War of the Memos

The Democrats' rebuttal to Rep. Devin Nunes' memo was released on Saturday, and states that the FBI and DOJ "did not 'abuse' the [FISA] process, omit material information, or subvert this vital tool to spy on the Trump campaign," contrary to what the Nunes memo claims.

Why it matters: These memos have taken on a role in the inter-party battle over Russia that is in some ways disproportionate to what they actually contain. Sean Hannity, for example, claimed the Nunes memo revealed something "far worse than Watergate" and Trump claimed he was "totally vindicated" by it. Democrats countered that the Nunes memo was a piece of propaganda maliciously designed to undermine the Russia probe. We're seeing similar reactions now — but in reverse.

https://www.axios.com/whats-in-the-democrats-rebuttal-to-the-nunes-memo-1519508160-790c0b08-f633-435e-ab3b-ea001e7df064.html