Democratic and Republican lawmakers said that President Donald Trump was wrong to assert that a GOP-produced classified memo on FBI surveillance powers cleared him in the Russia investigation. They hope that special counsel Robert Mueller’s work would continue without interference.
Democrats could seek a vote on publicly releasing their rebuttal memo when the GOP-led House Intelligence Committee meets today, even though the committee rejected that move last week, Associated Press reports.
According to Representative Adam Schiff, the memo is a political hit job. The committee’s top Democrat questioned whether the chairman Representative Devin Nunes had coordinated with the White House in drafting the memo seized on by Trump to vent his grievances against the nation’s premier law enforcement agencies.
“The goal here is to undermine the FBI, discredit the FBI, discredit the Mueller investigation, do the president’s bidding. I think it’s very possible his staff worked with the White House,” Schiff said.
Nunes did not want to reveal whether his staff members had communicated with the White House. Previously, he apologized for sharing with the White House secret intelligence intercepts related to the investigation of the alleged Russian meddling in U.S. presidential election before talking to committee members.
“This memo totally vindicates “Trump” in probe. But the Russian Witch Hunt goes on and on. There was no Collusion and there was no Obstruction (the word now used because, after one year of looking endlessly and finding nothing, collusion is dead). This is an American disgrace!” Trump wrote on Twitter.
But, four committee Republicans who appeared on the Sunday talk shows did not say the same thing. Representative Brad Wenstrup said that this is a separate issue, while Representative Chris Stewart said, “No, it doesn’t end that.” Representative Will Hurd said that he doesn’t agree with the president and Representative Trey Gowdy, asked whether the memo affected the investigation, said, “No, not to me, it doesn’t, and I was pretty integrally involved in the drafting of it.”
The response that the Democrats gave was pretty much expected, so Schiff said “Of course, not at all” and Senator Dick Durbin said, “No, of course it doesn’t.” Lawmakers also said that the document should not impede Mueller.
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