Nunes: Dem memo doesn’t change anything, proves intel abuse occurred

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) said on Saturday that a Democratic rebuttal to a GOP memo released earlier this month alleging abuses by the FBI and Justice Department will not affect the substance of the document.

“What you’re not going to see is anything that actually rejects what was actually in our memo,” Nunes, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

The first memo, released by Republicans on the Intelligence Committee, accused FBI and Justice Department officials of abusing their authority to obtain a surveillance warrant against a former Trump campaign adviser. 

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But Democrats on the panel raised concerns about the GOP document, which they said omitted key facts that would help put the memo’s contents into the proper context.

Committee Democrats sought to release their own memo rebutting the GOP document, but the White House initially denied that request, citing concerns from the FBI and Justice Department that it would reveal classified information. 

A redacted version of that memo was released Saturday. 

Nunes said that Republicans on the Intelligence Committee wanted the Democratic memo to be released because it would provide evidence that Democrats were working with the FBI and Justice Department to undermine President Trump and his campaign.

“What you basically will read in the Democratic memo is they are advocating that it is okay for the FBI and [Justice Department] to use political dirt paid for by one campaign and use it against the other campaign,” he said.