The highly-anticipated memo has finally been released to the public and Democrats are blasting it as an untrustworthy partisan political tool.
A statement released by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi refers to the document as “Nunes’ partisan spin memo” and expresses her disapproval with the president, declaring that “he just sent his friend Putin a bouquet.”
“President Trump has surrendered his constitutional responsibility as Commander-in-Chief by releasing highly classified and distorted intelligence,” part of the statement declares. “By not protecting intelligence sources and methods, he just sent his friend Putin a bouquet.”
She continues that the “partisan spin memo distorts highly classified intelligence in a cynical attempt to discredit our national intelligence and law enforcement agencies and the Special Counsel investigation,” and “releasing the memo is a desperate attempt to distract the American people from the truth about the Trump-Russia scandal.”
California Congressman Adam Schiff said in a tweet that, “The President’s decision to publicly release a misleading memo attacking DOJ & FBI is a transparent attempt to discredit these institutions and undermine Mueller’s probe. We'll fight to release our classified response."
"Until then here's a glimpse at what's wrong with their memo,” he added. His tweet contains an image displaying a portion of the text from the “House Intelligence Committee Minority Response to Release of Chairman Nunes’ Misleading Memo.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and a number of other Democrats including Nancy Pelosi, Dick Durbin, Adam Schiff, Dianne Feinstein and others, signed a letter to the president that referred to the memo as “partisan and misleading.”
The letter condemns Trump for releasing the document “over the objections of your own Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director and the Department of Justice (DOJ),” asserting that the president’s action, “was a transparent attempt to discredit the hard-working men and women of law enforcement who are investigating Russia’s interference with our Presidential election and that nation’s ties to your campaign.”
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“We are alarmed by reports that you may intend to use this misleading document as a pretext to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, in an effort to corruptly influence or impede Special Counsel Bob Mueller’s investigation,” the letter continues.
The Democrat signers then warned the commander in chief: “We write to inform you that we would consider such an unwarranted action as an attempt to obstruct justice in the Russia investigation. Firing Rod Rosenstein, DOJ Leadership, or Bob Mueller could result in a constitutional crisis of the kind not seen since the Saturday Night Massacre.”
Former FBI Director James Comey, chimed in on Twitter, similarly decrying the memo as “Dishonest and misleading.”
He said in his tweet: “That’s it? Dishonest and misleading memo wrecked the House intel committee, destroyed trust with Intelligence Community, damaged relationship with FISA court, and inexcusably exposed classified investigation of an American citizen. For what? DOJ & FBI must keep doing their jobs.”
While Comey and the aforementioned Democrats have communicated negative attitudes toward the memo and its release, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul (R) expressed support for the release in his statement:
“While I applaud the release of this memo, I also call for Congress to take immediate action to help prevent such behavior in the future. It is imperative it start by listening to Americans who have expressed outrage over its disregard for the Fourth Amendment and reexamining the powers it reauthorized right before we learned of the memo. Continuing to ignore the Constitution will only guarantee that others fall victim to government abusing its domestic surveillance powers.”
House Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes (R-CA) also released a statement:
“The Committee has discovered serious violations of the public trust, and the American people have a right to know when officials in crucial institutions are abusing their authority for political purposes. Our intelligence and law enforcement agencies exist to defend the American people, not to be exploited to target one group on behalf of another. It is my hope that the Committee’s actions will shine a light on this alarming series of events so we can make reforms that allow the American people to have full faith and confidence in their governing institutions.”
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