Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., warned Thursday that the release of a Republican memo detailing the FBI’s alleged surveillance abuses would undermine the confidence people have in the FBI.
But he fumed that Republicans are seeking that result in order to protect Trump from the Justice Department’s ongoing investigation into Trump’s alleged ties to Russia, and accused them of using “false information” toward that end.
“What is happening here is not in any way, shape or form unclear,” said Himes, a House Intelligence Committee member, on MSNBC. “You have a political attempt, drawing on falsehoods, and the victim in this case will be the American people’s, or at least a portion of the American people’s confidence in the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Justice.”
“And that’s a terrible, terrible cost to pay for an ugly political maneuver designed to protect the president from Bob Mueller’s investigation,” he said.
Republicans are expected to release their memo as early as Thursday, over the objections of Democrats like Himes who say releasing it would be damaging. Himes said Democrats believe much in the GOP memo is not true, although Republicans say the FBI does not dispute its major findings.
“Most of the allegations in the memo are simply not true,” Himes insisted.
Himes also complained that Republicans made changes to the memo after the committee voted to release it.
“We voted on one set of allegations… and then they altered the language to send it to the White House,” he said.
Republicans say they made minor grammatical changes, and some more serious changes to reflect the FBI’s concerns. There was some speculation that the committee could re-vote on the new memo by Monday, and then release it afterwards.
