Rep. Adam Schiff says Americans will be "misled" by the release of the GOP memo
Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, blasted Republicans on Friday over their decision to push for the release of a classified memo alleging abuses of a key surveillance law and blocking the analysis compiled by Democrats.
"This is designed to impugn the credibility of the FBI, to undermine the investigation, to give the president additional fodder to attack the organization and it's a tremendous disservice to the American people who are going be misled by this," the California Democrat said in an interview with "CBS This Morning."
Schiff said that it's "a really dishonest thing to do" for Republicans to block the memo prepared by Democrats even though they keep claiming they're interested in transparency. He said that the GOP memo doesn't suggest that there is any systemic abuse at the FBI.
"The reality is there is no demonstration in this memo, in this misleading memo, of systemic abuse at the FBI as has been posited by the president and his allies and instead, the majority, in the interest of transparency, they only wants certain facts to be seen," he said.
Schiff said that there is "no evidence of a corrupt effort to obtain warrants against people in the Trump campaign."
"That's been the president's narrative, but there's no evidence of that," Schiff said.
President Trump on Friday suggested that the FBI and Justice Department have favored Democrats over Republicans in the process that is expected to lead to the release of the Republican memo alleging abuses of a surveillance law. Mr. Trump tweeted that they have "politicized the sacred investigative process" but added that "rank & file are great people." CBS News' Major Garrett reports that the White House expected to inform Congress probably Friday that Mr. Trump is "okay" with publishing the memo prepared by the Republican staff on the House Intelligence Committee, which is chaired by Rep. Devin Nunes, R-California.
Schiff warned that the memo's release could lead to the intelligence community becoming a "lot less willing" to share information with Congress.
Meanwhile, Democrats, he said, plan to force another vote on the release of the Democratic memo.