Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., said Tuesday that he is confident President Trump would allow the public release of a memo on alleged surveillance abuses.
“I can tell you the president is going to allow this to be released,” Gaetz said on Fox News on Tuesday.
Dozens of Republican lawmakers have pushed for the release of the four-page report, written by the GOP majority in the House Intelligence Committee, as they say it contains evidence of misuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act by the Obama administration to spy on Trump associates.
Should the intelligence panel give the OK, then Trump would have five days to block its unveiling to the public.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters earlier in the day that the president supports “full transparency” when it comes to the House Intelligence Committee’s memo, but declined to directly confirm Trump would allow its release.
Democrats have dismissed its contents as nothing more than “talking points” and have complained that its contents, based on classified material from the Justice Department and FBI to which most members do not have access, are leading to a “false narrative.”
Still, Gaetz said the “overlay” of the memo and the missing text messages exchanged between two FBI agents expressing anti-Trump bias gives way to a “time line is very interesting and tells quite a story.”
Talks among congressional leaders about the process by which the memo could be publicly released are underway, though the FBI has yet to see the memo despite a request to gain access to it.
Gaetz last week led a group of 65 lawmakers in signing a letter urging House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., to release the memo.
Should Trump reject its unveiling to the public, the entire House could still secure its release through a vote, a congressional source told the Washington Examiner over the weekend.
