Trump Won't Declassify Democrats' Current Memo, White House Says
(CBSNEWS) -- President Trump will not declassify the memo from Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee as it currently is written, the White House announced in a letter Friday night. The Democrats' memo is a rebuttal to the GOP memo about surveillance of a former Trump campaign official.
"Although the president is inclined to declassify the Feb. 5th memorandum, because the memorandum contains numerous properly classified and especially sensitive passages, he is unable to do so at this time," the letter from White House counsel Don McGahn to Devin Nunes, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, reads.
The White House letter said Justice Department officials will be available to help "should the committee wish to revise the February 5th memorandum to mitigate the risks identified by the department."
Democrats had concerns with the GOP memo over sensitive information as well, but the president declassified that. Some Republicans have claimed the Democratic memo involved more substantial information about law enforcement sources and methods.
At the White House's request, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray also sent a letter to the White House identifying the areas of concern in the Democratic memo.
Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the committee, released this statement on Twitter:
After ignoring urging of FBI & DOJ not to release misleading Nunes memo because it omits material facts, @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: pic.twitter.com/qNVyS99eXs
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) February 10, 2018
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