The Nunes Memo Has Effectively Destroyed Intelligence Oversight

The Nunes Memo, capitalized to give it far more gravitas that it actually possesses, was released late last week to mixed reviews. Nunes had built it up to be a mind-blowing damnation of a politically corrupt Federal Bureau of Investigation, more interested in destroying Trump than performing its appointed duties. The memo showed the FBI had relied on questionable evidence from the Steele dossier while securing FISA warrants to surveill former Trump adviser Carter Page. This memo was composed by the House intelligence oversight head -- one who had rarely expressed concern about domestic surveillance prior to investigations of Trump officials.

The memo showed the basis for the warrants may have been thin, but it didn't show it was nonexistent. In fact, the underlying warrants actually did inform the FISA court about the political background of Christopher Steele and his dossier. Nunes didn't know this because Nunes hadn't actually read the warrants. When he was finally apprised of this contradiction, he claimed the FBI disclosure didn't count because the disclosure was contained in a footnote.

The memo's release has had some serious side effects, however. But it will be Congressional oversight taking the damage, rather than the FBI. The memo's release showed the dumping of sensitive, classified info could be motivated by political whims, rather than as the result of a thoughtful, deliberative process. It showed oversight committee members were willing to jeopardize law enforcement sources and methods to score political points -- ironically the same claim Nunes was making about the FBI's motivations.

The damage will also be felt -- indirectly -- by the American public. Intelligence oversight is supposed to protect Americans from surveillance abuses. With this move, Nunes has destroyed its credibility, as Julian Sanchez points out.

It will be hard for anyone who has read the Nunes memo to regard the committee’s output as nonpartisan now. And by crying wolf about intelligence abuses with no serious evidence, Nunes and his enablers have made it far easier for America’s spy agencies to dismiss any future allegations, however meritorious, as yet another self-serving partisan distraction: at best, baseless conspiracy theorizing; at worst, an effort to obstruct legitimate investigations.

And that may not even be the worst of it. As Sanchez notes, the effectiveness of intelligence oversight will be blunted further. It's already mostly ineffective. Now, it may be completely broken.

[T]he committees are ultimately dependent on the intelligence community itself to direct their attention to areas that demand further scrutiny—whether in the form of official briefers, or whistleblowers who approach members with their concerns. Neither type is likely to repose much confidence in a committee that seems so enthusiastic to make a partisan circus of its grave task.

If the end game was to stop whistleblowing and give the nation's surveillance apparatus even more autonomy, well… mission accomplished. What was merely "dysfunctional" (according to the 9/11 Commission) will now be utterly useless.

And in the end, it won't matter to those who went along with Nunes' plan to own the libs (FBI Edition). For most committee members, intelligence oversight is a do-nearly-nothing job with zero political payoff. When things are fixed or further broken, the public is rarely informed. The few times the public is apprised of changes, it's handled obliquely with as many redactions as possible. Home state constituents waiting for their bridge to nowhere / vanity airport aren't going to be pouring funds into the re-election hoppers based on some shadowy, poorly-explained intelligence reforms. Everyone involved -- the overseers and the overseen -- would prefer as little interaction with each other as possible. By showing the House Oversight Committee is not above playing political football with FISA warrants, Nunes has virtually guaranteed the committee will be left alone.