When House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes drafted his now-infamous memo accusing the FBI and Justice Department of rampant abuses of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the Democrats on the committee wrote a rebuttal challenging Nunes’ conclusions. However, when the committee voted along party lines to release Nunes’ memo, it also voted down an effort to release the Democratic memo at the same time.
Within hours of the White House formally declassifying the memo, it was obvious that it was a nothing burger. The memo did not even begin to do what Nunes and other Donald Trump diehards claimed it would do–prove that the investigation into Russia’s effort to hack the election was a Democratic/”deep state” hatchet job based on a dossier paid for by Hillary Clinton’s campaign. If anything, the memo actually proved that the investigation existed long before we knew about Christopher Steele’s “golden showers” dossier.
Under the circumstances, within hours of the Nunes memo being released, the Republican House leadership was all but forced to endorse releasing the rebuttal memo drafted by the Intelligence Committee’s ranking Democrat, Adam Schiff, and his team. On Monday, the committee voted unanimously to release the rebuttal memo–a document that Schiff and other Democrats contended would prove that the Nunes memo was baseless.
But on Friday night, Trump decided against declassifying the memo–at least for now. Watch how this broke on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront” here.
CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta told Burnett that White House counsel Don McGahn sent a letter to the committee saying that the Democratic rebuttal contained “numerous properly classified and especially sensitive passages,” it could not be declassified in its current form. However, McGahn said, Trump was willing to make Justice Department staff available to help revise the memo so it could be released.
Read the letter McGahn sent to the committee here.
WH Counsel letter informing House Intel Dems Trump is not declassfifying their memo pic.twitter.com/5fvC65VjHT
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) February 10, 2018
Trump, through McGahn, said that the Justice Department had flagged a number of statements in the Schiff memo that raise national security concerns. Those concerns were expressed in attached letters from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray.
On Saturday morning, Trump took to Twitter to accuse the Democrats of sending a memo that they knew couldn’t be released in its original form.
The Democrats sent a very political and long response memo which they knew, because of sources and methods (and more), would have to be heavily redacted, whereupon they would blame the White House for lack of transparency. Told them to re-do and send back in proper form!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 10, 2018
But wait a minute. Trump released the Nunes memo despite FBI concerns that the memo was inaccurate and incomplete, and has spent the last week savaging the FBI and Justice Department. In light of this, Trump’s sudden concern for the views of the FBI and the Justice Department seems curious at best. A number of journalists couldn’t understand this logic leap.
So let me understand. The President ignored DOJ concerns to release the #GOPMemo but is now yielding to DOJ concerns to block release of #DemocratMemo?
— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) February 10, 2018
Trump allowed release of the Nunes memo over strenuous FBI and DOJ objections. Now, he won’t allow release of Schiff memo, citing DOJ objections. https://t.co/BLrQnXFC06
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) February 10, 2018
Reminder: the FBI and DOJ opposed full release of the GOP memo but for some reason those concerns fell on deaf ears. https://t.co/ZjxZmjqdtJ
— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) February 10, 2018
At the time this story broke, Congressman Eric Swalwell of California, a Democratic member of the Intelligence Committee, was waiting to be interviewed by Burnett. When he heard this news, Swalwell thought that on the face of it, it was another case of “obstructive behavior” from Trump. Swalwell was more than willing to hear what the Justice Department had to say. However, if the requested edits are “just political edits,” he wants Nunes to keep his word and release the memo to the public.
Fellow California Democrat Ted Lieu, one of Trump’s loudest tormentors on Twitter, was equally unsparing.
As a House Judiciary Cmte Member with oversight over @FBI, @TheJusticeDept & FISA, I read both memos. @POTUS wrongly claimed he is vindicated. The #DemocraticMemo shows absolutely, positively that @realDonaldTrump is not vindicated. That's why he blocked it.#ReleaseTheDemMemo https://t.co/3HNh0gxtOK
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) February 10, 2018
I read the #DemocraticMemo and @realDonaldTrump is lying. The memo is:
-Not political
-Not long (many adults, and teens, routinely read more pages than this memo)
-Not a revelation of sources & methods.But unlike the #NunesMemo, it does contain facts. #ReleaseTheDemMemo https://t.co/65ACXQ26wn
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) February 10, 2018
At least some Republicans aren’t buying Trump’s line either, like Congressman Justin Amash of Michigan.
Both the Republican and Democratic #FISA memos should be released. I’ve read both memos. Neither one endangers national security. The American people deserve the opportunity to read both memos.
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) February 10, 2018
Former Congressman Joe Walsh, now a conservative talk show host, savaged Trump’s decision to sit on the Schiff memo, as well as the hypocrisy of Trump supporters who were clamoring for the Nunes memo to be released.
Two weeks ago, "release the memo" was all the rage among Republicans.
Why aren't Republicans yelling "release the memo" today?
They believe in transparency, don't they?
Come on Mr President, release the Democrat memo.
— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) February 10, 2018
I've been watching @FoxNews all morning and I've yet to hear anyone demand Trump "release the memo."
Don't these Fox News Trump supporters believe in transparency?
— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) February 10, 2018
Walsh believes the Nunes memo was an act of partisan hackery. Even if Trump is telling the truth about his supposed concerns in the Schiff memo, it’s going to be awfully hard to interpret the Nunes memo as anything other than a political stunt now.
The mere fact that we even have to wonder if Trump really is telling the truth says a lot–and it isn’t good.
(featured image courtesy White House Facebook)