Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee are likely to vote Monday evening to make public the Democratic memo rebutting GOP allegations that the FBI abused surveillance laws, a move that will put the issue back on President Donald Trump's desk this week.
The classified memo from Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, is written to push back against the central allegations of the Republican memo from Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes. Nunes' memo was released Friday and alleges the FBI abused the FISA process in obtaining a surveillance warrant on former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/05/politics/democratic-memo-release-house-intelligence/index.html
The last thing Trump wanted to happen. But it was pretty much inevitable, once the republican memo was released. The president could still refuse to release it, but that would only increase the damage already done.
The long-hyped Republican memo on the Russia investigation resolved nothing — although it did offer an ominous glimpse of the fracture that awaits in the nation's politics when special counsel Robert Mueller wraps up his probe.
The gulf between the parties is almost certain to widen this week, as President Donald Trump argues that the memo released by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes Friday proves the entire saga is a "witch hunt" and an "American disgrace."
Democrats are cranking up pressure on the President to declassify their dueling memo, which argues the Republican version was misleading and selective in its use of still secret intelligence on Russia's effort to meddle in the 2016 election. Amid their efforts, Trump took a swipe at the intelligence committee's top Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff, in a Monday morning tweet, deriding him as "little" and calling him as "one of the biggest liars and leakers in Washington."
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Democratic leaders went on offense Sunday, warning that any effort by Trump to use the findings of the GOP memo to fire Justice Department and FBI officials would spark grave consequences. They also called on the Intelligence Committee to approve its rebuttal and said Trump should allow it to be made public.
"To say that that's the end of the investigation, that this is all that Donald Trump needs to fire (Deputy Attorney General Rod) Rosenstein or to fire (special counsel Robert) Mueller, I'll just tell you, this could precipitate a constitutional crisis," Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, said on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote to Trump to urge him to facilitate the release of the Democratic memo, written by Schiff.
"A refusal to release the Schiff memo in light of the fact that Chairman Devin Nunes' memo was released and is based on the same underlying documents will confirm the American people's worst fears that the release of Chairman Nunes' memo was only intended to undermine Special Counsel Bob Mueller's investigation," Schumer wrote.
Democrats on the panel are expected to push for a vote on Monday, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told CNN's Manu Raju.
If approved, Trump would have five days to object to the document's release. https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/05/politics/trump-fbi-democrats-memo-plan/index.html
