Vindication? Not even close

President Trump, dishing out vitriol, insults and “alternative facts,” has gone on the offensive to claim a partisan-hued memo from Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee “totally vindicates” him in what he once again called the “Russian witch hunt.”

He seems to be hoping that his base of supporters won’t read the memo released by the committee chairman, Devin Nunes, a Central Valley Republican who was recently — and correctly — called “Trump’s stooge” by the Fresno Bee.

The committee’s Democrats have a 10-page rebuttal that they contend makes a point-by-point refutation of the Nunes memo’s main claims. The committee voted Monday to allow the Democrats’ account to be made public— and Trump has five days to decide whether to release it.

But the Nunes memo itself undermines the attempts by Trump and his apologists on Capitol Hill and cable news to suggest it terminally taints the investigation into collusion between his campaign and Russian operatives. The GOP memo states that the probe originated before the FBI learned of a dossier, compiled by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele, that had been funded by “never Trump” Republicans in the primary and later bankrolled by Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

The most definitive debunking of the Trump talking points came from the Republican who has reviewed the underlying intelligence that was selectively cited in the Nunes memo: Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C. Interviewed on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday, Gowdy said the allegations of FBI misconduct in getting the warrant to surveil Trump campaign adviser Carter Page have nothing to do with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

“There is a Russia investigation without a dossier,” Gowdy said, ticking off the issues Mueller is believed to be looking into: from the meeting of Donald J. Trump Jr. and other top campaign people with the Russians at Trump Tower to communications between the campaign allies and WikiLeaks.

“It also doesn’t have anything to do with obstruction of justice,” Gowdy added.

Gowdy was joined by a few other Republicans in expressing support for an unimpeded Mueller probe. The president should take this as a warning: Any attempt to use the Nunes memo as a pretext to fire Mueller or Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is going to backfire.

Trump must allow the Democratic response to be made public. If he truly has nothing to hide, he has nothing to fear from a fuller airing of the facts.