The House Intelligence Committee voted Monday night to release Rep. Devin Nunes’ (R-Calif.) controversial FISA memo, the Hill reported. The committee also voted against the release of a counter-memo drafted by Democrats.
Both votes were made along party lines. The Hill reported:
While the panel voted to release that memo to the entire House, Republicans expressed concern that publicly releasing the minority memo would damage sensitive intelligence sources and methods, according to Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the committee’s ranking member.
While Democrats decried the results of the committee’s vote as politicizing the release of classified intelligence, Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas) reportedly said after the vote that the committee has no concerns that the memo’s release will damage national security.
“We’ve taken the position that this is a serious issue that needs to be disclosed to the public,” Conaway said, according to the Hill.
Nunes’ memo, drafted by the GOP, is expected to allege that the FBI obtained a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for surveillance of Trump adviser Carter Page during the 2016 election using the so-called Steele dossier.
The memo has been a huge source of controversy in Washington and has been compared by some to documents that revealed abuses of power related to Watergate.
Support for the release of the memo gained traction over the weekend when it was revealed that President Donald Trump, who had reportedly not seen it, endorsed the memo being made public.
According to CNN, because of a committee rule that has never been invoked, Trump now has five days to decide whether to allow the move to release the memo publicly to go forward.
H/T the Hill