Anonymous ID: a78f87 June 12, 2018, 7:12 p.m. No.1722537   šŸ—„ļø.is šŸ”—kun

(NYT) WASHINGTON ā€” Kashyap Patel is a lawyer who has sometimes run afoul of the rules.

 

As a lawyer in Florida, Mr. Patel, 37, entered and then dropped out of a charity bachelor auction featuring some colleagues after a blogger pointed out that his license to practice in the state appeared out of date. In 2016, as a counterterrorism prosecutor for the Justice Department, he was berated by a federal judge who then issued an ā€œOrder on Ineptitudeā€ directed at the entire agency. And over the summer, in a trip arranged outside official channels, he traveled to London, where he tried unsuccessfully to meet with Christopher Steele, the author of the dossier that purported to details links between the Trump campaign and Russia, according to multiple people with knowledge of the trip.

 

After less than a year as a Republican staff member on the House Intelligence Committee, Mr. Patel has found himself in the middle of another controversy. According to congressional sources, he is the primary author of the politically charged memo, released on Friday by the committee chairman, Representative Devin Nunes, over the opposition of the F.B.I. and the intelligence community, that accuses federal officials of bias against President Trump.

 

Democrats, led by Representative Adam B. Schiff, the ranking minority member on the committee, were scathing in their criticism of both the report and the decision to release it to the public.

 

ā€œThe Presidentā€™s decision to publicly release a misleading memo attacking DOJ & FBI is a transparent attempt to discredit these institutions and undermine Muellerā€™s probe,ā€ Mr. Schiff said on Twitter on Friday, referring to Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel investigating Russiaā€™s involvement in the 2016 presidential election.

 

Damon Nelson, the committeeā€™s staff director, said in an emailed statement that no single member was responsible for the memo and that its creation was a ā€œteam effortā€ that involved investigators who had access to source material.

 

ā€œThe clamor to identify ā€˜an authorā€™ is indicative of an alarming trend by opponents of our investigation,ā€ Mr. Nelson said, ā€œwhich is to promote spurious allegations against committee embers and staff. They will not impact the committeeā€™s focus and commitment to continue this investigation.ā€