone the FBI assessed to be an agent of the Russian government.” They added that the DOJ met the “rigor, transparency, and evidentiary basis” needed to meet FISA’s probable cause requirement. The GOP memo, released in early February, asserted that the FBI and DOJ relied on a Democrat-funded anti-Trump dossier to ask the FISA court for a warrant to monitor Page, a one-time adviser to President Donald Trump. President Trump tweeted following the rebuttal memo's release, calling it "a total political and legal BUST." — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 24, 2018 He added: "Dem Memo: FBI did no disclose who the client were - the Clinton Campaign and the DNC. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 24, 2018 Here are some other reactions to the memo: White House White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders calls the rebuttal a “politically driven document” which “fails to answer serious concerns raised by the Majority’s memorandum about the use of partisan opposition research from one candidate, loaded with uncorroborated allegations, as a basis to ask a court to approve surveillance of a former associate of another candidate, at the height of a presidential campaign.” Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif. https://t.co/G128SNicdn — Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) February 24, 2018 "Wrong again, Mr. President," Schiff said. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., tweeted that "the Schiff memo is a well-considered rebuttal to the misinformation in the Nunes memo," which she added, "shouldn't have seen the light of day." Sen. Mark Warner, D-VA Sen. Mark Warner, D-VA, called the FBI's actions "fully appropriate and entirely lawful" and said it was "deeply unfortunate that House Republicans decided to the release classified information in order to mislead the American people for partisan political purposes." — Mark Warner (@MarkWarner) February 24, 2018 "Now that the Nunes memo has been thoroughly debunked, the White House and its allies in Congress must put a stop to the dangerous partisan sideshows that jeopardize classified sources and methods and focus on Russia's unprecedented interference in our election."

WASHINGTON (CBSNewYork/AP) — President Donald Trump on Saturday accused the Democrats of playing politics with classified information, asserting that their memo countering GOP allegations about the conduct of the FBI’s Russia probe was a trap meant to “blame the White House for lack of transparency.” Citing national security concerns, the White House notified the House Intelligence Committee on Friday that the president was “unable” to declassify the Democratic memo. White House counsel Don McGahn said in a letter to the committee that the memo contains “numerous properly classified and especially sensitive passages” and asked the committee to revise it with the help of the Justice Department. The Democrats sent a very political and long response memo which they knew, because of sources and methods (and more), would have to be heavily redacted, whereupon they would blame the White House for lack of transparency. Trump urged the Democrats to “re-do and send back in proper form!” The president’s rejection of the Democratic memo was in contrast to his enthusiastic embrace of releasing the Republican document, which accuses the FBI and Justice Department of abusing their surveillance powers in obtaining a secret warrant to monitor former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page. The Intelligence Committee’s top Democrat, California Rep. Adam Schiff, criticized Trump for treating the two documents differently, saying the president is now seeking revisions by the same committee that produced the original Republican memo. She tweeted that Trump’s blocking the memo is “hypocrisy at its worst.” The head of the House committee, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., who produced the GOP memo, encouraged Democrats to accept the Justice Department’s recommendations and “make the appropriate technical changes and redactions.” Trump has said the GOP memo “vindicates” him in the ongoing Russia investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller. Republicans backed the release, but several said they thought it should be redacted. Ryan also said he thought the Democratic document should be released. Trump declassified the GOP-authored memo over the objections of the FBI, which said it had “grave concerns” about the document’s accuracy. They noted that federal law enforcement officials had informed the court about the political origins of Steele’s work and that some of the former spy’s information was corroborated by the FBI.

Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump on Saturday tweeted a brief explanation for why he rejected the request to declassify a Democratic memo from the House Intelligence Committee. Trump called the memo "very political and long" and said he "told them to re-do and send back in proper form." — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 10, 2018 On Friday, White House counsel Don McGahn informed the committee of the President's decision, writing in a letter that although Trump is "inclined to declassify" the memo spearheaded by the panel's ranking member, California Rep. Adam Schiff, "he is unable to do so at this time." Schiff's memo rebuts allegations in another memo from the committee's Republicans that accuses the FBI suppressing Democratic ties to an opposition research dossier on Trump and Russia used in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant for former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page. "Mr. President, what you call 'political' are actually called facts, and your concern for sources and methods would be more convincing if you hadn't decided to release the GOP memo ("100%") before reading it and over the objections of the FBI," Schiff wrote. In a statement Friday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein called Trump's decision not to release the Democratic memo "hypocrisy at its worst." In a statement Friday, Feinstein, a Democrat from California, called the Republicans' memo "misleading" and said she had read the underlying intelligence documents on which both memos were based. Mueller's is just one of several investigations into Russian meddling in the campaign, which include a probe by the House Intelligence Committee. Trump has repeatedly denied any collusion. "One week after he released the misleading and incomplete Nunes memo, President Trump tonight blocked the release of the Schiff memo that sought to fill in the holes.