Washington Post Fact Checker Destroys GOP Memo

Zero Credibility for Trumpie and Cohorts – But Nothing New There

The claim by the Donnie defenders is that a memo produced by House Intelligence GOP staffers and the White House is the smoking gun that exonerates Trump. The major part of the memo is that the FBI used Clinton campaign anti-Trump research to obtain a surveillance warrant from the FISA court to spy on a person named Carter Page who was at one time associated with the Trump campaign.

Here is the refutation by the Post's Fact Checker. First of all Carter Page is described by Trumper as one of his key advisers.

March 16, 2016: In an interview with The Washington Post editorial board, Trump names Page as one of his foreign policy advisers.

“Well, I hadn’t thought of doing it, but if you want I can give you some of the names … Walid Phares, who you probably know, PhD, adviser to the House of Representatives caucus, and counterterrorism expert; Carter Page, PhD;

Then Trumper disavows Page.

Sept. 23, 2016: The Trump campaign denies Page was ever part of the campaign. “Mr. Page is not an adviser and has made no contribution to the campaign,” campaign spokesperson Jason Miller said. “He’s never been part of our campaign. Period.”

But then Page leaves the campaign, assuming he was ever a part of it.

Sept. 26, 2016: Page himself announces he is taking “a leave of absence” from the campaign, saying the reporting on his remarks has created a “distraction.”

Then a month after that the FBI gets its FISA warrant.  According to Republicans this was to spy on the Trump campaign, but of course the Trump campaign, which had been going on for a year and a half only had weeks to go so there was no campaign to spy on.  Clever, FBI peope, clever.

So the conclusion is that after a low level adviser left the Trump campaign and was no longer a part of the campaign and right before the election when there was little campaign left the FBI obtained a surveillance warrant to spy on the campaign by surveilling a person who was no longer part of the campaign.

Huh.

The Post gives this four Pinocchio's. We call it garbage.