(THREAD--26 tweets) In a letter dated Jan 4, House Intel Chairman Devin Nunes memorialized a conversation he had had the previous evening with Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein tinyurl.com/y8jh4fm2 and tinyurl.com/y8jkm666 .
1/ Nunes’ letter memorialized an arrangement with the DOJ according to which designated majority and ranking members of the committee and their respective staffs would be able to view at the DOJ headquarters these materials: 
2/ From this letter we learn that on Jan 5 (or shortly thereafter), DOJ provided access to designated House Intel members and staff *all* FD-1023s and FD-302s involving FBI interactions with Christopher Steele.
3/ The FD-1023s would have detailed the time, place, and particulars of the interviews with Steele, and the FD-302s would have detailed everything that Steele related to the FBI: in other words, everything that the FBI wrote down about those contacts and what was said.
4/ So we may reasonably conclude that the tranche included (especially in the FD-302s) *everything Steele ever told the FBI about his sources and methods*!
5/ A couple of things to note about this.
6/ First, it is deplorable (even alarming) that someone like Nunes and his partisan cohorts obtained access to this highly sensitive and confidential material.
7/ As the Democrats and the FBI have both said, this will have a chilling effect on others, not just Steele, who might wish to cooperate with the FBI in the future.
8/ But it also tells us a lot about the weakness of the Trump-Nunes assault on the Steele dossier and the Mueller probe.
9/ What this letter tells us is that as of Jan 5, everything that Nunes (& Schiff for that matter) have said about the Steele dossier is based on EVERYTHING the FBI has recorded from its contacts with Steele--beginning with his first contact w/ the FBI in London on 5 July 2016.
10/ And yet the HIC investigation and its revelations about the FBI, the DOJ, and the Steele dossier, that Sean Hannity and others had assured us in the shrillest tones would shake our Republic to its very foundations, was a big dud!
11/ As Comey said when it was released: “That’s it?” tinyurl.com/y92v3vv
12/ Not that this yuuuuge disappointment has deterred Trumptard die-hards. Now that they have realized that the DOJ didn’t misrepresent anything or anyone in its FISA warrant application,
13/ Trump’s allies in Congress and the media have concluded that what they must do now to save our precious Republic is impugn the four FISC judges who approved the warrant applications!
14/ See for e.g. Andrew C. McCarthy (who sails further off course every day in everything concerning Russiagate): tinyurl.com/yadvzsqp
15/ Finally, let’s try to process this. Steele undoubtedly told the FBI when he was debriefed on 3 Oct 2016 in Rome--if not earlier--that he had American sources (namely Sources D and E), and this must have been recorded in a FD-302 at the time.
16/ Imagine, then, that the FBI did FD-302s and 1023s on SOURCES D AND E. (That it did contact and interview them is not only possible; it is highly probable.) Would those records have been caught up in Nunes’ dragnet seeking ALL the relevant FD-1023s and FD-302s as well?
17/ Unfortunately, I have been unable to find a copy online of the Nunes subpoena dated Aug 24, which might give us a better idea of what was in the tranche.
18/ As it is, we can’t be sure, but from the totally sweeping language in the Nunes letter, it seems very likely. (If anyone reading this does have a copy of the subpoena kindly DM me with a link or copy.)
19/ Bottom line: watch carefully when the Schiff memo is released (as it certainly will be--the only question being what ends up being redacted)
20/ to see if there are any indications in his memo that there are FD-302s for Sources D and E of the Steele dossier in the underlying documentation that Nunes subpoenaed and has been made available to both Republicans and Democrats on HIC.
21/ Finally, here are copies of the FBI forms FD-302 and FD-1023 that I found online so you can see what they look like. The Steele interviews and intel would have been recorded in this format. (How many completed forms there were we do not know.)
22/ Wikipedia: about form FD-302 “Form for Reporting Information That May Become Testimony.” tinyurl.com/yb86m4nd
23/ Wikipedia Form FD-302 tinyurl.com/y7ty5tqm
(a completed form from the archives on the J. F. Kennedy assassination)
(a completed form from the archives on the J. F. Kennedy assassination)
PS1/ Image of an FD-302 (from the JFK assassination archives): tinyurl.com/y7ty5tqm
The James Comey tweet: tinyurl.com/y92v3vvc
