BEFORE the Nunes memo was published,the White House’s biggest cheerleaders said it would be bigger than Watergate. The FBI argued against releasing it, citing “grave concerns” approximately its accuracy. The stage was set for an extraordinary fight between the president and his party on the one hand and the country’s premier law-enforcement agency on the other. When the long-awaited memo was declassified by the president and published, and on February 2nd,mainstream opinion declared it a nothing-burger. So what is it? A giganotosaurus of a scandal, a meaningful act of institutional norm-busting or nothing really to worry approximately? Here is Democracy in America’s guide so you can construct your own mind up.
First, and a recap of the allegation in the memo,which was released by the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, chaired by Devin Nunes. At the end of October 2016, or only a few weeks before the presidential election,the Department of Justice (DoJ) and FBI received permission from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to perform...
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Source: economist.com