The Republican memo is still an argumentative topic in Congress as it takes on a new week. Donald Trump said on Saturday that the memo vindicated him in the ongoing Russian probe. Republican and Democratic members of Congress stated that Trump’s assumptions that the memo cleared him are wrong.
Following different speculations over the weekend, Congress conveyed its hope that Robert Mueller’s probe into the possible links between Trump’s campaign process and Russia continue unimpeded. It was rumored that Trump’s agenda may have been to get justification from the memo to fire Robert Mueller or Deputy Attorney, Rod Rosenstein.
House Intelligence Committee Meeting
The House Intelligence Committee, chaired by Devin Nunes, Representative from California, is expected to meet Monday 5 to deliberate on whether to release the memo to the public. The Democrats on the committee may seek a vote for the memo to be publicly released. The same move was rejected by Republicans last week claiming that without revisions, it may danger national security. It is also likely that the Republicans may shut down the idea of releasing the memo to the public in a bid to support the president.
The President has the powers to release the memo to the public but has left the decision to lie with Congress. Chuck Schumer, the Senate’s Democratic leader, implied that Trump should back the public release because if he doesn’t, it would show the president’s intention to weaken the Russia probe.
Adam Schiff, the House Intelligence Committee’s top Democrat and California Representative called the Republican memo “a political hit job,” questioning the possibility that committee Chairman, Devin Nunes colluded with White House in drafting the memo taken up by the president to help him voice his protests against the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and the Justice Department. Schiff added that the goal may have been to undermine and discredit both the FBI and the Mueller investigations.
Outcomes of the Memo
The Republican memo has been of no importance so far but has depicted a sign of the fracture that awaits America’s politics when the Russian probe is concluded. The rift exhibited between the Republicans and the Democrats during the government shutdown is certain to widen this week while Trump tries to prove that the entire Russian probe is a witch hunt against him.
No matter what the outcome may be, questions over the ordeal will be raised along the lines of whether an impartial investigation of a sitting president can take place, given the diseased political times in America.
