Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee appeared to downplay the FBI’s concerns about the release of a controversial memo put together by Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA), according to a transcript of the panel’s closed-door Monday meeting that was made public Wednesday.
Asked by Democrats whether the FBI had approved the memo’s release, Nunes didn’t answer directly, saying the committee was satisfied that the memo on the intelligence community’s alleged surveillance abuses did not “disclose any issues of national security.”
The FBI put out a statement Wednesday expressing “grave concerns” about the document’s accuracy.
The developments highlight the divide between the White House and congressional Republicans on one side who want to release the memo, and the FBI, DOJ and Democrats on the other, who says it’s a misleading effort to make the intelligence community appear biased against President Trump.
At Monday’s meeting, Rep. Pete King (R-NY) said FBI Director Christopher Wray and two other senior FBI employees had reviewed the document, prompting Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) to ask if they were “okay” with its dissemination.
Nunes responded:“[O]ur goal was to make sure that we were not going to disclose any issues of national security, and we believe that we have met that threshold.”
The FBI on Wednesday issued a rare public statement disavowing the memo’s “material omissions of fact,” prompting Swalwell to fume on Twitter that his Republican committee colleagues had misled him.
The transcript also laid bare the battle over what, exactly, the minority and minority think they’re investigating. As Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) disclosed to reporters after Monday’s meeting wrapped, Nunes made the remarkable admission that he sees the DOJ and FBI as targets in their investigation into Russia’s interference in the U.S. election.
Rep. Mike Conaway (R-TX) had downplayed Schiff’s characterization that the committee majority had announced a designated investigation into those agencies, telling reporters they were simply engaged in standard “oversight.”
But the transcript shows Nunes took a stronger tone behind closed doors.
Schiff introduced a motion to delay the committee’s vote on the memo’s release so that the DOJ and FBI could provide the full House of Representatives with a briefing on security issues with making it public.
“The Department of Justice and the FBI have been under investigation by this committee for many, many months for FISA abuse and other matters,” Nunes replied, referring to his concerns about the validity of warrants issued by specialized foreign surveillance courts. “That investigation continues.”
Urging his colleagues to vote against Schiff’s motion, Nunes added, “We are not going to be briefed by people that are under investigation by this committee.”
Tierney Sneed contributed reporting.
“The Department of Justice and the FBI have been
under investigation by this committeethe subject of my smear campaign for many, many months…Thatinvestigationsmear campaign continues.”FIFY, Devin. You’re welcome.
The GOP is circling their wagons. Having proved themselves completely unable to govern, they will do everything they can to preserve their very own perversity of a president so they do not have to admit the colossal catastrophe they have created by electing him. Be prepared, this is going to get to be a very dirty fight.
“[O]ur goal was to make sure that we were not going to disclose any issues of national security, and we believe that we have met that threshold” because the memo is based entirely on alternative facts known only to the illiterati.
Nunes is in violation of his oath and needs to be locked up - either in a prison or an asylum.
To say that he is a disgrace would be too kind.
Let’s face it: Nunes is a primary mover in an actual conspiracy that wishes to sycophantically subvert democracy.
He is petty, pathetic, and proactively assaulting all Americans.
This servant of a spoiled would-be tyrant’s narcissistic vendetta must be dismissed as an example in order to disabuse all other political terrorists that such blatant lies in service of propaganda are inimical, unacceptable and will not tolerated.
If Paul Ryan is too cowardly or morally bankrupt to uphold his oath to the Constitution, then I pray the citizens will take it upon themselves to place this clown in the stocks - a practice that I losthe, yet seems almost merciful considering Nunes’ clear desire to be a clown.
If he wishrs to disgrace, dishonor and debase himself, so be it. But it is criminal ly contempt of him to drag the majority of Americans along through his costly and embarrassing circus.
Is that an admission that they will not be investigating Trump et al for collusion with Russia? Because it kind of sounds like it is.