FBI, intelligence agencies are vetting Nunes memo: report

The FBI and the nation’s top intelligence agencies are reportedly vetting a memo commissioned by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) following the panel’s vote to release it to the public.

CBS News, citing two administration sources, reports that representatives from the FBI, Justice Department, National Security Agency and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence reviewed the memo on Tuesday.

The White House counsel’s office is coordinating the security agencies’ review alongside the National Security Council, according to CBS News, which said they would make a recommendation to President Trump on Wednesday on whether to release the memo.

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The White House has signaled support for the four-page document to be released and is widely expected to defy the Justice Department and make the memo public. The memo is said to contain allegations of the FBI improperly surveilling Trump campaign communications.

Congressional Republicans have pushed for the memo’s release and the House Intelligence Committee voted along party lines Monday to release it. The committee, meanwhile, also voted against making public a Democratic-drafted countermemo. 

Republicans who have read the document say the memo, based on classified intelligence information, contains evidence that the FBI improperly gained a surveillance warrant that was used on former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. 

Administration officials are also considering only releasing the underlying evidence of the memo’s claims and heavily redacting key information to protect intelligence gathering methods, the GOP sources said. 

Republicans with knowledge of the memo say that the evidence of the improper surveillance could deal a deadly blow to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Democrats, meanwhile, have blasted the memo as a collection of GOP talking points, saying that they cannot correct them without exposing the classified information underpinning the document.