The Schiff memo’s appalling dishonesty

Over the weekend the House Intelligence Committee Democrats’ much ballyhooed memorandum (“the Schiff memo”) was finally redacted and released. I posted the Schiff memo here and Devin Nunes’s response here.

The 10-page Schiff memo defends the FBI against the charge that it abused its surveillance powers during the 2016 election. The redactions strongly suggest that the Democrats don’t care as much about protecting intelligence sources and methods as they do about keeping up the appearance that there must be a pony in here somewhere.

The Democrats’ mainstream media adjunct has of course seized on the release of the memo to regurgitate the obligatory talking points. Read properly, however, the Schiff memo undermines the Democrats’ case. Andrew McCarthy authoritatively explicates the memo in his invaluable NR column “The Schiff memo harms Democrats more than it helps them,” just posted yesterday evening.

Unlike the Democrats’ faithful media servants, McCarthy applies relevant professional expertise to understanding the memo; he knows what he is talking about. Unlike the Democrats and their media servants, he does not live to promote a party line. He is a natural teacher.

The column is a marvel of lucidity that illuminates the memo’s dark, dark corners. Its only defect is its pedestrian headline. It would more accurately have been headed “The Schiff memo is a work of appalling dishonesty.”

UPDATE: I agree with Rep. Nunes.

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