A transcript of the meeting where House Intelligence Committee Republicans voted to release their memo alleging FISA surveillance abuses shows Chairman Devin Nunes playing hardball with Democratic efforts to delay the vote and refusing to say if the White House had any involvement in his efforts.
« I would say to the gentleman that the Department of Justice and the FBI have been under investigation by this committee for many, many months for FISA abuse and other matters, » Nunes said. « That investigation continues. And I would urge my colleagues to vote no, we are not going to be briefed by people that are under investigation by this committee. »
The committee’s dispute with the FBI escalated on Wednesday as the bureau issued a statement expressing « grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo’s accuracy. »
Nunes responded Wednesday in a statement dismissing their « spurious objections » to the memo. But the same fight was already playing out behind closed doors on Monday. At the meeting, Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell of California asked Nunes what the FBI had told him about releasing the memo publicly.
« Our goal as to make sure that we were not going to disclose any issues of national security, and we believe we have met that threshold, » Nunes said.
Democrats warned Republicans they were playing with fire by voting to invoke a never-before-used committee rule to bypass the declassification process to make the memo public.
« Believe me, if it turns out that the majority memo is wrong, there will be hell to pay, » said Rep. Jim Himes, a Connecticut Democrat.
Nunes and the committee’s Democrats clashed over whether there was a formal committee investigation of the Justice Department and FBI, and both Rep. Mike Quigley of Illinois and Schiff demanded to know why Democrats were not informed about the investigation. Under committee rules, the minority party is required to be consulted under the rules when launching an investigation.
« It is one thing to subpoena government officials for information as part of an investigation. It is another to say that those very entities are under investigation, » Schiff argued. « So this is a revelation for us. »
Nunes said the committee issued several subpoenas opposed by Democrats, and told Quigley « every member of this House can conduct (investigations) — you have always had my strong support to investigate, review anything under our jurisdiction. »
Nunes and Quigley also had a heated exchange in which Quigley pressed whether Nunes had « conversations or consultations with anyone in the White House » about the memo.
« I would just answer, as far as I know, no, » Nunes responded.
Quigley then pushed about whether any of Nunes staff consulted with the White House, which prompted Nunes to say: « The chair is not going to entertain … a question by another member. »
« Does that mean just questions you don’t like or questions in general, sir? » Quigley shot back.
Nunes ignored the question and moved onto the next member.
