House panel votes to release Dems’ memo to rebut GOP’s

WASHINGTON – The House Intelligence Committee voted Monday night to release Democrats’ rebuttal to a controversial Republican memo alleging that the FBI and Justice Department abused their power to conduct surveillance of former Trump campaign aide Carter Page.

Democrats have been eager to formally refute the four- page GOP memo, which was written by the committee’s Republican staff at the direction of Chairman Devin Nunes, R- Calif., and released Friday after President Trump signed off on it. Democrats want to release their own 10- page memo to dispute the GOP document.

With Monday’s unanimous vote to publicly release the Democrats’ memo, it will be sent to the White House for review, just as the Nunes memo was lastweek. Trump and his advisers will have five days to review it and decide whether to block its release. The president approved release of the Nunes memo over the strong objections of the FBI.

White House spokesman Raj Shah said Monday that if the committee sends the Democratic memo to the White House, officials “will consider it along the same lines” as they did the Nunes memo.

Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the committee’s senior Democrat, said Monday that he believes the White House will feel pressure to release the Democrats’ memo after touting the need for “transparency” in making the Nunes memo public.