The House Intelligence Committee voted unanimously Monday evening to make public the Democratic memo rebutting GOP allegations that the FBI abused surveillance laws, the committee's top Democrat said, a move that will put the issue back on President Donald Trump's desk this week.
The classified memo from Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, is written to push back against the central allegations of the Republican memo from Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes. Nunes' memo was released Friday and alleges the FBI abused the FISA process in obtaining a surveillance warrant on former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
The GOP-led House Intelligence Committee blocked the release of the Democratic memo at last week's committee meeting, saying members had just been presented with the document, instead moving forward with the four-page Nunes memo that now has been declassified after Trump agreed to its release Friday.
The panel did, however, agree last week to let the full House review the Schiff memo in a classified setting. Republicans leaving the closed-door meeting on Monday said they support its release, which is now in the hands of the White House.
The process for publicly releasing the Schiff memo is the same as the Nunes document: The President will have five days to decide whether to allow the document to be made public or object to its release. If the President objects, the House Intelligence Committee could send the matter to the full House to debate in closed session and vote on whether to make the memo public.
Following Monday's vote, a White House official said the Schiff memo will be "reviewed" -- but again stopped short of vowing to declassify it.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/05/politics/democratic-memo-release-house-intelligence/index.html
The democrats made sure that the FBI had the memo, in case the White House tries to redact any embarrassing or incriminating material, using national security as an excuse.
The classified memo from Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, is written to push back against the central allegations of the Republican memo from Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes. Nunes' memo was released Friday and alleges the FBI abused the FISA process in obtaining a surveillance warrant on former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
The GOP-led House Intelligence Committee blocked the release of the Democratic memo at last week's committee meeting, saying members had just been presented with the document, instead moving forward with the four-page Nunes memo that now has been declassified after Trump agreed to its release Friday.
The panel did, however, agree last week to let the full House review the Schiff memo in a classified setting. Republicans leaving the closed-door meeting on Monday said they support its release, which is now in the hands of the White House.
The process for publicly releasing the Schiff memo is the same as the Nunes document: The President will have five days to decide whether to allow the document to be made public or object to its release. If the President objects, the House Intelligence Committee could send the matter to the full House to debate in closed session and vote on whether to make the memo public.
Following Monday's vote, a White House official said the Schiff memo will be "reviewed" -- but again stopped short of vowing to declassify it.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/05/politics/democratic-memo-release-house-intelligence/index.html
The democrats made sure that the FBI had the memo, in case the White House tries to redact any embarrassing or incriminating material, using national security as an excuse.