Democratic memo fails to sway GOP critics
WASHINGTON — Two Ohio Republicans say the Democratic memo released last weekend aimed at rebutting GOP claims that the FBI abused its power in order to help Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016 does nothing to disprove those contentions.
Rep. Mike Turner, a member of the House Intelligence Committee from Dayton, said the latest memo did not disprove that the Democratic National Committee and Clinton’s campaign paid for intelligence about a Trump aide’s ties to Russia. That intelligence was used as evidence to help justify conducting surveillance on Carter Page, a former Trump campaign aide.
“Politically funded documents from either side should not be used as evidence in Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Courts,” Turner said.
Said Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Urbana: “It only confirms what we’ve been saying all along.”
The release of the memo Saturday was the latest in a long battle over the Trump campaign’s possible ties to Russia. The Democratic memo sought to defend the FBI and Department of Justice and its decision to obtain a FISA warrant on Page. Republicans, in an earlier memo, had accused the agencies of unfairly targeting Trump and using information paid for by Democrats to investigate Page.
But Adam Schiff of California, the House Intelligence Committee’s ranking Democrat, said the Democrats’ review of the FISA application on Page “”failed to uncover any evidence of illegal, unethical, or unprofessional behavior by law enforcement and instead revealed that both the FBI and DOJ made extensive showings to justify all four requests.”
Democrat Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio called GOP attempts to discredit the FBI and Justice Department “shameful.”
“Hopefully the release of this second memo will help set the record straight,” Brown said. “The president and his team should cooperate with the FBI and make all their dealings with Russia public, so the American people can get the answers they deserve and the country can move forward with the business of creating jobs, rebuilding our infrastructure and renegotiating NAFTA.”
U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Niles, said the memo “serves to illustrate just how much congressional Republicans are willing to distort the truth to undermine special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
“Congress should be standing united in the face of a foreign threat to the very foundation of our democracy. Instead, the GOP is shamefully muddying the waters to confuse the American people and slander the brave men and women of the FBI and other intelligence and law enforcement agencies.”
The White House, meanwhile, reiterated that neither Trump nor his campaign colluded with Russia.
Jordan, who has been examining this issue as a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said Democrats’ assertion that the FBI had been investigating Page for years was undercut by the fact that they didn’t try to surveil him until Democrats paid to have a dossier compiled on him.
Other Ohio Republicans, including Sen. Rob Portman and Rep. Steve Stivers of Upper Arlington, simply said they supported the release of the Democratic memo.