Walter Shapiro writes that the Nunes memo is a 21st Century version of the Piltdown Man:
perhaps the most famous fraud in the history of paleontology [which] combined a 600-year-old skull, an orangutan’s jaw and a chimpanzee’s tooth to feign being the remains of the Missing Link between man and the apes.
The memo suggests that, in 2016, when the FBI applied for a FISA warrant to investigate Carter Page, it neglected to inform the judge that the chief source ot its information was Christopher Steele's memo, which was paid for by Democrats. It does not memetion that the bureau had been monitoring Page since 2013 -- and there was lots of other information about Page -- which had been attained from various other sources.
And, while the memo purports to suggest that this FISA application set off the current attempt to do Trump in, it does admit -- off handedly -- that the FBI's investigation began when another Trump campaign advisor, George Papadopolous, admitted to an Australian diplomat that he knew the Russians had a treasure trove of hacked emails from Hillary Clinton.
These Republicans truly are the gang that can't shoot straight. It is one of history's ironies that they are members of the Intelligence Committee. Shapiro correctly concludes that:
We have reached that alarming moment when right-wing Republicans actually believe the conspiracy theories peddled by the likes of Sean Hannity on Fox News, who claims the memo reveals an “attempted coup” against Donald Trump plotted by the “Deep State”. At least, the original fabricator of the Piltdown man knew that it was all a hoax.
Like, their president, these folks just aren't very bright.
Image: cfact
