Democrats responded angrily to the announcement Friday from the Trump administration that the president would not be declassifying the Democrat memo meant to rebut many of the claims from the FISA memo released this week.
Here's what they said:
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) tweeted a statement indicating that they would be taking steps to try to get the memo released by answering the president's objections.
"After ignoring urging of FBI & DOJ not to release misleading Nunes memo because it omits material facts," he tweeted, "@POTUS now expresses concerns over sharing precisely those facts with public and seeks to send it back to the same Majority that produced the flawed Nunes memo to begin with."
"The Democratic response sets out the material facts that were necessary for the public to see that the FBI acted properly in seeking a FISA warrant on Carter Page," he said in the statement.
"After promising to threat the Democratic response in precisely the same way," he continued, "the White House now seeks to have the Democratic memo sent back to committee and revised by the same Majority that produced the flawed Nunes document to begin with."
"We will be reviewing the recommended redactions from DOJ and FBI," he added, "which these agencies shared with the White House, and look forward to conferring with the agencies to determine how we can properly inform the American people about the misleading attack on law enforcement by the GOP and address any concerns over sources and methods."
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) said that the memo needed to be released in order to defend the reputation of the FBI, but said that the move was consistent with the pattern of obstruction from Trump.
Rep. Eric Swalwell: The only way to "make sure that the FBI's reputation is not unfairly tainted is to give the American people the full picture." https://t.co/arYrcKtmTO pic.twitter.com/raDuDEy5L1
— CNN (@CNN) February 10, 2018
Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) said he wasn't one bit surprised by the president refusing to release the memo, and said that he would have been surprised if he had released it at all.
Rep. Jim Himes: "I am not one bit surprised" that President Trump decided not to release the Democratic memo https://t.co/aclPGLOPya https://t.co/TH9dHcLiOC
— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) February 10, 2018
The House Intelligence Committee unanimously voted on Monday to release the Democrat memo after having released the FISA memo written by Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.).
The letter from White House legal counsel Dan McGhan indicated that if the Democrats edited their memo that the president might consider releasing it at a later date.
