Donald Trump is doing everything within his power to kill Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russiagate. He fired former FBI director, James Comey, and even asked the White House counsel, Ty Cobb, to fire Mueller. Now, the president has a problem that he just might not be able to overcome.
The Republican Intelligence Committee chair, Devin Nunes (CA), implemented a secret investigation into the FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ) against committee rules. He was supposed to open any investigation after consideration from the minority members, but he did not. In fact, he just told the committee Democrats about the secret investigation.
Nunes worked on the Trump campaign and supposedly got himself recused from any Russia-related activities. Regardless, Nunes has placed himself back in the middle of the Russia investigation.
One of the Republicans’ issues has been the infamous dossier, which was prepared by well-respected British MI-6 spy, Michael Steele. Now, they have another dossier to face.
A controversial political activist and former journalist, Cody Shearer, wrote a second memo. At first, people did not take this memo seriously, because Shearer has no background in espionage, and he was close to the Clintons in the 1990s. In addition, he sent his memo to several media outlets prior to the 2016 presidential election.
Now, The Guardian has uncovered additional information about the Shearer memo in an exclusive report. According to the publication’s source familiar with the probe, the FBI is still investigating details of that memo and following some “intriguing” leads. That means, the organization is taking it seriously, at least in part.
What this means is although Trump supporters have lambasted the Steele dossier, Shearer’s research may have corroborated parts of it. This is a stunning revelation that could take the air out of the Republicans who have been trying to ruin the Mueller investigation’s credibility.
They claimed that the government investigators were biased in favor of Hillary Clinton at the beginning of their investigation. Republicans also alleged that the Clinton campaign paid for the dossier. A Republican organization originally requested the dossier from Fusion GPS as background information against Trump during the primaries. After Trump won, the Democrats bought the data, which is a very common practice.
All of the Republicans sitting on the House Intelligence Committee voted in favor of releasing the Nunes memo. He authorized his aides to prepare the four-page document, one highly biased against the FBI.
They cherry-picked facts within Nunes’ memo claimed the FBI was anti-Trump at the time it acquired a FISA warrant (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court). This is a secret court that looks at requests from the law enforcement agencies to place Americans who may be foreign agents under surveillance. The warrant specifically asked the court for permission to collect intelligence on one of the Trump campaign’s advisers, Carter Page.
The DOJ said that releasing the Nunes memo would be “extraordinarily reckless,” because it releases classified information.
Steele warned the FBI that he could not vouch for the accuracy of the Shearer memo, according to the The Guardian, but he included it because it provided information from independent sources that corroborated his own. One point was that the Russians compromised Donald Trump when he went to Moscow in 2013. That involved lewd acts in a five-star hotel.
Shearer sources a Russian FSB (national security agency) individual. The Guardian reports the activist has a:
‘Large network of sources around the world and the independent financial means to pursue leads.’
The Guardian cannot verify any of Shearer’s claims, and it notes that the Clinton campaign was not aware of the memo.
Featured Image via Getty Images/Mark Wilson.
