But expediting the process by sidestepping intelligence agencies’ input sacrificed a “useful check” on the government, said Lowenthal, who is now president of the Intelligence & Security Academy. But Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, declined to say whether the president meant to handle the matter the same way he did the Republican memo.
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Not long ago, a memorandum written by Republicans on the House of Representatives intelligence committee created waves in Washington.
Trump on February 2 allowed the release of the earlier memo written by the committee’s Republicans, escalating a campaign criticizing current and former senior law enforcement officials.
After the Nunes memo was released, Trump declared that it was evidence that he had been vindicated in the Russian Federation investigation.
The warrant issued in this case, against Carter Page, a Trump supporter, was based on evidence obtained from a dossier financed, in part, by the Hillary Clinton campaign, according to the House Intelligence Committee.
The newly released memo with fewer redactions states the Federal Bureau of Investigation took “important investigative steps largely based on Mr. Steele’s information-and relying heavily on his credibility”.
Sanders said Trump has seen the memo and that it will undergo the same review process as its Republican counterpart, which was released last week. “He has it. It’s pretty lengthy”, Kelly said.
The Senate document is an unclassified though heavily-redacted version of the criminal referral against Steele, filed by Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) last month.
“This memo totally vindicates “Trump” in probe”, the president tweeted Saturday. They did not disclose that a primary source had made it known he was determined to keep Trump from winning the election.
The White House letter said Justice Department officials will be available to help “should the committee wish to revise the February 5th memorandum to mitigate the risks identified by the department”. Where he accuses them of misleading a federal judge, he is guilty of misleading the public. “If it’s simply a ploy to force us into a circumstance where it looks like we’re trying to override and do something, we’ll have to cross that bridge”.
The committee could seek a vote of the full House to override Trump’s decision on the memo.
What I’m more concerned about”, Schiff told CNN on Tuesday, “is that they make political redactions.
Redacting parts of the Democratic rebuttal, of course, would play right into Schiff’s hands-an outcome Rep. Trey Gowdy suspects Schiff is setting up on objective.
“I think this can be accomplished while also maintaining sources and methods, and not compromising some of the very real national security concerns at stake”, said Schiff.
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They argued that the reliance on Steele’s material amounted to an improper politicization of the government’s surveillance powers. Page said he “may have brought up the need to fix this disaster of a story. this false narrative which had been put out with the world premiere of the dodgy dossier”. “The President has given no indication that he wants to block it”.
