The House Intelligence Committee is now home to dueling memos over alleged surveillance abuses related to the 2016 election. Democrats on the committee have crafted their own secret document in response to a Republican-drafted memo that outlines alleged FBI misconduct against the Trump team, as demands from GOP lawmakers to release that document publicly gain traction.
Upward of 190 lawmakers have viewed the classified memo since Thursday, when House Intelligence Committee Republicans voted to release the document to the full House. The document reportedly alleges politically motivated abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) by federal officials against the Trump campaign.
But Democrats say the memo is factually inaccurate and seeks only to undermine special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russian election interference and any potential links between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin. They are now looking to release their own counter-memo to the full House.
“Regrettably, it has been necessary for Committee Democrats to draft our own memorandum, setting out the relevant facts and exposing the misleading character of the Republicans’ document,” said the panel’s top Democrat Adam Schiff, “so that members of the House are not left with an erroneous impression of the dedicated professionals at the FBI and DOJ.”
Schiff said that with their memo, Republicans seek to “selectively and misleadingly characterize classified information in an effort to protect the President.” “This represents another effort to distract from the Russia probe and undermine the Special Counsel,” he said.
Democrats on the panel will move to make their document accessible to the full House on Monday. There are nine Democrats on the panel to Republicans’ 13, and the move would require majority approval.
Top House Republicans have been encouraging members to view the classified memo, which is located in a secure area of the Capitol. A GOP source told TWS Wednesday that intelligence panel members are “strongly moving” toward publishing the memo.
The document could be made public if the panel approves its release in a vote, which might happen as early as next week or the week after, the source said. The president would then have five days to object if he so chooses.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Tuesday that the administration supports “full transparency.” If the president objects to public release, the question could come before the full House.
Members have been hesitant to describe the details of the GOP-drafted memo. 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 the Democratic National Committee, in obtaining a FISA warrant to surveil Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
