House Democrats attempted and failed to force a vote on the House floor criticizing Rep. Devin Nunes’ memo on House floor Tuesday.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi attempted to bring up a “privileged resolution” criticizing the Nunes memo release, but it was ruled out of order in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.
The resolution also urged the Trump administration to release the memo drafted by Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee.
“It is imperative that the House vote to release the Democratic memo to set the record straight on Republicans’ attempts to undermine the Russian investigation,” Pelosi said.
If granted, a “privileged resolution” is given more importance over ordinary business because it would involve matters of urgency.
Pelosi told CNN in January she had reviewed the Nunes memo and its basis as well as the intelligence underlying the memo, and accused Republicans of crafting a misleading document and misusing sensitive information available to them in order to undercut the ongoing special counsel investigation into potential coordination between associates of President Donald Trump and Russia.
“What they’re putting forth is a total misrepresentation. It is false,” Pelosi said at the time.
The move was part of Democratic lawmakers attempt to argue Nunes’ memo is misleading and one-sided as the White House considers whether or not to release the response from the Democrats on the panel.
A group of Senate Democrats, led by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, are also planning to make make floor speeches to call on Republicans to end what they call a smear campaign against the Russia investigation Tuesday evening.
