The Nunes Memo: Why Does Context Matter?

Opening section of the Nunes FISA memo

Representative and House Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes' controversial FISA memo has one big problem. It ignores context. That is, it says things that seem to be true, but it gives the reader a wildly inaccurate impression.

Like many political screeds, the memo over-promises and under-delivers. After raising "concerns" about "the legitimacy and legality of certain DOJ and FBI interactions with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court" and complaining about a "troubling breakdown" of 4th Amendment Protections, the memo mostly deals with technical issues in the investigation of Carter Page, a US citizen who came under surveillance because his contacts with Russians made it appear that the Russian government was trying to recruit him as a spy. As far as we know, Page rebuffed those efforts. This will be forever known as the Nunes memo, despite Nunes' admission that he didn't read the documents on which it was based.

The House Intelligence Committee Democrats produced a response, claiming that the memo left out key facts that would change the public's perception. The Republican majority on the committee refused to declassify the Democrats' response. Warning number one: if you only hear one side of a story, you might believe it even if it is inaccurate. Caution!

Now, it is argued that the memo's claims, most centrally, that Mr. Page was surveilled largely because of the Steele dossier, were true. It is also argued that the Democrats financed the Steele dossier, making it biased. I'm no spy expert, so let's assume, for the sake of argument, that the central claims are true. What about context?

To be accurate, you must speak the truth, but also must supply enough context to give a correct impression. Here is an example that I often gave to my classes:

Let's start with this wonderful old Punch cartoon. An incredibly filthy man writes a letter to a soap company: "I used your soap two years ago, and have not used any other since." This is true. He is not lying. He has not used any other soap. It sounds like a ringing endorsement, a pledge of great loyalty to the soap. The problem is that he hasn't used any soap.  The missing context is what makes the cartoon so very funny.

The man's letter is absolutely true, but is utterly inaccurate. The missing context is so important that it makes the letter dishonest and meaningless.

Did the FISA memo leave out any context? Well, for one, it omits to mention that the FBI and the courts often work with biased informants, and generally understand when to trust them and when not to trust them. It omits that the Steele dossier was initially funded by conservatives. In its effort to make the FBI sound anti-Trump, it omits to mention that the FISA warrant was obtained only after Page left the Trump campaign. It omits to mention that Page himself confirmed many of the dossier's findings during his congressional testimony.

Democrats say that the memo's information was cherry-picked. It is interesting that the Republican majority on the committee refuses to release the Democratic response, which, supposedly, contains information to provide more context. How much context? We don't know. Apparently, however, it's enough context that Nunes and his colleagues don't want the public to see it. What makes this ironic is that the memo's central claims are that the FISA application omitted important context. The memo's authors obviously understood context, but applied a different standard to themselves than what they applied to the FBI.

Truth matters. But context matters, too. To speak truthfully but to ignore important context is wrong. A statement that is untrue can never, ever be accurate. But accuracy also requires the speaker or writer to give a correct impression.

Ideologues produce things like the Nunes memo all the time. They are often happy to say something that is true in a narrow sense, and feel justified in believing it. They talk as if context doesn't matter. But they are wrong. Context always matters.

Cartoon from Wikimedia Commons. 

Update; Democratic memo released, although redacted.