There was continued fury and infighting in Washington Wednesday over the expected release of an explosive classified memo – as the GOP Intelligence Committee chair admitted making changes before sending it to President Trump.
Following a party-line vote at the Intelligence panel, Trump has reviewed the memo – with White House sources indicating it could get the green light for release as soon as today.
Democrat Adam Schiff of California blasted the expected release – and revealed that the panel majority had made changes to the document after a committee vote to release it and before it got sent to the White House.
The two top Democratic elected leaders, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, both called for Speaker Paul Ryan to remove Nunes from his post following the move.
Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, walks away from a meeting with House GOP members, on Capitol Hill January 30, 2018 in Washington, DC
‘Chairman Nunes’ deliberately dishonest actions make him unfit to serve as Chairman, and he must be immediately removed from this position,’ Pelosi wrote Ryan.
‘It is long overdue that you, as speaker, put an end to this charade and hold Chairman Nunes and all Congressional Republicans accountable to the oath they have taken to support and defend the Constitution, and protect the American people,’ Pelosi added. ‘House Republicans’ pattern of obstruction and cover-up to hide the truth about the Trump-Russia scandal represents a threat to our intelligence and our national security,’ she added, Roll Call reported.
Schumer, a former House member, wrote that Nunes has been ‘willing to carry the White House’s water, attack our law enforcement and intelligence officials, and now to mislead his House colleagues.’
California Rep. Adam Schiff (right) sent a letter to House intelligence committee chairman Devin Nunes (left) late Wednesday that charged the memo containing classified information about supposed surveillance of the Trump campaign was ‘altered’ by Republicans
‘If Speaker Ryan cares about the integrity of the House or the rule of law, he will put an end to this charade once and for all,’ Schumer wrote, adding that it is ‘clear that Chairman Nunes will seemingly stop at nothing to undermine the rule of law and interfere with the Russia probe.’
Their slams on Nunes follows increasing public pressure on the chairman. Panel member Mike Quigley, an Illinois Democrat, has taken to calling Nunes an ‘agent’ of the White House.
A spokesman for Nunes said Democrats were ‘complaining about minor edits to the memo, including grammatical fixes and two edits requested by the FBI and by the minority themselves.
Nunes spokesman Jack Langer said the vote allowing release was ‘procedurally sound,’ and ‘to suggest otherwise is a bizarre distraction from the abuses detailed in the memo, which the public will hopefully soon be able to read for themselves.’
Trump has already indicated he favors release of the memo – despite extraordinary public pushback by the FBI and internal lobbying by his own Justice Department.
Trump has told friends he believes release of the controversial memo will reveal bias in the FBI and could help discredit the Russia probe, CNN reported.
‘The president has been really, really adamant about wanting this to come out … He wants it out. Full stop,’ an administration source told Axios.
Schiff, the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee says a vote earlier this week to release a classified memo to the public is invalid because Republicans changed part of the document before sending it to the White House for review.
Schiff sent a letter to House intelligence committee chairman Devin Nunes late Wednesday that charged the document had been ‘secretly altered’ by Nunes after the vote.
Former CIA director John Brennan retweeted a posting by Schiff that the memo release could lead to another ‘Saturday Night Massacre,’ a reference to a Watergate purge.
‘I had many fights with Congressional Dems over the years on national security matters,’ Brennan wrote. ‘But I never witnessed the type of reckless partisan behavior I am now seeing from Nunes and House Republicans. Absence of moral and ethical leadership in WH is fueling this government crisis.’
The Intelligence panel voted Monday to publicly release the memo, part of a GOP effort to prove improper use of surveillance by the FBI in its Russia investigation.
President Trump has five days from the vote to review the document.
Senate Minority Chuck Schumer, the Democrat from New York, blasted Nunes late Wednesday.
The top Democrat on the House intelligence committee says a vote earlier this week to release a classified memo to the public is invalid because Republicans changed part of the document before sending it to the White House for review.
Schiff sent a letter to House intelligence committee chairman Devin Nunes late Wednesday that charged the document had been ‘secretly altered’ by Nunes after the vote.
Schiff did not detail the changes.
A spokesman for Nunes did not immediately return a request for comment.
The panel voted Monday to publicly release the memo, part of a GOP effort to prove improper use of surveillance by the FBI in its Russia investigation.
President Donald Trump has five days from the vote to review the document.
Senate Minority Chuck Schumer, the Democrat from New York, blasted Nunes late Wednesday.
The FBI has expressed ‘grave concerns’ about its release
President Trump has told friends release of the memo will help discredit Russia probe
Schumer accused Nunes of trying to undermine the rule of law by attempting to ‘interfere with the Russia probe.’
‘It’s clear that Chairman Nunes will seemingly stop at nothing to undermine the rule of law and interfere with the Russia probe. He’s been willing to carry the White House’s water, attack our law enforcement and intelligence officials, and now to mislead his House colleagues,’ Schumer wrote in a statement.
Schumer called on House Speaker Paul Ryan, the Wisconsin Republican, to challenge Nunes and the other Republican members of the House Intelligence Committee.
‘If Speaker Ryan cares about the integrity of the House or the rule of law, he will put an end to this charade once and for all,’ Schumer said.
His comments were reported by The Hill.
White House chief of staff John Kelly said Wednesday that the public will soon see the classified memo that reportedly spells out election year surveillance abuses by the Obama administration.
The memo, which the House Intelligence Committee has voted along party lines to release, outlines wrongdoing by the FBI in its investigation of alleged collusion by the Trump campaign and Russian agents.
‘It will be released here pretty quick, I think, and the whole world can see it,’ Kelly said Wednesday of the document, compiled by Nunes.
Kelly appeared on Fox News Radio’s ‘The Brian Kilmeade Show.’
Trump told a GOP congressman after Tuesday night’s State of the Union Address that he is ‘100 per cent ‘ in favor of releasing the memo.
White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, pictured during Tuesday’s State of the Union address, said Wednesday on Fox News Radio that the controversial classified intelligence memo will be ‘released pretty quick’ by the White House
President Donald Trump told South Carolina Republican Rep. Jeff Duncan on Tuesday night that he would ‘100 per cent’ release the memo that Republicans want the public to see
‘Oh, yeah. Don’t worry,’ Trump told Duncan on his way out of the House chamber following his State of the Union address
It has generated open rhetorical warfare between committee Republicans and career officials at the FBI and Justice Department.
‘Let’s release the memo,’ South Carolina Rep. Jeff Duncan told Trump on his way out of the House chamber, in video footage captured by C-SPAN.
‘Oh, yeah. Don’t worry. One hundred per cent,’ Trump replied.
‘Can you imagine that?’ the president added, seeming to hint at a scenario where he would keep the memo secret.
‘You’d be too angry.’
It’s unclear whether the memo will live up to its hype; Kelly said he would ‘let all the experts decide that when it’s released.’
‘This president wants everything out so the American people can make up their own minds.’
The memo came to the White House on Monday, he said, and ‘we have our national security lawyers … slicing and dicing and looking at it so they know what it means.’
In a remarkably public clash of wills with the White House, the FBI declared Wednesday it has ‘grave concerns’ about the accuracy of the classified memo.
The FBI’s short and sharp statement, its first on the issue, laid bare a Trump administration conflict that had previously played out mostly behind closed doors in meetings between top Justice Department and White House officials.
‘As expressed during our initial review, we have grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo’s accuracy,’ the FBI said.
Trump has until Saturday to decide whether to block the memo’s exposure after the Intelligence Committee voted along party lines to release it to the public.
The White House has pledged to conduct a legal and national security review before making a decision.
The memo reportedly shows that the FBI and DOJ improperly applied for wiretap warrants covering at least one member of the Trump campaign team.
Duncan, a conservative Republican, has come out in favor of releasing the memo in recent weeks
The warrant applications to a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act judge are thought to have been in part based on a notorious and uncorroborated anti-Trump ‘dirty dossier’ paid for by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee.
The dossier, compile by a former British spy, contained salacious and unproven claims, including one about Trump cavorting with prostitutes in a Moscow hotel and indulging in a ‘golden showers’ urine fetish.
All members of Congress have been able to see the memo in a secure facility at the US Capitol.
A Democratic memo offered in rebuttal could be released publicly, but only after the entire House of Representatives has a similar opportunity to review it.
The White House said Monday that Trump had not decided whether to authorize the release of the memo, but said he favored ‘full transparency.’
Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at the time ‘no one’ at the White House had seen it yet, however.
She also confirmed Wednesday morning on CNN that Trump had yet to review it.
The memo is expected to spell out how Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein approved a request last spring for extended surveillance on Carter Page (pictured), an unpaid foreign policy adviser to Trump’s presidential campaign
White House aides have previously said Trump favored releasing the document, which is in contrast to the stance of the Justice Department
A number of conservatives favor releasing the memo, which they believe could discredit the findings of the investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russian officials.
White House aides have previously said Trump favored releasing the document, which is in contrast to the stance of the Justice Department.
The New York Times reports that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein approved a request last spring for extended surveillance on Carter Page, an unpaid foreign policy adviser to Trump’s presidential campaign.
Republicans appear poised to argue that Rosenstein did not thoroughly review the application to a FISA court.
Page is under scrutiny for a 2016 trip he made to Moscow where he met with Russian officials, but insists that he made it clear he was not representing the presidential candidate.
A report he provided to the campaign afterward with his insights and an offer to set up a trip to Russia for Trump has made him a person of interest in investigations into alleged collusion, however.
Republicans have been teeing up their memo as a bombshell that will justify demands for an independent investigation of the DOJ and FBI, which had been conducting the Russia probe until Rosenstein hired Robert Mueller to serve as special counsel in the matter.
One outgrowth of the memo’s public release could be a broader understanding of the low bar prosecutors must clear before being granted FISA wiretap warrants.
Multiple media reports claim that less than one-tenth of one per cent of FISA court applications are turned down.
The Rosenstein-approved FISA court warrant application is thought to have relied at least in part on the ‘dirty dossier’ funded by Democrats against Trump in 2016
Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the committee, said last week that the GOP members had ‘selectively and misleadingly’ characterized classified information ‘in an effort to protect the president at any cost.’
In a Sunday morning appearance on CBS, White House Legislative Affairs Director Marc Short suggested Trump would lean toward releasing the four-page document.
‘We haven’t obviously read the memo. It’s classified. So it’s hard for me to speculate on what’s in the memo,’ he said.
‘I do think that we typically prefer transparency. And so if there are concerns that I think it would be helpful for Americans to know about, we would be open for that being released.’
Republican Sen. Susan Collins said Sunday that she was concerned that classified information would be compromised, however.
‘That’s a really serious matter. So, to me, the preferable way to handle the allegations of wrongdoing by certain FBI agents and a lawyer there is to leave it in the hands of the inspector general,’ she told CNN.