Trump: Democrats’ memo was ‘very political,’ must ‘redo’
President Donald Trump on Saturday blamed House Democrats for his decision to not release their formal response to a GOP memo alleging misconduct by top FBI officials amid the Russia investigation, saying the response was “very political” and that the lawmakers knew information in it would need to be “heavily redacted.”
The full House of Representatives could vote to overrule President Donald Trump’s decision. | Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images
“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,” the president wrote on Twitter. “Told them to re-do and send back in proper form!”
On Friday night, Trump blocked the release of the response by House Intelligence Committee Democrats to their Republican counterparts, who last week released their own document alleging that top FBI and Department of Justice officials used politically biased information to spy on a Trump campaign adviser. Trump released the GOP’s memo unredacted over objections from the Justice Department and FBI.
The committee unanimously voted earlier this week to make the Democratic memo public, but Trump’s approval is needed for the findings, drawn from classified information, to be publicly released. The full House of Representatives could vote to overrule the president.
The White House’s rejection Friday night, which came in the form of a statement from White House counsel Don McGahn, included a letter from FBI Director Christopher Wray and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein that identifies “information for which national security or law enforcement concerns are especially significant.”
“Mr. President, what you call ‘political’ are actually called facts, and your concern for sources and methods would be more convincing if you hadn’t decided to release the GOP memo (“100%”) before reading it and over the objections of the FBI,” Schiff wrote on Twitter.
Source:politico.com