Some in GOP diverge from memo claim
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s claim of exoneration in the Russia investigation was undercut Sunday by four Republican lawmakers, including one who helped draft a controversial memo the president has embraced, alleging the FBI abused its surveillance powers.
Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina said in an interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that the memo, spearheaded by the chairman of the House intelligence committee, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., did not have “any impact on the Russia probe.”
Gowdy is the only Republican on the committee who has read classified documents that are the basis of the disputed four-page memo. Gowdy worked with Nunes on the memo.
On Saturday, Trump seized on the memo, which was publicly released Fri-
day after he’d declassified it over Justice Department objections, as confirming his own repeated contention that the investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller is a “witch hunt.” In a tweet from his Florida resort, the president declared that the memo “totally vindicates” him.
Even before seeing it, the president also reportedly told associates that the memo bolstered the case for ousting Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, a Trump appointee who oversees Mueller. Democrats and some Republicans have warned that such a move could spark a constitutional crisis.
Gowdy, a former federal prosecutor, said the material the FBI used to win a secret surveillance court’s approval for its surveillance of former Trump campaign associate Carter Page did not prompt the bureau’s wider look at whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 election. Gowdy, who has announced plans to retire from the House, also said he supports Mueller “100 percent” in conducting the probe.
A fellow Republican congressman, interviewed on CNN’s “State of the Union,” also said that the overall Russia investigation is a “separate issue” from matters addressed in the memo. “It’s more looking within the agencies, something we have oversight over,” said Rep. Brad Wenstrup of Ohio.
A third Republican on the committee, Rep. Will Hurd of Texas, said he disagreed that the memo bolsters the case the White House has been making for months against the impartiality of Mueller.
“I don’t believe this is an attack on Bob Mueller,” Hurd said on ABC’s “This Week.” Hurd, who formerly worked for the CIA, added, “I would say that (the Justice Department) should continue doing their job.”
Also, on “Fox News Sunday,” Rep. Chris Stewart, R-Utah, said, “I think it would be a mistake for anyone to suggest that the special counsel shouldn't complete his work. I support his work. I want him to finish it. I hope he finishes it as quickly as possible.”
The comments from Hurd, Gowdy, Wenstrup and Stewart were not only a break with Trump’s stance but with that of many House Republicans who’ve suggested the entire investigation is corrupted. The four lawmakers reflected the more measured stance of House Speaker Paul Ryan, who insisted on Friday that the memo isn’t “an indictment” of the FBI and Justice, nor does it “impugn” Mueller’s probe or Rosenstein.
Democrats again decried what they call Nunes’ politicization of intelligence in the memo’s release, saying Trump’s allies were inappropriately trying to use it to discredit Rosenstein and by extension Mueller.
“It is the duty of Congress to focus on the Russia investigation” and not cherry-pick facts in a bid to exonerate the president, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said on CNN.
“The information, the facts, tell a totally different story” than the narrative put forth by Nunes with the support of Republicans on the intelligence committee, Durbin said.
Nunes has come under heavy criticism from some former intelligence community leaders, including ex-CIA Director John Brennan, who on Sunday termed the memo “appalling.” Speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Brennan said Nunes had “abused the chairmanship” of the House intelligence committee.