The House Intelligence Committee has released a 51-page, unclassified transcript
of the Monday night meeting that led to the vote to release the
controversial, classified memo created by GOP staffers, alleging
surveillance abuses by the Justice Department and the FBI.
The memo itself has not yet been released.
The
release of the memo is opposed by the FBI. Earlier Wednesday, the FBI
issued a rare statement warning against the memo's release, saying
incompletely information in the memo raised "grave concerns." FBI
Director Christopher Wray also objected to the memo's release, and,
along with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, asked White House
chief of staff John Kelly not to allow its release. The memo details
allegations that the DOJ and FBI abused authorities under the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) around the time of the 2016
presidential campaign.
The House Intelligence Committee voted
along party lines Monday night to release it, allowing the White House
five days to object to its release. But Kelly had indicated Wednesday
morning in an interview with Fox News Radio
that the memo would be released, and President Trump, after his first
State of the Union address Tuesday night, said he agreed "100 percent"
that the memo should be released. According to the transcript, committee
chairman Rep. Devin Nunes, R-California, said the full House would vote
to release the memo if for some reason the president declined.
At
the same meeting, the committee voted — also along party lines — not to
release a rebuttal memo crafted by Democrats on the committee.
"Today's
release of the transcript of Monday's committee meeting leaves no doubt
about what transpired: Over strong minority objections, the committee's
majority took the extraordinary step on Monday of moving forward with
public release of their flawed and misleading classified talking points –
even though almost no committee members or staff had read the
underlying material," Rep. Adam Schiff, the committee's ranking
Democrat, said in a statement Wednesday. "In fact, the majority
specifically voted down a more prudent alternative I put forward – to
postpone publication of the majority's talking points, in order to at
least allow the FBI and the DOJ a meaningful opportunity to inform
members about the real risks to intelligence and law enforcement of that
approach."
Democrats have expressed concern that Republicans are
using the memo to undermine the credibility of the FBI and DOJ as
special counsel Robert Mueller investigates Russian election meddling
and any ties to Russia. Meanwhile, Republicans have insisted the memo
has nothing to do with Mueller's probe. This is a developing story and will be updated. CBS News' Olivia Andrzejczak Gazis contributed to this report.
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