My explanation, analysis, thoughts on "the memo".

The memo.

The memo that we received is actually six pages instead of four, because we also received an additional two pages, in which Donald McGahn II, Counsel to the President, notifies Representative Devin Nunes, the Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), that the President and the White House (WH) attorneys and staff have taken into consideration all aspects of national security and public interest in making the decision to declassify the memo. The President has the Constitutional authority to declassify and release intelligence information when public interest in release outweighs the risk to security. The WH declassified the memo, but chose to turn it back over to the HPSCI for release, which was done quickly. The reason for turning it over to the HPSCI was to ensure that proper separation of powers was observed. The WH is making clear that they are not the driving force behind this. The People's representatives on the HPSCI are.

McGahn also provides citation that the actions taken by the WH and HPSCI have precedence in previous Presidential administrations, including the 0bama Administration and both Bush Administrations. In other words, while the circumstances are "extraordinary", the actions taken are in keeping with standard policies and procedures.

The last point I'll make about the first two pages written by McGahn is that there is still oversight processes continuing in regards to the information contained in the memo. Basically, the investigation is still moving. This memo's release was not the end goal.

Scrolling to page one of four, we see at the top where the classification markings have been crossed out, as per policy for declassified documents. The memo was previously classified as Top Secret (TS), with a NOFORN caveat. NOFORN means that any access by individuals of foreign countries or agencies is prohibited. During my time in the intelligence community, I held a TS security clearance. You can also see that the memo was officially declassified by the WH today, February 2, 2018.

The HPSCI itself has been investigating the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and Department of Justice (DOJ). The purpose of the memo is to briefly describe some of the major details that have come out during the investigation. Once members of the House of Representatives (House) saw the memo, Republicans, including Representative Matt Gaetz, immediately called for release, while Democrats immediately questioned the accuracy of it and demanded it remain classified. Gaetz amassed a large number of signatures on his letter calling for release.

The DOJ and FBI were specifically being investigated for skirting legal requirements when applying for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants to conduct surveillance operations against what we in the US intelligence community (USI) refer to as "US persons". US Persons are heavily protected by law from being collected against by USI. The FISA court (FISC) apparently granted an initial warrant and three renewals for the FBI to collect intelligence against a US person, that being a high level volunteer associate on the Trump Campaign named Carter Page. Carter Page wasn't a phone operator or a coffee boy. He had access to Trump. Specifically, the FBI did "wiretap" Carter Page, and collected other types of electronic intelligence. It is my formerly professional opinion that the FBI was able to observe or listen to his emails, texts, phone calls and may have possibly "tailed" him and recorded conversations he had in the open, however innocuous they might have been.

The warrant requests were signed three times by James Comey and once by Andrew McCabe. Additionally, the applications were signed by the Deputy Attorney General (DAG) at the time. All four were signed by either Sally Yates, Dana Boente or Rod Rosenstein, whomever was DAG. The four applications were spaced 90 days apart.

The problems start popping up when the memo explains the FISA warrants and applications for those warrants are classified, and therefore the integrity of the FISA process depends heavily on the integrity of those submitting the requests. All information relevant to the requested warrant must be shown to the FISC, including info that may be beneficial to the target of the warrant. The memo makes it clear that this did not happen in any of the four applications. The memo goes on to provide the details the HPSCI believes should have been presented to the FISC.

1. Former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele, working for a private intelligence company called Fusion GPS (officially a "US person" itself due to being an American company) had compiled a "dossier" on Donald Trump. This dossier was the essential material presented to the FISC in order to obtain the warrant to collect intelligence against Carter Page. The funding for the dossier work was provided by Hillary Clinton's campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) via Fusion GPS and the Perkins Coie law firm. Steele was specifically paid to collect "derogatory information" on Trump's "ties to Russia". This dossier was the one that had Trump urinating on beds and Russian prostitutes.

At least $160,000 was paid to Steele. The money appears to have originated with the DNC and Clinton Campaign, then was paid to Perkins Coie representing Clinton and the DNC, which then paid Glenn Simpson at Fusion GPS, who then paid Chris Steele for the dossier work. None of the financial information you see here, nor the blatant political nature of the activities, were ever disclosed to the FISC, despite the fact that FBI and DOJ officials were aware from the start.

2. The warrant application also depends heavily on a Yahoo News article to corroborate the dossier. The problem with this is that the Yahoo article written by Michael Isikoff about Carter Page's travel to Moscow, was written with info leaked by Steele himself. You can not leak information to a reporter, and then use the article the reporter writes to back up the original information. It's all the same info from the same source. This was all known from the start after Steele and Perkins Coie were present at an event where it was mentioned.

During my time as an intelligence professional, I was trained and had experience in spotting, assessing, managing, cultivating and vetting potential intelligence sources. In my opinion, Chris Steele was a highly unsuitable source due to his numerous open contacts with news outlets. A source must be assessed for good placement, access, motivation, suitability, susceptibility and accessibility. I believe that Steele fails mightily on those, most notably to me on motivation and suitability. I could say his use as a source demonstrates poor judgment by his handlers, but I think his use as a source was not due to his ability to obtain accurate intelligence, but more so by his ability to provide information that said what his handlers wanted it to say, regardless of the truth.

3. Even after Steele was officially terminated as a FBI source, he maintained close contact with Associate DAG Bruce Ohr. During conversations with Ohr, it was made known that Steele's main goal was preventing a Trump Presidency, and he claimed to be "desperate" to prevent Trump's election victory. Once again, Steele's political bias was never made known to the FISC. Ohr, who worked closely with the DAG, was also married to a Fusion GPS employee who was paid to collect opposition research on Trump by the DNC and Clinton Campaign.

4. Apparently the FBI had only begun to attempt corroboration of the dossier when it was first presented to the FISC. Obviously such a serious document should have been fully and impartially vetted for accuracy long before presentation to the FISC when the goal is collecting intelligence against a US person. The FBI failed at that requirement. Even though the dossier was unverified, James Comey chose to brief President Trump on it's content as though it was a verified file. Andrew McCabe later testified that no warrant would have ever been sought or obtained without the unverified information in the dossier. In other words, without this fictitious and politically motivated dossier, there is no Russian collusion investigation.

5. During the investigation into the dossier, it was discovered that FBI special agent Peter Strzok and his mistress, FBI attorney Lisa Page (no relation to Carter Page) demonstrated extreme anti-Trump bias during Strzok's work on  part of the Russian collusion investigation. Text messages between them show major bias in favor of Hillary Clinton. Agent Strzok also had been assigned to the earlier Clinton investigation that ultimately "cleared" her of wrongdoing. Strzok and Lisa Page had also talked with someone they referred to as "Andy" about an "insurance policy" in case Trump was elected. I suspect that "Andy" is Andrew McCabe.

In conclusion, it is my opinion that the DOJ, FBI and the DNC colluded and conspired to rig a national presidential election in favor of Hillary Clinton, and paid a former foreign intelligence agent (if there is such a thing as a "former" intelligence agent) to assist. I suspected this was the case, as many Americans did. The difference here is that we have it documented by the People's representatives and released for public viewing.

I'm not sure what consequences will come of this, if any, but please continue preparing for what may come. The Deep State is actively working to increase it's power and influence. This is a war. Act accordingly.

Thanks for reading. Please facilitate wide dissemination.