Staff for Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., have not been able to review a memo spearheaded by the leader of the House Intelligence Committee that allegedly details abuses of a government surveillance program, according to a report.
Sources told CNN that Burr’s staff have asked for a copy of the four-page memo written by Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., who leads the House Intelligence Committee, but have been denied access.
The memo allegedly details classified information on how officials in the Justice Department and FBI abused a government surveillance program, and some House conservatives have described the document as “alarming” and “shocking.”
But House Democrats have largely dismissed the memo as a partisan attempt to call special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election into question.
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, called the memo “a profoundly misleading set of talking points drafted by Republican staff attacking the FBI and its handling of the investigation.”
Schiff said Wednesday that Democrats in the House Intelligence Committee will prepare their own memo “setting out the relevant facts” and “exposing the misleading character of the Republicans’ document.”
The House Intelligence Committee voted along party lines last week to give all lawmakers in the lower chamber the opportunity to read the memo in a secure room in the Capitol. Some Republicans have since called for the memo to be released to the public.
Burr declined to discuss the document or confirm to CNN whether his staff had been able to examine it.
“It’s Devin’s memo so you need to ask him what it means,” he said. “I sort of don’t discuss anything that is part of our investigation, so I’ll leave it up to him to describe.”
Several senators have expressed an interest in viewing Nunes’s memo, though none have seen it. Additionally, neither the FBI nor the Justice Department have been permitted to review the document.
“None of the senators have access to it,” Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told CNN.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Wednesday he believes the intelligence used to draft the memo should be released.
“Based on what I know, I agree that as much of this information should be made public as soon as possible through the appropriate process,” he said, according to CNN.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., also tried to see the memo, but he was rejected.
