A memo detailing alleged abuses at the FBI will be made public soon, a pair of Republican congressman predicted Wednesday on “The Laura Ingraham Show.”
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said he expects it to become public some time next week, while Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) said the process could take a couple of weeks.
“What I do think is important, Laura, is that when this thing is released, it is cited, it is referenced to the underlying material so that people know that the memo and the statements and things alleged in that memo are based on these fundamental sources that are out there,” Jordan said. “I think it is critical that this thing be properly sourced, properly referenced.”
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Gaetz, appearing separately on the radio program, agreed that releasing underlying documentation is important because Democrats already are dismissing the memo as mere conclusions drawn by partisan staffers working for House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.).
“So I think that might take a little time to figure out how we can get the supporting evidence without revealing sources and methods,” Gaetz said.
The memo is a four-page summary of classified information reviewed by Intelligence Committee staff on the Department of Justice’s use of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to monitor conversations between foreigners and members of President Donald Trump’s campaign.
Most congressional Republicans are calling for public disclosure of the memo, but the intel committee must vote to approve its release and the Trump administration would have five days to object. The president has expressed support for making the memo public.
Gaetz referenced text messages that FBI investigator Peter Strzok traded with his paramour, bureau lawyer Lisa Page, disparaging Trump during the campaign at the same time they were involved in the investigation of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s mishandling of classified information on her private server. In one infamous text, Strzok talked about an “insurance policy” against Trump. Gaetz said Strzok talked about “unfinished business” in a later text.
Gaetz said a line can be drawn from those messages to the ultimate appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller to investigate allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election and collusion between the Trump campaign and elements linked to Moscow.
“I believe that the only reason we have a Mueller probe today is because [of] the insurance policy that Strzok and Page were talking about,” he said. “They thought that if they went and manufactured these charges, then that would undermine our president.”
Jordan said the messages between Strzok and Page demonstrate more than mere bias against Trump.
“It’s animus,” he said. “They despised Donald Trump. And frankly, they don’t like people like you and I.”
“The American people have said, ‘We’ve had it. We’ve had it with this kind of behavior.'”
Jordan also is not buying the official explanation that a technical glitch prevented the preservation of five months’ worth of text messages between Strzok and Page. He noted that the period of the lost texts began in December 2016 — when officials in then-President Barack Obama’s outgoing administration were “unmasking” Trump associates caught up in surveillance — through May, when Mueller was appointed.
“C’mon, to say that’s a big coincidence that all those things happened?” he said. “That just, you know, insults people’s intelligence.”
Jordan said the FBI never would accept such an excuse from a citizen under orders to preserve documents.
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“The American people have said, ‘We’ve had it. We’ve had it with this kind of behavior,'” he said.
Gaetz expressed frustration with Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The lawmaker added his name to a growing list of conservatives who are unhappy with the former Alabama senator’s handling of the FBI and the Russia probe.
“To me, the remedy is the attorney general actually being the attorney general and running the Department of Justice,” he said. “I mean, Donald Trump and his administration [were] brought to Washington to drain the swamp, not to have the attorney general over at the Department of Justice feeding the alligators.”
PoliZette senior writer Brendan Kirby can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter.
(photo credit, homepage image: Jim Jordan, CC BY-SA 2.0, by Gage Skidmore; photo credit, article image: Jim Jordan, CC BY-SA 2.0, by Gage Skidmore)
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