The memo will now go to Trump, who will have five days to review the document and either support its declassification or object to it.
Advertisement
A week ago, Republicans, who control a majority on the committee, joined together to block the release of the Democrats’ memo and approve the Republican memo, despite unanimous Democratic opposition.
Should Trump refuse to declassify the Democratic version, a standoff between the White House and Democrats could follow.
Members of the House intelligence committee on Monday voted to release a memo penned by committee Democrats in response to a controversial Republican document accusing the FBI of bias in its investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
But he also said he was concerned about “political redactions” the White House might make before its release.
The latest vote makes it clear that the American people have a right to see both sides and decide.
Nunes declined to comment after the closed-door meeting. Saying it did not vindicate Trump, as the president asserted Saturday, they signaled the possible release of Democrats’ dissenting memo in the coming weeks and said the GOP memo would have no impact on Mueller’s ongoing probe. Mark Warner, D-Va., vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee; former CIA Director John Brennan; and former director of national intelligence James Clapper.
Schiff authored the democratic memo.
It will also dispute Republican claims that the DOJ and Federal Bureau of Investigation concealed critical information about the dossier’s funding from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) when submitting the Page FISA application. However, the juxtaposition here – between “The memo alarmed national security officials and outraged Democrats” and “But [the memo] fell well short of making [the Republicans’ case]” – suggests the committee’s disclosure was of little or no significance.
Said Schiff to George Stephanopoulos on ABC News’ This Week: “Of course not at all”. Nunes has indicated that he is investigating this as well. That case came three years before the 2016 surveillance order described in the Nunes memo. They overemphasized the notion that the information the memo revealed somehow invalidates the entire Russian Federation investigation. My vote to release this memo did exactly that. Unfortunately, Trump probably won’t agree to declassify it because it won’t serve his agenda of making everything seem like he’s the target of a “witch hunt”.
He also praised Nunes in another tweet.
Representative Devin Nunes, a man of tremendous courage and grit, may someday be recognized as a Great American Hero for what he has exposed and what he has had to endure!
Advertisement
Former Vice President Joe Biden says he doesn’t think President Donald Trump should sit down for an interview with special counsel Robert Mueller. “And when the press is criticizing Congress for shining light on issues, when Republicans and Democrats can’t agree on stuff just because it was originated by someone in the other party … and people think that there shouldn’t be oversight, civilian oversight of law enforcement can be a problem”. It discusses how the FISA warrants to target Page were based largely on information from a list of unproven allegations about Trump that were compiled by a former British intelligence agent paid by Democrats.
