House Intel Committee Votes to Release Secret GOP Memo

The House Intelligence Committee on Monday voted along party lines to publicly release a secret GOP-drafted memo on alleged surveillance abuses targeting the Trump campaign, according to the panel’s top Democrat.

The controversial document could be released if the president does not object within five days. If the president does object, the question could come before the full House—though Trump reportedly supports the effort. Texas congressman Mike Conaway told reporters late Monday that the GOP-drafted memo does not need to be redacted.

Democrats describe the memo as a misleading characterization of highly classified intelligence that is meant to undermine special counsel Robert Mueller, whose investigation includes any potential links between the Kremlin and the Trump team. Committee Democrats' effort to publicly release a counter-memo rebutting what they describe as “factual inaccuracies” in the GOP memo failed on Monday, much to their frustration.

“When I moved to have the minority memo released in the interest of full transparency, [the majority] evidently took the view that full transparency means only one side gets it and not the other,” Schiff told reporters, standing alongside eight other committee Democrats.

Republicans agreed Monday to make Democrats’ memo available for all House members to view in a classified setting. They said they would be open to a future vote on publicly releasing the document.