memeorandum: The Nunes memo is a dud (Zack Beauchamp/Vox)

4:15 PM ET, February 2, 2018

Top Items:

House Intelligence memo released: What it says — The House Intelligence Committee has released its controversial memo outlining alleged abuses of secret surveillance by the FBI and Justice Department in the Trump-Russia investigation. Here are some key points:

Discussion: RedState, Vox Popoli, Mediaite, The Gateway Pundit, Liberty Unyielding, Don Surber, IJR, American Digest, Raw Story and Conservative Review

U.S. House of Representatives Permanent Selection …:

House Intelligence Committee Minority Response to Release of Chairman Nunes' Misleading Memo — f t # e — Washington, DC - Today, the Minority of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence responded to the release of HPSCI Chairman Nunes' memo:

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Washington Monthly, Vox, The Atlantic, NBC News, Talking Points Memo, Washington Post, IJR, repubHub, Daily Kos and Althouse

Darren Samuelsohn / Politico:

Russia probe lawyers think Mueller could indict Trump — Special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation has gathered enough steam that some lawyers representing key Donald Trump associates are considering the possibility of a historic first: an indictment against a sitting president.

Discussion: Shakesville, Washington Post, Taylor Marsh, IJR, RedState, Politicus USA, Raw Story and CNN

Joe Walsh / Washington Post:

Devin Nunes is acting like a partisan hack. That's just how I remember him. — My former colleague doesn't seem to grasp what his job in Congress is. — I served in Congress with Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.). Based on my experience working with him, nothing about the way he's behaving …

Discussion: Raw Story

Washington Post:

GOP memo criticizing FBI surveillance is released … A GOP memo alleging surveillance abuses by the FBI has been released, intensifying a fight between the White House and Republican lawmakers, on one side, and the nation's top law enforcement agency over whether the origins of a probe …

Discussion: News, East Bay Express, Outside the Beltway, Sunlight Foundation, Balloon Juice, www.wnyc.org and The Week

Zack Beauchamp / Vox:

The Nunes memo is a dud — Devin Nunes's memo allegedly exposing anti-Trump bias at the FBI does nothing of the kind. — Rep. Devin Nunes's infamous memo — the document numerous House Republicans claimed would demonstrate fundamental anti-Trump corruption at the FBI — was released early Friday afternoon.

Discussion: Politico, Mother Jones, ThinkProgress, The Week, NPR, Lawyers, Guns & Money, The Guardian, Shareblue Media and Washington Post

New York Times:

House Republicans Release Nunes Memo Accusing Russia Investigators of Bias — WASHINGTON — House Republicans released a disputed memo on Friday compiled by congressional aides that accused the F.B.I. and Justice Department of abusing their surveillance powers to spy on a former Trump campaign adviser, Carter Page.

mccain.senate.gov:

STATEMENT BY SASC CHAIRMAN JOHN McCAIN ON PARTISAN ATTACKS ON THE FBI & DOJ — Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ), Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, released the following statement on partisan attacks on the FBI and Department of Justice:

Discussion: Breitbart, Raw Story, The Gateway Pundit, IJR and Mediaite

Patterico / RedState:

A Significant Inaccuracy in #TheMemo Calls Its Credibility Into Question — Amid all the excitement over the Devin Nunes #TheMemo, it is important to remember that it is a partisan summary of FISA warrant applications that we the People have not been allowed to see.

Discussion: The Daily Beast and Hit & Run

CNN:

Disputed GOP-Nunes memo released — (CNN)House Republicans, with the approval of President Donald Trump, on Friday released a disputed GOP intelligence memo that alleges FBI abuses of its surveillance authority. — The highly controversial memo from the GOP and Rep. Devin Nunes alleges …

Discussion: Little Green Footballs, Vox, Washington Post, Gizmodo, The Week, Daily Kos, KFOR-TV, KTLA, CBS Sacramento, FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV, The Daily Caller, Talking Points Memo, Mother Jones, RedState, The Gateway Pundit, The Liberty Review and Politico

Washington Post:

Read the GOP memo — The Nunes memo is a document created by the staff of House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) that alleges the FBI abused its surveillance authority, particularly when it sought a secret court order to monitor a former Trump campaign adviser.

Discussion: RedState, No More Mister Nice Blog and Joe.My.God.

Kimberley A. Strassel / Wall Street Journal:

Memo Reading for Nonpartisans — Ignore the spin. When the document goes public, here's what to look for. — The White House looks set to release the House Intelligence Committee memo on 2016 government surveillance abuses, which means the attacks on the document by Democrats …

Spencer Ackerman / The Daily Beast:
Sources: Devin Nunes Memo Is ‘100%’ Wrong About Andrew McCabe and Steele Dossier

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, CBS News, Washington Post, Breitbart, NPR, National Review, Vox, Fox News Insider and Washington Times

Axios:
The Nunes memo has been released

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Breitbart, The Gateway Pundit, Fox17 and Joe.My.God.

Fox News:
House memo states disputed dossier was key to FBI's FISA warrant to surveil members of Team Trump

Discussion: Congressman Jerrold Nadler, bizpacreview.com, Geller Report, IJR, Raw Story, Fox News Insider and twitchy.com

The Federalist:
The House Intel Memo On FISA Abuse Was Just Released. Read It Here

Discussion: Politico, RedState, NewsBusters, bizpacreview.com and The Week

Axios:
White House sees price for release of Nunes memo

Discussion: Politico, bizpacreview.com, The Daily Caller, The Gateway Pundit, Associated Press, Business Insider, New Republic, The Week and CBS Chicago

Massimo Calabresi / TIME:
How Donald Trump Is Sowing Distrust in American Justice

Discussion: The Hill, RedState and Political Wire

Cecilia Vega / ABC News:
President Trump authorizes release of controversial GOP memo with no redactions

Discussion: Politico, bizpacreview.com, Breitbart, Associated Press, The Stream, The Root, Patterico's Pontifications, Shakesville, Mediaite and The Gateway Pundit

CBS News:
GOP memo released: Live updates

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Talking Points Memo, Politico, Axios, Breitbart, CNBC, IJR, CBS Chicago, The Gateway Pundit, The Week, CBS Pittsburgh and twitchy.com

The Daily Beast:
Sean Hannity Has Been Advising Donald Trump on the Nunes Memo, Because of Course He Has

Spencer Ackerman / The Daily Beast:
Trump Wages War on FBI, Justice Department With Release of Nunes Memo

Discussion: Washington Post, Politico, Axios, The Hill, Business Insider, IJR, NPR, Roll Call and bizpacreview.com

Alex Ward / Vox:
Read: the full text of the Nunes memo

Discussion: Media Matters for America

Charlie Spiering / Breitbart:

After Sending Media Away, President Donald Trump Joked with RNC About Mental Test — President Donald Trump spoke at an RNC meeting at the Trump International hotel, but the White House press pool was escorted out after he derided them as “haters.” — Breitbart News obtained an audio recording …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Mediaite, Business Insider, RedState and New York Magazine

Henry J. Gomez / BuzzFeed:
The RNC Is Looking At A Rule That Could Block A Ted Cruz-Like Strategy In 2020

Discussion: Washington Post and CNN

Alex Isenstadt / Politico:
Trump rips into Kasich at RNC dinner

Discussion: Joe.My.God. and The Daily Caller

Thomas Beaumont / Associated Press:
RNC sides with Trump ban of transgender people in military

Discussion: ThinkProgress

Del Quentin Wilber / Wall Street Journal:

Inside the FBI Life of Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, as Told in Their Text Messages — Exchanges between agent and lawyer show dedication to bureau—but no hesitation to criticize colleagues and Trump — WASHINGTON—In the summer of 2016, FBI Agent Peter Strzok had just wrapped up the investigation …

Discussion: Axios and Business Insider

Desmond Butler / Associated Press:

Senator seeks documents on Russia money links to the NRA — WASHINGTON (AP) — A top Democrat is seeking documents from the National Rifle Association and the Treasury Department following reports of an FBI investigation into whether a Russian central banker funneled money to the group during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Talking Points Memo and Roll Call

Bloomberg:
Treasury Warns of Wide Impact If U.S. Sanctions Russian Debt

Discussion: IJR, emptywheel and The Week

Wall Street Journal:

Ahead of Super Bowl, Poll Shows NFL Is Losing Its Core Audience — Adults who report following the NFL closely have dropped 9% since 2014, the poll finds. Just 51% of men aged 18 to 49 say they follow the NFL closely, down from 75% four years ago. — Ahead of a Super Bowl that caps …

Discussion: Breitbart, Sports Polling, The Daily Caller, The Week, The Liberty Review and AOL

CNBC:

Dow falls 400 points as interest rates shoot higher, stocks head for worst week in 2 years — The U.S. economy added 200,000 jobs in January. Economists polled by Reuters expected growth of 180,000.

Discussion: USA Today

Linda Stansberry / News Blog, North Coast Journal:

Not Missing in Humboldt: Bachelor Contestant Bekah Martinez — It turns out Rebekah Martinez is not missing at all. Quite the contrary, actually, she's on a popular nationally televised show: The Bachelor, which you might have heard of. — When posting this week's cover story to Facebook …

Discussion: KTLA, The Blast, AOL, Washington Post, The Big Lead, Decider, Mashable, thecut and Glamour

New York Daily News:

Bronx teacher sparks outrage for using black students in cruel slavery lesson — Kids and parents say this Bronx teacher needs a lesson — in racism. — Middle School 118 teacher Patricia Cummings shocked and traumatized children in her social studies classes when she singled out black students …

Discussion: TheBlaze, WPIX 11 New York, The Root and AOL

Brian Feldman / New York Magazine:

HQ Is Raising Some Funding ... From Peter Thiel — Have you heard of HQ? If you haven't read 8 bajillion blog posts about it, know that it's a cultural-phenomenon quiz show that 1.5 million tune in to daily. You might be heartened to know that HQ has, according to a report from Recode …

Discussion: Mashable, Recode and Gizmodo, more at Techmeme »

Arizona Republic:

Next Slide — Even before the vote, tensions escalated inside the House building. — Mesnard said Shooter alarmed some colleagues as he walked the halls, popping into offices and saying, “It's a great day for a hanging.” — That led Mesnard, accompanied by law enforcement …

Discussion: TheBlaze

David Brooks / New York Times:

The Abortion Memo — Last week I watched as our senators voted down the Republican bill that would have banned abortions after 20 weeks. Our people hung together. Only three Democrats voted with the other side. Yet as I was watching I kept wondering: How much is our position on late-term abortions hurting us?