Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff.

The brilliance of President Donald J. Trump is shining through. The release of this now infamous 4-page House Intelligence Committee memo shows just how amazing his winning the presidency really was. Not only did Trump run against the Democrats, most Republicans and an unhinged mainstream media he also had the U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation and who knows who else actively working against him from within the federal government and he still won.

The memo prepared by committee chairman Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) contends the DOJ and FBI conspired to fraudulently obtain surveillance warrants issued by a judge to spy on members of Trump’s 2016 campaign. The probable cause evidence provided to the judge consisted of a 35-page report compiled by a former British intelligence officer hired by a consulting firm that specialized in ‘opposition research’ that was paid $12-million in Hillary Clinton and Democratic National Committee campaign contributions — perhaps in violation of federal election laws.

Political intrigue novelists are having a field day. Even seasoned political junkies are having a hard time keeping up with all the ‘memos.’ The Democrats are now coming up with their own ‘secret classified memo’ orchestrated by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) — a member of the same House Intelligence Committee. Schiff requested a vote on Monday by the committee to release the Democrat’s response memo. The committee, which has more Republicans on it than Democrats, voted Monday to release the memo sending it on to the president to release it or not.

Soon after declassifying Nunes’ memo and authorizing its release President Trump commented about the memo’s content from the White House on Friday. Senior DOJ, FBI and other officials urged the White House not to release the memo, according to news reports.
“What’s going on in this country, I think it is a disgrace,” the president said. “When you look at that, and you see that, and so many other things what’s going on, a lot of people should be ashamed of themselves, and much worse than that … it was declassified, and let’s see what happens.”

This memo and its consequences will be debated until everyone is blue in the face, but what is not in dispute is four senior DOJ and FBI officials signed off on the anti-Trump “dossier” prepared by Fusion GPS and submitted that report as evidence in requesting the surveillance warrants. Without the ‘dossier’ there would no securing the warrants. The memo named former FBI Director James Comey (fired), former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe (fired), former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates (fired) and current Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein as conspiring to leave out key facts concerning the ‘dossier.’ They all knew this ‘dossier’ was crap, but they thought they needed it to undermine the Trump campaign for president. Even Comey himself described the anti-Trump ‘dossier’ as “salacious and unverified.”

It’s kind of scary to think all of this is to cover up the fact that the Obama administration, the intelligence community, the Democratic National Committee and mainstream media used our nation’s DOJ-FBI legal surveillance process as a political tool to assure Clinton the presidency and it all failed. These revelations make Watergate look like a kindergarten play.

President Trump is the one coming out on top in this new memo controversy that inevitably will spawn new more far-reaching controversies. Politically this is a windfall for the president coming on the heels of last week’s State-of-the-Union address. In a poll conducted by mainstream media giant CBS News they had to admit they measured a 75-percent approval rating from more than 1,000 viewers that watched the speech. The poll also said 97-percent of Republicans liked the speech along with 72–percent of Independents and even 43-percent of Democrats approved. A strong majority of 65-percent said the speech made them feel “proud” of the USA.
A Rasmussen poll of 1,500 likely voters released Feb. 1 shows President Trump’s approval rating at 49-percent — his highest to date — while 49-percent disapprove, according to Real Clear Politics. But mainstream media is not reporting this poll.

The nation’s premier law enforcement agencies — DOJ & FBI – are taking a public whipping over these revelations and rightly so. DOJ Attorney General Jeff Sessions and FBI Director Christopher Wray not only need to make personnel changes but also create a revolution in public perception of equal treatment under law – the very basis of Democracy. This is a self-inflicted public relations nightmare. They all look bad and the stink is supreme. No much how much you hold your nose — you can’t get away from it.

About the Author Britt Nelson relocated to Costa Rica in 2011 from Florida, where he served as news editor for the Palatka Daily News, a newspaper owned by the New York Times Regional Newspaper Group (NYT-RNG) for 20 years.

Nelson served the NYT-RNG for 18 years in Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida as a correspondent, reporter, staff writer, senior staff writer training new reporters, copy editor, page designer, editorial writer, editorial page editor and editorial board member.