Gowdy: Americans should see the Nunes memo documenting FBI abuses
Neil W. McCabe
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The chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee told “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace that the American people will want to read the four-page memorandum prepared by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence about the FBI and its interaction with the so-called “dossier,” or opposition research file, developed by Hillary R. Clinton’s presidential campaign.
“This memo is nothing but the distilling, the reducing of thousands of pages of documents provided to us by the Department and the Bureau,” said. Rep. Harold W. “Trey” Gowdy III (R.-S.C.), who took over the committee June 13 upon the resignation from Congress of Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R.-Utah).
The House intel committee voted Monday to make the document public.
The South Carolina congressman is one of more than 200 congressmen–virtually all Republicans–who have read the memo. The memo has not been formally classified by the federal government, but it is very tightly guarded because it draws upon classified sources.
Typically, operations are classified as secret and sources and methods are classified as top secret.
Although memo is a congressional document, the committee’s own rule gives a president up to five days to block a public release. President Donald J. Trump and the White House have signaled that the executive branch will not object to making the memo public.
Gowdy said the memo reveals how the FBI used the dossier to secure a FISA warrant.
“If you think your viewers want to know whether or not the dossier was used in court proceedings, whether or not it was vetted before it was used, whether or not it’s ever been vetted,” Gowdy said.
“If you are interested in who paid for the dossier, if you’re interested in Christopher Steele’s relationship with Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee, then, yes, you’ll want the memo to come out,” he said.
The chairman said to Wallace that the memo answers legitimate questions that he and others have about how the FBI operated during the 2016 political cycle.
Colleague Catherine Herridge rpts FBI Director Wray went to CapHill Sunday to view 4 pg memo on FISA abuses
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) January 29, 2018
Democrats have accused Nunes of using the memo to undermine the reputation of the FBI, but Gowdy said he would not be part of an unfair attack on the bureau.
“I think you’ll be surprised. It is not a hit piece on the department and the FBI. I would not have participated in it if that’s what it was.”
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