U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
PERMANENT SELECT COMMITTEE
ON INTELLIGENCE
Memo Key Points
Overview of Process
• The Committee has made this memo public due to the American people’s right to know
this information.
• The Committee, which is responsible for overseeing the activities of the Intelligence
Community, hopes the publication of this information will help inform the public about
abuses that have occurred at the DOJ and FBI, and spur needed reform and accountability
at those agencies so that similar abuses will not occur under any administration,
Democrat or Republican
• The government’s surveillance capabilities are extraordinary powers that must be
carefully circumscribed to protect Americans’ civil liberties. Any use of these powers for
political purposes or any purpose other than defending the American people is
intolerable.
• The decision to release the memo was procedurally sound, in accordance with House and
Committee rules, and included review by the Executive Branch and over 200 members of
the House.
• It is in the public interest to release the memo, which was carefully crafted to safeguard
national security.
Key Revelations from Declassified Memo
• The Steele dossier formed an essential part of a FISA application targeting Carter Page.
Former FBI Deputy Director McCabe confirmed that no surveillance warrant would have
been sought from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) without the Steele
dossier information.
• FBI and DOJ obtained from the FISC an initial warrant, and three FISA renewals.
o Then-FBI Director James Comey signed three FISA applications in question on
behalf of the FBI, and former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe signed one.
o Then-Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Sally Yates, then-Acting DAG Dana
Boente, and DAG Rod Rosenstein each signed one or more FISA applications on
behalf of DOJ.
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• Steele was paid over $160,000 by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and
Hillary for America (Clinton campaign) for his dossier. Neither the initial application in
October 2016, nor any of the renewals, disclose or reference the role of the DNC, Clinton
campaign, or any party/campaign in funding Steele’s efforts, even though the political
origins of the Steele dossier were then known to senior DOJ and FBI officials.
• While the FISA application relied on Steele’s past record of credible reporting on other
unrelated matters, it ignored or concealed his anti-Trump financial and ideological
motivations.
o Before and after Steele was terminated as a source, he maintained contact with
DOJ via then-Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr. In September 2016,
Steele told Ohr, he “was desperate that Donald Trump not get elected and was
passionate about him not being president.” Ohr later relayed this evidence of
Steele’s bias to FBI, where it was recorded in official files, but not included in
any of the FISA applications.
o None of the FISA applications mention that the FBI had separately authorized
payment to Steele for the dossier information.
• According to the head of the FBI’s counterintelligence division, Assistant Director Bill
Priestap, corroboration of the Steele dossier was in its “infancy” at the time of the initial
Page FISA application. In early January 2017, Director Comey briefed President-elect
Trump on a summary of the Steele dossier, a document he later described as “salacious
and unverified.”
• The Page FISA application incorrectly assesses that Steele did not directly provide
information to Yahoo News. Steele has admitted in British court filings that he met with
Yahoo News—and several other outlets—in September 2016 at the direction of Fusion
GPS.
• Perkins Coie, the law firm that hired Fusion GPS on behalf of the DNC and Clinton
campaign, was aware of Steele’s initial media contacts, and hosted at least one meeting in
Washington D.C. in 2016 with Steele and Fusion GPS.
• Ohr’s wife was employed by Fusion GPS to assist in the cultivation of opposition
research on Trump. Ohr later provided the FBI with all of his wife’s opposition research,
paid for by the DNC and Clinton campaign via Fusion GPS.
• The Page FISA application also mentions information regarding fellow Trump campaign
advisor George Papadopoulos, but there is no evidence of any cooperation or conspiracy
between Page and Papadopoulos.
Top Ten Memo Facts
• The Memo is NOT intended to undermine the Special Counsel: It is intended to
expose past abuses of the FISA process at DOJ and FBI.
• The Memo is NOT intended to undermine DOJ or FBI: The House’s fulfillment of its
constitutional responsibilities enables effective constitutional oversight of those agencies.
• The Memo does NOT jeopardize national security: The careful release of [formerly]
classified information served the public interest, followed House rules, and included
Executive Branch review.
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• The Memo does NOT undermine FISA Section 702: It has nothing to do with Section
702, which targets foreigners located overseas.
• The Memo does NOT contain any factual errors: FBI did not identify any factual
errors during its review of the memo.
• The Memo does NOT result from cooperation with the White House: No one outside
the House Intelligence Committee played any role in drafting the memo.
• The Memo is NOT a collection of partisan talking points: It lays out important facts
for the American people about FISA abuses.
• The Memo is NOT the product of “secret changes”: Minor edits were made BEFORE
the vote to publicly release the memo, which was procedurally sound.
• The Memo is NOT a staff-driven exercise: All Committee Republican Members were
engaged in the process that led to the memo.
• The Committee did NOT suppress the Democrats’ memo: It voted unanimously to
follow the same process for minority memos by first making it available to the House.
HPSCI Memo Edits
• HPSCI Ranking Member Adam Schiff has been a ceaseless opponent of the Committee’s
attempts to collect and share information on FISA abuses. He even denounced the
Committee’s issuance of subpoenas to the DOJ and FBI for information the agencies
were withholding from Congressional oversight.
• In a last-ditch effort to block publication of the HPSCI memo, Ranking Member Schiff
issued a press release complaining about minor edits the Committee made to the memo.
• The edits, implemented before HPSCI voted to make the memo public, included routine,
minor technical changes and edits suggested by the FBI and by the Committee Minority
themselves, respectively.
• Ranking Member Schiff’s press release was one in a long line of media stunts meant to
oppose transparency and stifle the Committee’s inv