Giving the devil his due

April Doss writing for the Weekly Standard [sic: Washington Examiner], July 27, 2018:

[House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin] Nunes insisted on releasing a memo that endorsed a new conspiracy theory about how a Democratic administration had: abused the [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] process by using salacious opposition research (with the implication that the funding source made the information itself suspect), incorporated that suspect research into a FISA application, and sent the application to the secret proceedings of the FISC without telling the court there could be bias in the information. Through this complicated string of subterfuges, Nunes claims, the Democrats managed to pervert justice in order to spy on the Trump campaign.

Over time, the conspiracy theory would deepen: Since the dossier included information from sources in Russia, that meant that the Hillary for America campaign had colluded with Russia to provide fake information to Christopher Steele, who slipped the fake news to the FBI, which then pulled the wool over the eyes of a succession of four FISC judges, each of whom signed off on further surveillance against Carter Page.

It’s an exhausting theory to contemplate, and yet one that many people, fueled by conspiracy-mongering rumors on the Internet about the workings of the “deep state,” believed.

Wall Street Journal Notable & Quotable

I despise Devin Nunes for his multiple abusive libel lawsuits, and I probably would have agreed with Ms. Doss had I read it, but Nunes nailed this one.