Democrats win vote for release of memo in Russia probe.
WASHINGTON — The House Intelligence Committee voted unanimously on Monday to make public a classified Democratic memorandum rebutting Republican claims that the FBI and the Justice Department had abused their powers to wiretap a former Trump campaign official, setting up a possible clash with President Trump.
The vote gives Trump five days to review the Democratic memo and determine whether he will try to block its release. A decision to stop it could lead to an ugly standoff between the president, his top law enforcement and intelligence advisers, and Democrats on Capitol Hill.
Trump vocally supported the release of the Republicans’ memo last week, declassifying its contents on Friday over the objections of Democrats and his own FBI, which issued a rare public statement to warn that it had “grave concerns” about the memo’s accuracy. On Saturday, he claimed, incorrectly, that the memo “totally vindicates” him in the continuing investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.
The 10-page Democratic document is certain to be less flattering to his case. Democrats have said the memo corrects mischaracterizations by the Republicans and adds crucial context to actions by the FBI and the Justice Department in obtaining a secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court order to wiretap the former Trump aide, Carter Page, in October 2016.
If Trump tries to block the Democratic memo’s release, House rules allow Democrats to seek a closed-door vote of the full House of Representatives to override the president. With some Republicans now arguing for its release, the House could override the president’s decision in a rare rebuke to his authority.
A White House official said the memo would be reviewed just as the GOP memo was evaluated.
“We will consider it along the same terms that we considered the Nunes memo — which is to allow for a legal review — national security review — led by the White House Counsel’s Office,” a White House spokesman, Raj Shah, told reporters aboard Air Force One.
But the memo’s fate is uncertain. Trump signaled earlier on Monday that he had little goodwill toward the committee’s Democrats, launching a broadside at Rep. Adam Schiff of Burbank, its top Democrat. Trump accused Schiff of illegally leaking confidential information from the committee, called the congressman “Little Adam Schiff ” and ominously said that he “must be stopped.”
In a separate tweet, Trump praised Rep. Devin Nunes of Tulare, who spearheaded the Republican memo as the committee chairman, calling him a “Great American Hero for what he has exposed and what he has had to endure.”
Democrats have denounced the document as a tactic to undermine the investigation and to protect Trump, and they have said it is riddled with errors and omissions. Specifically, the Democratic memo is said to contend that the FBI was more forthcoming with the surveillance court than Republicans had claimed.