All the Key Details Republicans Left Out of Their Famous Memo
Team Trump
That flimsiness extends to the rest of the document  the release of which FBI officials and Democrats have been furiously lobbying against for days  in part because it amounts to ammunition  Trump  and  his  allies can use to try to shut down the Russia investigation. Even on first reading  the most striking part of the memo is what it leaves out.
Which is to say the memo fails to account for the fact that Page was no longer on Team Trump when the feds went after him in 2016.
Likewise  the memo does not explicitly acknowledge a previous FISA application that’s been reported against Page as far back as 2014  possibly set up because he was being actively recruited by Russian spies who subsequently were expelled or imprisoned. What the memo suggests is simply that the feds submitted reauthorization applications around January 20  2017  in April 2017  and July of 2017. With each reauthorization  as the memo alludes  the Justice Department would have had to show that it continued to obtain foreign intelligence from the surveillance. That also means the FISA Court approved three reauthorizations after the Steele dossier became public—and the  Trump  team itself started debunking it.
So Page continued to look like a spy—or someone being recruited as one—to FBI counterintelligence agents well into the  Trump  presidency. And FISA judges continued to buy that assessment.
And in spite of the memo’s title and the heated claims Republicans have been making for weeks  much of the memo actually doesn’t pertain to Page’s FISA application at all. It reveals then-Deputy Associate Attorney General Bruce Ohr appropriately noted Steele’s apparent hope to ensure Trump not become President. But even there  the memo doesn’t explain whether that primarily stemmed from concerns about Russia or more personal political animus  which is particularly relevant given that Steele is not an American voter. The memo also reveals that after Steele’s communications with the press became known  his informant status was properly terminated. It further describes Trump’s being briefed on the dossier without explaining why: because the Intelligence Community thought it important for  Trump  to know the rumors being spread about  him .
That flimsiness extends to the rest of the document  the release of which FBI officials and Democrats have been furiously lobbying against for days  in part because it amounts to ammunition  Trump  and  his  allies can use to try to shut down the Russia investigation. Even on first reading  the most striking part of the memo is what it leaves out.
Which is to say the memo fails to account for the fact that Page was no longer on [TGT] when the feds went after him in 2016.
Likewise  the memo does not explicitly acknowledge a previous FISA application that’s been reported against Page as far back as 2014  possibly set up because he was being actively recruited by Russian spies who subsequently were expelled or imprisoned. What the memo suggests is simply that the feds submitted reauthorization applications around January 20  2017  in April 2017  and July of 2017. With each reauthorization  as the memo alludes  the Justice Department would have had to show that it continued to obtain foreign intelligence from the surveillance. That also means the FISA Court approved three reauthorizations after the Steele dossier became public—and the  Trump  team itself started debunking it.
So Page continued to look like a spy—or someone being recruited as one—to FBI counterintelligence agents well into the  Trump  presidency. And FISA judges continued to buy that assessment.
And in spite of the memo’s title and the heated claims Republicans have been making for weeks  much of the memo actually doesn’t pertain to Page’s FISA application at all. It reveals then-Deputy Associate Attorney General Bruce Ohr appropriately noted Steele’s apparent hope to ensure Trump not become President. But even there  the memo doesn’t explain whether that primarily stemmed from concerns about Russia or more personal political animus  which is particularly relevant given that Steele is not an American voter. The memo also reveals that after Steele’s communications with the press became known  his informant status was properly terminated. It further describes Trump’s being briefed on the dossier without explaining why: because the Intelligence Community thought it important for  Trump  to know the rumors being spread about  him .