Top House Republicans met Saturday amid mounting calls for the release of a memo about alleged surveillance abuses by federal officials, a document that Democrats describe as a partisan stunt meant to undermine special counsel Robert Mueller.
House Intelligence Committee (HPSCI) chairman Devin Nunes met with House Oversight Committee chairman Trey Gowdy and Judiciary Committee chairman Bob Goodlatte in part to discuss the possibility of publicly releasing a four-page memo that Republicans say outlines politically motivated abuses of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
Lawmakers have been hesitant to detail the contents of the classified memo, which was authored by GOP staff. But reports indicate that it addresses the extent to which law enforcement officials relied on information from ex-spy Christopher Steele, whose 2016 research was partially financed by Hillary Clinton’s campaign, in obtaining a FISA warrant to surveil Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
HPSCI Republicans voted Thursday to allow the full House to view the memo in a secure area of the Capitol. So far, about 180 Republicans and 10 Democrats have viewed the document, and the trio of Republican chairmen is encouraging more members to go read it, according to a GOP source. Democrats on the panel, meanwhile, have uniformly accused Republicans of wanting to release the document “for the political purpose of spreading a false narrative and undermining legitimate investigations.” The panel’s top Democrat, Adam Schiff, described the memo as “rife with factual inaccuracies.”
The intelligence committee document could be made public if the panel approves its release in a vote and Trump does not object within five days. If the president does object, the question could come before the full House for a vote.
But Republicans differ on how much of the memo should be redacted, with some urging caution and others aggressively calling for its full release. New York congressman Peter King, who was central in the effort to allow all House members to view the memo, said Friday that the four pages contain “a lot of classified material.”
“There’s sources and methods in there which you just wouldn’t want known by the enemy,” he said.
“It was enough of a fight to get this out,” King added, referring to the Thursday vote. “It was a pretty heated debate.”
Florida congressman Ron DeSantis offered an opposing view and described the memo as a “summary” that does not discuss sources and methods. Republican Matt Gaetz also told reporters Friday that “there is absolutely nothing” in the four pages that needs redacting.
“This entire investigation is built on a sham, and that becomes evident in the contents of the memo,” he said, referring to Mueller’s probe that includes any potential links between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin. More than 60 lawmakers joined Gaetz in a Friday letter urging Nunes to publicly release the document.
Ohio Republican Jim Jordan predicted that a vote on releasing the memo could happen next week. “What is outlined in the memo, the FBI, the Justice Department, the United States government should never engage in that kind-of behavior,” he said. “It is just flat-out wrong what took place.”
Florida Republican Tom Rooney, a HPSCI member, also said he wants the memo released. “We feel like there was an abuse of power, or certainly a perverted use of their power to use a political document the way that they did,” he said, referring to some FBI and Justice Department officials. “Part of our job is to make sure it doesn’t ever happen again.”
HPSCI Republican Mike Conaway on Friday told reporters he was “leaning” toward supporting the release of the memo. “Once the members have read it, then we’ll be in a better position to have a family discussion, family writ-large, a House discussion on next steps,” he said.
Democrats on the panel say that the primary source documents underlying the report are “highly classified” and will not be made public, “making it impossible for the few Members who have seen the documents to explain the flaws and misstatements contained within.” “This is by design,” HPSCI Democrats said in a statement Friday.
The memo itself, they said, is “yet another desperate and flailing attempt to undermine Special Counsel Mueller and the FBI.”
The FBI and Justice Department have reportedly not yet received a copy of the memo.
