MEET tHE cOMEDIAN

[N]unes's claim that the FBI misled the court was itself misleading. There are other ways in which the memo was misleading--discussed in the back and forth between Nunes and his critics on the House Intelligence Committee, and in Charlie Savage's characteristically excellent summary in the New York Times--but the FBI's alleged effort to deceive the court about Steele has always been the heart of the matter, and I am trying in this post to stick to the core.

The FISA applications did not mention the "DNC" or the "Clinton campaign" by name, but they did recount how Steele was approached and then hired by "an identified U.S. Person," Glen Simpson, who explained to Steele that he in turn had been hired by a "U.S.-based law firm," Perkins Coie, "to conduct research regarding Candidate #1," Donald Trump, and Trump's "ties to Russia." (The use of generic identifiers in the FISA applications is consistent with standard practice, as Nunes is well aware; the minority memo provides the names for each identifier.) The FISA applications also advised the court: "The FBI speculates that [Simpson] was likely looking for information that could be used to discredit [Trump's] campaign." [...]

2. It's even more disturbing that a purported oversight memo would withhold key facts from the American people in accusing the government of withholding key facts from the court. Had the FBI done in its FISA applications what Nunes did in his memo, heads would have rolled on Pennsylvania Avenue. The court itself, as well as both intelligence committees, several inspectors general, and the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility all could have brought their shillelaghs to bear. The court, in particular, has done so once before, when it was dissatisfied with the candor of an FBI agent.

 Congressional oversight is a critically important function, but who watches the watchers?

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