What you should know before the FISA memo is released

The House Intelligence Committee voted on Monday evening to release a four-page classified memo that according to GOP lawmakers reveals government surveillance abuses to the public.

The memo has been described by GOP lawmakers as “shocking,” “troubling” and “alarming” with one congressman likening the details to KGB activity in Russia.

Ohio Republican Congressman Jim Jordan said, “It is so alarming the American people have to see this.”

“It's troubling. It is shocking,” North Carolina Republican Congressman Mark Meadows said. “Part of me wishes that I didn't read it because I don’t want to believe that those kinds of things could be happening in this country that I call home and love so much.”

“You think about, ‘is this happening in America or is this the KGB?’ That's how alarming it is,” Pennsylvania Republican Congressman Scott Perry said.

The document reveals what role the unverified anti-Trump dossier played in the FBI’s surveillance application warrant to a secret federal court for at least one Trump associate, according to those who have seen the memo.

The dossier was partially paid for by Democrats and the Clinton campaign during the 2016 presidential election. It was compiled by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele and contained opposition research on Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign.

The U.S. firm Fusion GPS hired Steele, which commissioned the research with financing by the Democratic National Committee and the campaign of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

Requests for surveillance warrants to target suspected foreign spies inside the United States are made through the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, also known as the FISA court.

The GOP-majority committee also voted against releasing a counter-memo written by Democrats.

Republican Congressman Lee Zeldin of New York’s 1st Congressional District wrote in a tweet that he has not seen Adam Schiff’s counter memo.

Schiff is the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.

Zeldin also said in the tweet he has no idea what it says and it hasn’t been made available to him or anyone in the House of Representatives. He also is not sure if the counter-memo even exists, but he did say that the FISA Abuse Memo does exist.

President Trump now has five days to determine if he has any objections to the memo before it is released to the public. It is unknown currently whether he will support the memo being released to the public.

The White House seems to favor the memo’s release as White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said on Monday, “We want full transparency.” “That’s what we have said all along,” she said.

South Carolina GOP Congressman Trey Gowdy supports the four-page memo being released to the public as he helped write it.

“If you … want to know whether or not the dossier was used in court proceedings, whether or not it was vetted before it was used. … If you are interested in who paid for the dossier … then, yes, you'll want the memo to come out,” Gowdy told “Fox News Sunday.”

The vote came on the same day that it was reported that FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe resigned.

Here is more information you should know before the memo is released:

The memo deals with a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court warrant involving former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, which might show that the Department of Justice used the Trump dossier as a basis for their surveillance of Page.

The classified Department of Justice memo is suspected to contain evidence of illegal FBI and DOJ spying on the Trump campaign because of Hillary Clinton. It is likely a violation of the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution for spying on U.S. citizens illegally without probable cause.

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Republican Congressman Peter King from New York said on Fox News that the memo was being written so as not to tip off any enemies of the United States as to what methods or sources the United States has.

King also said there were very serious mistakes, very serious negligence or intentionally not complying with the rules as to what has to be done to begin an investigation to have certain procedures followed. “Everything should have been followed and it clearly wasn’t here.”

He also said he was not talking about technicalities. “Procedures that go right to the heart of this case.”

“I have not seen any evidence at all of any collusion between the Trump campaign, between President Trump and the Russians. There’s none whatsoever,” King said. “Nothing at all even remotely credible.”

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Journalist Sara Carter says that the memo is so “explosive” that it could lead to “the end of Robert Mueller’s Special Counsel Investigation into President Trump and his associates.”

Florida Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz said that people will “go to jail” over the memo.

Iowa Republican Congressman Steve King describes it as “worse than Watergate.”

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Infowars’ Alex Jones said yesterday on his radio show: “I’m talking to members of Congress, I’m talking to their aides. I’m talking to media people high up in Fox News and high up in other channels I’m not going to name because it would too specific if I did.” “And they obviously want to know what is in that memo,” Jones said.

Jones also said, “The redacted declassified version of the 99-page report by the FISA court about criminal activities they were asked to engage in that they rebutted three times in the document. And they say, ‘This is illegal.’ But what’s blacked out is the names of who did it. What they told them to do. What their arguments were. That is the roadmap for all the other documents they’ve got.”

“And I was told, ‘We’re just calling it the secret FISA memo because it’s all about FISA and how illegal made-up information was used to obtain this Alex,’” Jones said.

Jones also said, “And so that’s what I was told, ‘Yes, Alex. No, it’s not fake news.’ Jack Posobiec also talked to a Congressman. They said, ‘No that is part of it. That memo the excised parts is the core of it.’”

“But it’s the core because it shows that the court thought it was illegal. Three times. And rebutted it. Until finally it came down from the President ‘You’re going to do this.’ ‘Yes sir, Mr. President.’ That’s why they say this is going to embarrass the President so much. So, we’ve told you what’s in the memo,” Jones said.

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Ryan Fournier, a political commentator and analyst tweeted on January 23rd: Leaked FBI texts indicate that President Obama was directly involved in the investigation of 2016 Presidential Candidates.

Fournier tweeted on January 19th: Just spoke to one of my sources on the Hill, this Intelligence Memo is going to lead to the investigation and indictment of key people in the Obama Administration. #ReleaseTheMemo