Digesting the memo open thread

The memo seems to have few surprises although it confirms what Trump alleged last year and we all suspected: The Deep State cheated to try to destroy Trump.

Illustrated edition Trump not a sexual predatorIt seems that, as Byron York summarizes, the memo confirms what all of us long suspected.

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:

* The Steele dossier formed an essential part of the initial and all three renewal FISA applications against Carter Page.

* Andrew McCabe confirmed that no FISA warrant would have been sought from the FISA Court without the Steele dossier information.

* The political origins of the Steele dossier were known to senior DOJ and FBI officials, but excluded from the FISA applications.

* DOJ official Bruce Ohr met with Steele beginning in the summer of 2016 and relayed to DOJ information about Steele’s bias. Steele told Ohr that he, Steele, was desperate that Donald Trump not get elected president and was passionate about him not becoming president.

You can read the memo yourself here. As I write this, because I’m still working on deadline for a client, I haven’t yet read the memo myself. I don’t know if there’s more in it than York had to say about it.

Ace has a good round-up of responses and further information, things such as the fact that Mueller’s second–in-command is so anti-Trump he was willing to mess with the rules and that Steele was also out to get, not information, but Trump himself.

Since I can’t comment on the memo or how I think it will affect politics in 2018, I’d love to hear from all of you.