The release of a secret memo produced by House Intelligence Committee Chariman Devin Nunes isn’t a done deal, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said Tuesday.
On Monday, the House Intelligence committee voted to publicly release the memo, which alleges the FBI misused its surveillance tools, but its fate currently lays in the hands of President Donald Trump.
“I can’t predetermine what he’s going to do,” McCarthy told CNN’s Dana Bash. “He’s got to read it, look at it.”
The Nunes memo says the FBI abused the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in its use of the opposition research dossier on then-candidate Trump and Russia as part of the case to obtain a FISA warrant for former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page. It cites the roles of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and outgoing Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe in overseeing aspects of the investigation, according to a source briefed on the matter.
Trump has five days to decide whether or not to release the memo, the California Republican said.
House Speaker Paul Ryan said Tuesday he supported the memo’s release.
“I think we should disclose all this stuff. I think sources and methods we’ve gotta protect, no two ways about it for sure, 100%,” Ryan said. “But I think disclosure is the way to go. It’s the best disinfectant. And I think we need to disclose, that brings us accountability, that brings us transparency, that helps us clean up any problem we have with (the Justice Department) and FBI.”
However, since news of the Nunes memo began circulating, Democrats on the committee have announced they also have a memo created by House Intelligence Committee top Democrat Rep. Adam Schiff and are pushing for its release.
“The Democrats didn’t even say they had a minority report until they went to the committee last night,” McCarthy said.
The memo comes as the House Intelligence Committee is investigating any ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, one of several congressional inquiries into the matter.