White House receives Democrats' rebuttal memo on alleged surveillance abuses
Following a unanimous vote in the House to release the Democrats version of a memo that rebuts the GOP-crafted memo on alleged surveillance abuses released on Friday, The White House says it has confirmed the receipt of the latest memo release.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders issued the following statement last night shortly after the House vote:
"The White House has received a memorandum from the minority members of the House Select Permanent Committee on Intelligence. As stated many times, the Administration will follow the same process and procedure with this memorandum from the minority as it did last week, when it received the memorandum from the majority."
Asked if he thought the president would move to block the release of the Democrats' memo, ranking member Rep. Adam Schiff, D-California, told reporters he would be "astonished" if the White house "was that blatant," but conceded, "but you never know."
Schiff later expressed concern that the White House could make "political redactions, not redactions to protect sources and methods" when weighing the president's decision to release the memo.
"That's why we're going to insist that the Department of Justice and the FBI report to us on the redactions they think are necessary, so that we can segregate any political interference from the White House," he said.
The vote on the Democrats' memo took place exactly one week the committee voted along party lines for the public release of a contentious memo on alleged surveillance abuses authored by staffers of Chairman Devin Nunes, R-California.
CBS News' Margaret Brennan and Olivia Andrzejczak Gazis contributed to this report.
