House Intelligence Committee Democrats are expected to push for a vote Monday to declassify their answer to the Republican memo, which the president said last night had ‘totally vindicate[d] “Trump,”‘ by alleging FBI surveillance abuse.
Both CNN and Reuters reported Sunday that Democrats plan to offer a motion Monday that would release their memo and, if approved, would then send the matter to President Trump, who would have five days to stop the document’s release.
Last week, the release of the GOP-penned memo was central to the drama in Washington, with the FBI and President Trump’s own Justice Department squaring off against the president and his Republican allies in Congress.
Sources told CNN and Reuters that Democrats are expected to push for a vote Monday to get their version of the memo released. Rep. Adam Schiff (pictured), the Democrats’ top member on the House Intelligence Committee, has been critical of only the GOP memo’s release
President Trump, seen Sunday in his motorcade returning to Mar-a-Lago after a trip to his golf club, proclaimed Saturday night that he’s been vindicated, after the release of a GOP-penned memo suggested the ‘dirty dossier’ was used as a reason to snoop on a campaign associate
President Trump has reveled in the GOP memo being released, saying Saturday that the content of the memo ‘totally vindicates “Trump,”‘ because it said that the Clinton campaign-funded ‘dirty dossier’ was used in a surveillance warrant for one of Trump’s associates
President Trump (pictured) and his Republican allies have tried to suggest that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe is tainted because of the role the ‘dirty dossier’ has played. The dossier was funded first by a Republican political rival, and then by the Democrats
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, seen Thursday at the GOP’s Congressional retreat in West Virginia, and his fellow Republicans blocked a move by committee Democrats to get their minority memo released. They’ll try again Monday
Earlier in the week, House Intelligence Committee Republicans voted to declassify their memo – sending it to Trump – while blocking an attempt by committee Democrats to release the minority memo as well, which would have offered the other party’s perspective on the intel.
The Republican memo, which was released Friday, said that the FBI had relied on the so-called ‘dirty dossier’ when it applied for a FISA surveillance warrant on a Trump campaign associate, Carter Page.
The dossier, compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele, had been funded by an unknown Republican during the 2016 primary cycle, and then by the Democrats and Hillary Clinton’s campaign, during the general election.
Republicans have long tried to show that the Russia probe, now being handled by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, was tainted from the beginning because it was sparked by opposition research paid for by the Democrats.
The memo, however, kills that theory, as the documents say that the Russia investigation – including probing Trump links to the Kremlin – was ‘triggered’ by a different campaign aide, George Papadapoulos.
Papadapoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI last fall and is now cooperating with Mueller’s investigation.
In May 2016, Papadapoulos had drinks in London with an Australian diplomat and told him that the Russians had damaging information on Clinton, the New York Times previously reported. Papadapoulos had been told three weeks prior that Moscow had thousands of Clinton’s emails.
When leaked emails from the Democrats started appearing online two months later, the Australians warned their American counterparts, which kicked off the Russia probe.
Despite that revelation, Trump tried to sound the horn that he was off the hook.
‘This memo totally vindicates “Trump” in probe,’ the president said, using his trademark third-person. ‘But the Russian Witch Hunt goes on and on.’
‘There was no Collusion and there was no Obstruction (the word now used because, after one year of looking endlessly and finding NOTHING, collusion is dead),’ he continued.
‘This is an American disgrace!’ the president added.
The fact that the White House green-lit the memo’s release, against the FBI and Justice Department’s wishes and without the minority memo to provide balance, continued to infuriate Democrats on Sunday.
Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat in the GOP-led House Intelligence Committee, called the memo’s release a ‘political hit job’ on ABC’s This Week.
‘But the goal here really isn’t to find out the answers from the FBI. The goal here is to undermine the FBI, discredit the FBI, discredit the Mueller investigation, do the president’s bidding,’ Schiff charged.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican, had argued in favor for the memo’s release, saying it merely showed Congress ‘doing its job and conducting legitimate oversight over a very unique law, FISA.’
Schiff argued that if Republican lawmakers were really that interested in their oversight role than they would have wanted to read the underlying information the memo was based upon and they would have wanted to hear from the FBI.
The ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam Schiff (left) told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that the goal in releasing the GOP-penned memo was to ‘undermine the FBI, discredit the FBI, discredit the Mueller investigation, do the president’s bidding’
The California Democrat said he had put both those options on the table and they had been voted down by the Republican majority.
Now Democrats will push again to get their answer to the memo release.
Schiff had the backing of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, who wrote to President Trump Sunday urging him to release the Democratic memo as well.
‘I believe it is a matter of fundamental fairness that the American people be allowed to see both sides of the argument and make their own judgements,’ Schumer said in the letter, sent out to reporters.
‘A refusal to release the Schiff memo in light of the fact that Chairman Devin Nunes’ memo was released and is based on the same underlying documents will confirm the American people’s worst fears that the release of Chairman Nunes’ memo was only intended to undermine Special Counsel Bob Mueller’s investigation,’ Schumer said.
Reuters reported that the House Intelligence Committee will meet at 5 p.m. Monday, with Democrats expected to make their move then to get the Schiff-written documents released.