Nadler calls GOP memo criticizing FBI ‘profoundly misleading’

Jerrold Nadler is pictured. | Getty Images

Rep. Jerry Nadler, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, says he considers a GOP memo critical of top FBI officials “profoundly misleading” after seeing the highly classified source material Republicans used to craft it.

Few lawmakers have gotten access to the materials House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes relied on to compile his four-page memo, which the committee circulated among all House members last week but has not made public. But Nadler said in a letter released Tuesday that he and Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte recently had a chance view the classified materials.

“Those materials tell a very different story than the conspiracy theory concocted by Chairman Nunes and being repeated in the press,” Nadler wrote in the letter to Goodlatte.

A parade of GOP lawmakers this week have said the memo confirms misconduct and political bias against President Donald Trump by senior officials at the FBI. Democrats say the memo, which Republicans haven’t shown to the FBI or Justice Department, is an attempt to undermine the special counsel investigation into Russian election meddling and any involvement by Trump’s associates.

Nunes and other top Republicans have been discussing whether to make an unprecedented request to release the classified memo publicly, using an obscure process that would give Trump a chance to weigh in — possibly as soon as next week — and could require a vote of the full House. Many conservatives in Congress and in media have called on them to release the document.

Nadler’s criticism of the memo adds to the partisan furor it’s created on Capitol Hill. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, has called the memo a set of “distortions” and Republican talking points meant to tar investigators and protect the president from ongoing Russia probes. Schiff also said most lawmakers would never see the underlying source material behind the memo, preventing them from assessing its accuracy.

Nadler urged Goodlatte to work with him to “make these source materials available to every member of our Committee.”

“Too many of our colleagues appear to be constructing their own version of history — completely unrelated to the facts as you and I understand them — based, at least in part, on this memorandum,” he wrote. “Our members should have the benefit of access to the actual record without delay.”

Nadler also urged Goodlatte to demand that Nunes release his memo to the Justice Department and FBI, both of which have said they’ve sought the document but have yet to receive it. A Senate Intelligence ommittee source said Nunes also hasn’t responded to requests from members of the panel to share the document with senators.

“Some of our colleagues have compounded the problem by attacking the Department in public — where, because of the classified and sensitive nature of the case, Department officials cannot defend themselves,” Nadler wrote.

A House intelligence committee source said Nadler’s complaint wasn’t surprising. “It’s not remarkable or surprising to hear other Democrats parrot Schiff’s comments on this,” the source said.

Goodlatte met over the weekend with Nunes and Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy to discuss how to handle calls to release the memo publicly. They’re considering whether to take a committee vote to do so next week. If they do, it would launch a process that would give Trump five days to approve or reject the request. If he approves, as GOP lawmakers expect, the memo could become public as soon as next Wednesday.

Sources familiar with the memo, which was compiled by aides to Devin Nunes, say it claims senior FBI officials abused a secret surveillance program, commonly known as FISA, to target the Trump campaign in fall 2016. According to three people who have viewed it, the memo suggests that FBI agents seeking a fall 2016 warrant to conduct surveillance of Trump campaign adviser Carter Page concealed the role a disputed dossier alleging Kremlin influence over Trump played in their decision.

The dossier the memo alleges helped drive the decision to seek a FISA warrant on Page was compiled in 2016 by former British spy Christopher Steele, a trusted FBI partner in previous investigations, who had been commissioned by the private research firm Fusion GPS to investigate Trump’s business ties to Russia. Fusion’s work was funded at that time by a lawyer who represented Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee. It’s unclear whether Steele’s relationship to the campaign was disclosed in the FISA application.