A senior administration official told reporters that President Donald Trump is expected to inform Congress on Friday that he approves the public release of a memo prepared by the House Intelligence Committee.
The official said that the decision was made after it was reviewed by the White House over the past few days in part to make sure “it doesn’t give away too much in terms of classification.”
“The president is OK with it,” the official said. “I doubt there will be any redactions. It’s in Congress’ hands after that.”
According to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) who wrote the memo, it shows how top officials “used unverified information in a court document to fuel a counter-intelligence investigation during an American political campaign.”
“Once the truth gets out, we can begin taking steps to ensure our intelligence agencies and courts are never misused like this again,” Nunes said in the statement.
The unverified information referenced by Nunes likely refers to the so-called Trump dossier paid for by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee.
Award-winning national security reporter Sara Carter reported last month that the FBI had used the unverified dossier, in part, to obtain a FISA warrant to spy on members of Trump’s team.
If the FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ) indeed misled the Foreign Intelligence Court with knowingly false information, or intentionally concealed the source of the claims, it could be a criminal offense.
Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe was forced to resign on Monday after his boss, FBI Director Christopher Wray, had seen the document a day earlier.
High-ranking officials, including individuals within the FBI and DOJ, who might be mentioned in the memo, have launched a concerted campaign to prevent the release of the memo.
Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee, has attempted to prevent the memo from being released to the public.
In his latest effort, Schiff released a statement yesterday evening claiming that changes were made to the memo after it was voted on. Those changes, however, appear to relate to minor grammar changes and clarifications, which under committee rules would not require a revote on its public release.
Also, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has attempted to prevent the memo from being released to the public. According to an article published by The New York Times, Rosenstein is mentioned in the memo as having signed off on an extension of the FISA warrant after he came to office in April 2017.
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