The release of the anticlimactic memo

The Twitter hashtag #ReleaseTheMemo has been trending among right-wing twitter accounts in recent weeks over reports that House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes (R Calif.) would soon release a memo that some believed would finally nail crooked Hillary Clinton and the DNC and bring an end the Russia Investigation. Well, shortly after President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address, the controversial memo has been released, yet is it really as important as Twitter has made it seem?

The memo, which was originally written by House Republicans led by Chairman Devin Nunes, allegedly states that the FBI abused their use of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) during the investigation into Russian meddling during the 2016 presidential election. The memos release was surrounded in controversy as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle pondered its release.  

While the memos release was originally thought to confirm a longstanding conspiracy theory involving the Russia Investigation being sparked by Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee paying off former Trump campaign aide Christopher Steele, the memo actually does no such thing.

Instead it simply points out the FBI sought to obtain a warrant in order to wiretap former Trump campaign aid Carter Page, nothing pertaining to the DNC, Hillary Clinton, or even Steele himself was mentioned in the memo. Despite cries that it discredited the Russia Investigation, some members of congress denied this, in fact some members of the very same body that released the memo think this way.

Republican Representative Trey Gowdy, a key member of the House Intelligence committee denied reports that the memo was involved in the Russia investigation stating, “To the extent the memo deals with the dossier and the FISA process, the dossier has nothing to do with the meeting at Trump Tower.”

“The dossier has nothing to do with an email sent by Cambridge Analytica. The dossier really has nothing to do with George Papadopoulos’ meeting in Great Britain. It also doesn’t have anything to do with obstruction of justice.” He said.

Gowdy’s comments contradict those of Trump who tweeted that he believed the memo discredited the Russia Investigation as nothing more than a witch hunt against him.

“This memo totally vindicates ‘Trump’ in probe,” he tweeted. But the Russian Witch Hunt goes on and on. Their was no Collusion and there was no Obstruction (the word now used because, after one year of looking endlessly and finding NOTHING, collusion is dead) This is an American disgrace!”

Yet after months of jargon by trump and his allies pushing for the memos release, in the end, like most things pushed by Trump and his allies, nothing of worth has come from its release. There was no confirmation of a partisan attempt to take down Trump’s presidency and the Russia Investigation is still ongoing.

Not only has the controversy surrounding the memos release shown the harshness of the partisan divide in congress, but it has also shown the disturbing discontent between the White House under the Trump administration and their own FBI and Justice Department.