美国国家公共电台 NPR Nunes Memo: What's In It And What's Not

Nunes Memo¹: What's In It And What's Not

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

After days of buildup, the memo is out. Of course we're talking about the Republican document alleging² that the FBI and the Justice Department abused surveillance powers to target the Trump³ campaign early on in the Russia investigation⁴. NPR justice reporter Ryan Lucas has been following this story for a very long time...

RYAN LUCAS, BYLINE⁵: (Laughter).

SHAPIRO: ...And is here with us now. Hi, Ryan.

LUCAS: Howdy.

SHAPIRO: We've seen the memo. What does it say?

LUCAS: Well, the allegations revolve⁶ around a surveillance warrant that was obtained by the FBI on Trump foreign policy adviser⁷ Carter Page. As the memo tells it, the FBI and the Justice Department relied on information in the infamous⁸ Trump-Russia dossier that was put together by a former British spy and paid for by Democrats⁹. They used this dossier to get approval to conduct that surveillance.

The memo says the FBI didn't disclose that to the FISA Court - that's the court that approves those surveillance orders - didn't disclose that the Democrats were paying for the dossier. The FBI also allegedly left out that the dossier's author disliked Trump and was leaking information to the media that was then used to support the surveillance application before the court.

SHAPIRO: A lot of this sounds familiar from arguments that Republicans have been making for a long time. Is there anything in the memo that's surprising?

LUCAS: What's perhaps the most surprising is that the memo - and this is perhaps inadvertently - bolsters¹⁰ the case for the Russia investigation. Here's how. It says the FBI and Justice Department obtained the surveillance warrant from the FISA Court. These warrants run 90 days. In the case of Carter Page, they were renewed three times.

Now, why is that important? It's important because in order to get the court to renew the surveillance, you have to prove to the court that you're getting intelligence from it, that it's producing. So in the case of Page, the indication is that the surveillance was indeed paying off. The other surprising thing in the memo is that it says the FBI's Russia investigation began in late July of 2016 because of information related to George Papadopoulos.

SHAPIRO: Not Carter Page.

LUCAS: Not Carter Page - Papadopoulos. Now, Papadopoulos of course was a campaign adviser like Page. Papadopoulos has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his own contacts with Russians. Now, if the investigation was launched because of Papadopoulos, that means the allegation from Republicans that the dossier is the root of the investigation - that can't be true.

SHAPIRO: Part of what made this so unusual was that the FBI and the Justice Department strongly fought the release of this memo while the White House pushed for it to come out.

LUCAS: Right.

SHAPIRO: What have we heard from the FBI and the Justice Department today?

LUCAS: Well, Attorney General Jeff Sessions put out a statement that tried to walk a very fine line. He says he has great confidence in the men and women of the department, but no department is perfect. He says he looks forward to working with Congress and will work hard to ascertain¹¹ the truth of the matter.

Now, the FBI put out a statement earlier this week, the one in which it said it has grave concerns about material omissions¹² of fact that fundamentally impact the memo's accuracy. Now that the memo is out, the FBI is kind of stuck. To correct what it sees as inaccuracies would likely involve disclosing classified information. That's not something that it's going to do. The FBI Agents Association, however, put out a statement today defending the work that the bureau does. It says the American people should know that FBI agents won't let partisan¹³ politics distract them from their mission.

SHAPIRO: I want to take a step back here for a minute because since this investigation began, the president has fired the former FBI Director James Comey. The bureau's No. 2 official, Andrew McCabe, recently stepped aside. And today the president said in light of the memo that there are a lot of people who should be ashamed and much worse. Could people lose their jobs over this?

LUCAS: One individual who is under pressure is Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. He's an individual who signed one of these surveillance orders before the court.

SHAPIRO: And he oversees¹⁴ the Russia investigation conducted by Robert Mueller.

LUCAS: Exactly. And Trump has been talking with people about getting rid of Rosenstein. The president was asked today whether he would fire Rosenstein in light of the memo. His response was, you figure that one out. The concern here of course is that the memo may be used as a justification¹⁵ to push Rosenstein out. And because he's the one who oversees the Russia investigation, that's a big concern.

SHAPIRO: It's NPR's Ryan Lucas. Thanks very much.

LUCAS: Thank you.

1 memo   

n.照会，备忘录；便笺；通知书；规章

参考例句：

• Do you want me to send the memo out?您要我把这份备忘录分发出去吗？
• Can you type a memo for me?您能帮我打一份备忘录吗？

2 alleging   

断言，宣称，辩解( allege的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• His reputation was blemished by a newspaper article alleging he'd evaded his taxes. 由于报上一篇文章声称他曾逃税，他的名誉受到损害。
• This our Peeress declined as unnecessary, alleging that her cousin Thornhill's recommendation would be sufficient. 那位贵人不肯，还说不必，只要有她老表唐希尔保荐就够了。

3 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

4 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 revolve   

vi.(使)旋转；循环出现

参考例句：

• The planets revolve around the sun.行星绕着太阳运转。
• The wheels began to revolve slowly.车轮开始慢慢转动。

7 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

8 infamous   

adj.声名狼藉的，臭名昭著的，邪恶的

参考例句：

• He was infamous for his anti-feminist attitudes.他因反对女性主义而声名狼藉。
• I was shocked by her infamous behaviour.她的无耻行径令我震惊。

9 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 bolsters   

n.长枕( bolster的名词复数 )；垫子；衬垫；支持物v.支持( bolster的第三人称单数 )；支撑；给予必要的支持；援助

参考例句：

• He used a couple of bolsters to elevate his head. 他用两个垫枕垫头。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The double-row piles with both inclined and horizontal bolsters also analyzed in consideration of staged excavation. 本文亦分析了考虑开挖过程的安置斜撑与带支撑的双排桩支护结构。 来自互联网

11 ascertain   

vt.发现，确定，查明，弄清

参考例句：

• It's difficult to ascertain the coal deposits.煤储量很难探明。
• We must ascertain the responsibility in light of different situtations.我们必须根据不同情况判定责任。

12 omissions   

n.省略( omission的名词复数 )；删节；遗漏；略去或漏掉的事（或人）

参考例句：

• In spite of careful checking, there are still omissions. 饶这么细心核对，还是有遗漏。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• It has many omissions; even so, it is quite a useful reference book. 那本书有许多遗漏之处，即使如此，尚不失为一本有用的参考书。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

13 partisan   

adj.党派性的；游击队的；n.游击队员；党徒

参考例句：

• In their anger they forget all the partisan quarrels.愤怒之中，他们忘掉一切党派之争。
• The numerous newly created partisan detachments began working slowly towards that region.许多新建的游击队都开始慢慢地向那里移动。

14 oversees   

v.监督，监视( oversee的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• She oversees both the research and the manufacturing departments. 她既监督研究部门又监督生产部门。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Department of Education oversees the federal programs dealing with education. 教育部监管处理教育的联邦程序。 来自互联网

15 justification   

n.正当的理由；辩解的理由

参考例句：

• There's no justification for dividing the company into smaller units. 没有理由把公司划分成小单位。
• In the young there is a justification for this feeling. 在年轻人中有这种感觉是有理由的。