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Trump won't release Democratic memo, sends back to committee
CNN 3h ago
Trump won't release Democratic memo, sends back to committee
(CNN)President
Donald Trump won't release the Democratic rebuttal to the Republican
intelligence memo alleging FBI abuses of its surveillance authority at
this time, and has sent it back to the House Intelligence Committee for
changes.
In a letter to the committee,
White House counsel Donald McGahn said, "although the President is
inclined to declassify the February 5th Memorandum, because the
Memorandum contains numerous properly classified and especially
sensitive passages, he is unable to do so at this time."
Trump had said earlier Friday he planned to release the memo.
"It's gonna be released soon," Trump told reporters at the White House, adding, "We're going to release a letter."
The
House Intelligence Committee voted unanimously on Monday to release the
10-page Democratic memo, and the committee rules gave Trump five days
to decide whether to block or allow its release.
The
memo from Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the
committee, was written to rebut the Republican memo released one week
prior, which accuses the FBI of suppressing Democratic ties to an
opposition research dossier on Trump and Russia used in the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant for former Trump campaign foreign
policy adviser Carter Page.
Schiff
and other Democrats charge that the Republican memo led by House
Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes of California is misleading and omits
key facts, including that the FISA application did state that ex-British
intelligence agent Christopher Steele, the author of the dossier, was
paid by a political entity.
"The
Democratic response sets out the material facts that were necessary for
the public to see that the FBI acted properly in seeking a FISA warrant
on Carter Page," Schiff said in a statement. "After promising to treat
the Democratic response in precisely the same way, the White House now
seeks to have the Democratic memo sent back to committee and revised by
the same Majority that produced the flawed Nunes document to begin
with."
The
White House included a letter signed by Deputy Attorney General Rod
Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray that says they have
identified portions of the Democratic memo that would raise national
security or law enforcement concerns if released publicly.
"Along
with other Intelligence Committee Republicans, I had warned that the
Democratic memo contains many sources and methods," Nunes said in a
statement following Trump's decision. "Ranking Member Schiff pledged to
seek the input of the Department of Justice and FBI regarding the memo's
public release, and it's no surprise that these agencies recommended
against publishing the memo without redactions. Intelligence Committee
Republicans encourage the minority to accept the DOJ's recommendations
and make the appropriate technical changes and redactions so that no
sources and methods are disclosed and their memo can be declassified as
soon as possible."
Trump cited
concerns from the Justice Department and FBI in his objection to
releasing the Democratic memo. But Trump ignored those concerns when he
decided to release the Republican memo last week -- despite the FBI
releasing a rare statement to say the Nunes memo omitted key information
and the Justice Department raising "grave concerns" about its release
without proper review.
Trump's
objection puts the committee in uncharted waters, as the committee used
an obscure rule that had never been invoked before to vote to release
both memos.
The White House allowed
the Nunes memo to be made public. But with the objection to the
Democratic memo, there is a procedure available to the House to override
the objection and make it public anyway.
That would require a vote of the full House after a rare debate in closed session for the full chamber.
But
it's not clear whether Republicans will be willing to take that step,
and the GOP committee members were hesitant about defying Trump on the memo earlier this week.
At
the committee's Monday meeting where it voted to release the memo,
Nunes expressed concerns that the Democratic memo went further than the
Republican document in disclosing sources and methods.
"This
memo contains a large volume of classified information, including some
touching on sources and methods heightening the potential damage to
national security," Nunes said.
Schiff
said he gave his memo to the Justice Department and FBI so they could
review for national security concerns in addition to just a White House
review, as he expressed concerns there would be "political redactions"
to the memo.
"In order to rebut the
errors, omissions and distortions in the Republican-drafted memo, we
have included certain details beyond the revelations made public by the
release of the majority's document," Schiff said.
Democrats immediately cried foul at the decision to send the Democratic memo back to the committee.
"The
President's double standard when it comes to transparency is
appalling," Sen. Chuck Schumer said in a statement. "The rationale for
releasing the Nunes memo, transparency, vanishes when it could show
information that's harmful to him. Millions of Americans are asking one
simple question: what is he hiding?"
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