The House Intelligence Committee continues to spin off its core objective of getting to the bottom of the 2016 alleged Russian interference with the US Presidential elections and possible Links between Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia. The Democrats sought to have their say by voting for their memo to be released to the public, a move that is further dividing the committee into its political formation of Democrats and Republicans.
The House Intelligence Committee held a vote on Monday giving way to the Democrats’ decision to release their memo. The move comes as a counter strategy to the Republican’s decision to release their memo. The Republican memo is implied to have evidence that the FBI and the Justice Department conspired against the president.
Over the weekend, the president claimed that the Republican memo vindicated him, a claim that for a moment put the drifting partisans in agreement as Republicans and Democrats both disputed Trump’s claims. Democrats lamented the release of the Republican declassified memo stating that the information could cripple future investigations.
Reasons to the Democrats’ Memo Release
As the battle of classified memos further expanded the partisan gap on the House Intelligence Committee, reasons for the Democrats’ declassification vote emerged. The general overview of the decision to put through their (Democrats) memo is to counter the recently declassified and released Republican memo.
After the unanimous vote, Rep. Adam Schiff of California and the committee’s panel top Democrat stated that their memo will help shed light on the distorted and inaccurate Republican memo. He added that he is gravely concerned about the political redactions the White House may impose on the document before it releases the memo to the public. Due to his fears, Schiff alleged that he will compare any deletion requested by the FBI and Justice Department with that of the White House edits to try and ascertain whether White House is withholding information for political gain.
The memo is forwarded to White House where the president has a five-day period to consult and make a decision on whether to release or not.
Next Business for the House Intelligence Committee
It is evident that the battle of memos has taken about 2 weeks of the committee’s time. The committee plans to interview Steve Bannon who is Trump’s former chief strategist during his campaign period. Two officials privy to the committee’s schedule and who wished to remain anonymous asserted that Steve was to come to the panel much earlier but the meeting postponed to a later date.
