As House Republicans and Democrats battle over the release of a secret memo alleging surveillance abuses against the Trump campaign, Senate Republicans are not giving in to the prevailing heated rhetoric.
The four-page House Intelligence Committee memo, prepared by GOP staff, reportedly alleges politically motivated abuses of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) by federal officials against the Trump team. More than 190 members have viewed the document in a secure room inside the Capitol since Republicans on the panel voted to release it to the full House last week.
GOP House members say the allegations inside the document are “jaw-dropping” and want the memo released to the public, much to the resistance of Democrats and some in the Trump administration.
Both the Senate and House intelligence committees are probing Russian election interference, including the nature of any potential links between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin. In what seems to have become a pattern, senators on and off the intelligence panel were cautious Wednesday when asked about the memo controversy on the House side.
Oklahoma senator James Lankford said the Senate has not yet seen the House memo, but that the intelligence committee is working to determine the source documents that it is based on.
“We’re more interested in the source documents than we are in an internal staff memo,” he said, adding the committee is “trying to figure out what source documents that they actually drew from. The footnotes and where they got it from is a bigger issue than the conclusion of the memo, because we’ll come up with our own conclusions.”
CNN reported Wednesday that a Senate intelligence committee request to access the memo has been denied. Intelligence committee member John Cornyn has been briefed on the memo by House intelligence committee chairman Devin Nunes, per that report.
Asked Wednesday if he was interested in seeing the document, Cornyn said “sure” and chuckled.
“If there is such abuse, that’s a serious matter, and so I’d be interested in learning more about that allegation,” he said.
Jim Risch, another Intelligence panel member, hesitated to say whether he wanted to see the memo.
“This stuff all relates to documents and discussions that are classified,” he said. “You’re going to get what you need to get out of this eventually, but I can’t help you right now.”
Missouri senator Roy Blunt, also an intelligence committee member, did not seem to be following the controversy closely.
“I haven’t looked at the memo, and I haven’t seen the memo,” he said. “I’d be glad to look at whatever the House has.”
And South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham, asked if he had been watching the memo battle, simply said, “no.”
Senate Judiciary committee chairman Chuck Grassley, meanwhile, appeared confident that he’d have the chance to see the House document in coming weeks.
“They’re going to get it out,” he told reporters, noting that the process could take some time. The classified memo could be released publicly if the House intelligence panel approves the move in a vote and the president does not object within five days. If he does object, the question could come before the full House.
Reports indicate that the memo addresses federal officials’ use of information from ex-spy Christopher Steele, whose 2016 research was financed in part by Democratic sources, in a FISA warrant application to surveil former Trump adviser Carter Page. Per the New York Times, the memo suggests that federal officials did not fully inform the FISA court judge about the financing behind Steele’s research.
Democrats have said that the memo is filled with “factual inaccuracies” and is intended to distract from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference, including any potential links between the Trump team and the Kremlin. The intel panel’s top Democrat Adam Schiff announced plans Wednesday to offer a counter-memo “exposing the misleading character of the Republicans’ document.”
But committee Democrats have suggested that countering the GOP memo is difficult because detailing the other intelligence that the FISA warrant application is based on, and that the memo reportedly omits, would reveal sources and methods.
“The documents that supposedly inform these talking points are highly classified,” the panel’s Democrats said in a joint statement. “They 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 the talking points without disclosing our most closely held intelligence sources and methods. This is by design.”
Schiff on Wednesday urged against publicly releasing the GOP memo. The Justice Department also sent a letter to Nunes that day telling him it would be “extraordinarily reckless” to release the document without Justice Department (DOJ) and FBI review.
“We do not understand why the Committee would possibly seek to disclose classified and law enforcement sensitive information without first consulting with the relevant members of the intelligence community,” wrote assistant attorney general Stephen Boyd.
A House intelligence committee vote on whether to release the document publicly, Boyd said, would “require … members to vote on a staff-drafted memorandum that purports to be based on classified source materials that neither you nor most of them have seen.” The DOJ, Boyd added, is “currently unaware of any wrongdoing relating to the FISA process.”
To that, House Oversight committee chairman Trey Gowdy said Wednesday night, “we respectfully disagree.”
