Schiff fires back at Trump: Memo does ‘quite the opposite’ of vindicating you

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) hit back at President Trump on Saturday for claiming that the newly released GOP memo alleging wrongdoing at the Department of Justice and FBI “totally vindicates” him in the probe into Russia’s election interference.

“The most important fact disclosed in this otherwise shoddy memo was that FBI investigation began July 2016 with your advisor, Papadopoulos, who was secretly discussing stolen Clinton emails with the Russians,” Schiff tweeted Saturday.

The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee was responding to Trump’s tweet earlier Saturday claiming that the memo “totally vindicates ‘Trump’ in probe.”

The memo, which was compiled by staffers for House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), was released on Friday after Trump declassified the document.

The memo alleges that senior Justice Department officials improperly used information from the so-called Steele dossier to obtain surveillance warrants on former Trump adviser Carter Page.

The document also shows, however, that the investigation into Russia’s election interference began after the FBI obtained information about former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos, and not from the warrants on Page.

Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee are now pushing to release their own memo countering Nunes’s document, and Republicans have signaled that they would be willing to sign off on the release.