Democratic Memo Penned By Calif. Congressman Schiff Released
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) -- The Democratic memo released Saturday -- a counter to the one earlier released by GOP Rep. Devin Nunes -- had President Trump tweeting up a storm.
Burbank Congressman Adam Schiff spearheaded the democratic response.
His memo attempts to refute the major GOP talking points that alleged the FBI was on a witch hunt while trying to obtain a surveillance warrant against Trump adviser Carter Page.
"The real takeaway is the FBI acted appropriately that the Russians approached at least two of the Trump campaign foreign policy advisors, in fact the campaign only had five original advisors, two of them were approached by the Russians, Carter Page and George Papadopolous, and the campaign was made aware that the Russians had stolen Clinton emails very early on," Schiff said Saturday.
The so-called Schiff memo asserts the FBI was already investigating multiple people connected to Trump before it received a controversial dossier from former British spy Christopher Steele, alleging ties between Trump and the Kremlin.
Republicans said the FBI relied on the Steele report as the basis for getting their warrant for Page.
The Schiff memo also contends the FBI did tell the court about the political origins of Steele's work and that his research appeared intended for use to "discredit" Trump's campaign.
After the release of the Schiff memo, House Intelligence Chair Devin Nunes doubled-down on the abuse allegations.
"What you basically will read in the Democratic memo is they are advocating that it's okay for the FBI and DOJ to use political dirt paid for by one campaign and use it against the other campaign. And I don't care who you are Republican, Democrat or Independent in the United States that is unacceptable," Nunes said.
President Trump also tweeted about the memo several times with robust replies by Schiff.
"The Democrat memo response on government surveillance abuses is a total political and legal bust. Just confirms all of the terrible things that were done. So illegal!"
He also referred to the Fox News response.
