Trump Will Not Immediately Release Democratic Memo Suggests Revisions
Updated at 9:53 p.m.  ET
President Trump  will not immediately release a memo drafted by Democrats on the House intelligence committee intended to respond to a memo by that committee's Republican chairman released last week  with the White House instead suggesting revisions of sensitive sections before it is made available to the public.
The Democratic countermemo  authored by the committee's ranking member Adam Schiff  D-Calif.  was drafted in response to the Nunes memo which contends that officials at the Department of Justice and the FBI abused their authority in authorizing surveillance on former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page.
The House intelligence committee voted Monday to release the Democratic memo  but it was up to  President Trump  whether or not to declassify the information contained it and give  his  approval for its release as  he  did last week with the Nunes memo. Democrats urged  him  to make the memo public  and even top Republican leaders such as House Speaker Paul Ryan  R-Wis.  agreed it should be released just as the Nunes memo had been.
Schiff said in a statement that Trump had released Nunes' "deeply flawed and inaccurate memo" without any redactions and despite concerns voiced by the Justice Department and the FBI  which "was described by the agencies as extraordinarily reckless and omitting material facts."
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer  D-N.Y.  blasted Trump's decision  saying the president's "double standard when it comes to transparency is appalling."
After the Nunes memo was released   Trump  saw the document as evidence that the investigation by DOJ special counsel Robert Mueller was politically motivated.
"This memo totally vindicates ' Trump ' in probe. But the Russian Witch Hunt goes on and on. Their [sic] was no Collusion and there was no Obstruction (the word now used because  after one year of looking endlessly and finding NOTHING  collusion is dead). This is an American disgrace!" the president tweeted last Saturday  one day after the Nunes memo was released.
However  the Nunes memo also shows that the Justice Department and the FBI did not launch their probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election because of  an unverified dossier about Trump and Russia compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele . Republicans have seized on  the Steele dossier  because he was commissioned by the political research firm Fusion GPS  which was hired by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's campaign.
Instead  it was  Trump  campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos and meetings he had with agents of the Kremlin where he was offered dirt on Hillary Clinton that triggered the investigation  the Nunes memo says. Papadopoulos has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russians and Russian agents.
Trump also seized on revelations in the Nunes memo that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein approved a warrant application for surveillance on Page  raising the specter that the president could fire him which would trigger a potential crisis in who would oversee Mueller's investigation  since Attorney General Jeff Sessions has recused himself from the probe.
Rosenstein met with Trump on Tuesday to talk about the countermemo and begin the declassification review.
"Updated at 9:53 p.m.  ET
[TGT]will not immediately release a memo drafted by Democrats on the House intelligence committee intended to respond to a memo by that committee's Republican chairman released last week  with the White House instead suggesting revisions of sensitive sections before it is made available to the public.
The Democratic countermemo  authored by the committee's ranking member Adam Schiff  D-Calif.  was drafted in response to the Nunes memo which contends that officials at the Department of Justice and the FBI abused their authority in authorizing surveillance on former [TGT] campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page.
The House intelligence committee voted Monday to release the Democratic memo  but it was up to [TGT]whether or not to declassify the information contained it and give  [TGT]  approval for its release as  [TGT]  did last week with the Nunes memo. Democrats urged  [TGT]  to make the memo public  and even top Republican leaders such as House Speaker Paul Ryan  R-Wis.  agreed it should be released just as the Nunes memo had been.
Schiff said in a statement that [TGT] had released Nunes' "deeply flawed and inaccurate memo" without any redactions and despite concerns voiced by the Justice Department and the FBI  which "was described by the agencies as extraordinarily reckless and omitting material facts."
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer  D-N.Y.  blasted [TGT]'s decision  saying the president's "double standard when it comes to transparency is appalling."
After the Nunes memo was released   [TGT]saw the document as evidence that the investigation by DOJ special counsel Robert Mueller was politically motivated.
"This memo totally vindicates ' [TGT] ' in probe. But the Russian Witch Hunt goes on and on. Their [sic] was no Collusion and there was no Obstruction (the word now used because  after one year of looking endlessly and finding NOTHING  collusion is dead). This is an American disgrace!" the president tweeted last Saturday  one day after the Nunes memo was released.
However  the Nunes memo also shows that the Justice Department and the FBI did not launch their probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election because of  an unverified dossier about [TGT] and Russia compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele . Republicans have seized on  the Steele dossier  because he was commissioned by the political research firm Fusion GPS  which was hired by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's campaign.
Instead  it was  [TGT]  campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos and meetings he had with agents of the Kremlin where he was offered dirt on Hillary Clinton that triggered the investigation  the Nunes memo says. Papadopoulos has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russians and Russian agents.
[TGT] also seized on revelations in the Nunes memo that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein approved a warrant application for surveillance on Page  raising the specter that the president could fire him which would trigger a potential crisis in who would oversee Mueller's investigation  since Attorney General Jeff Sessions has recused himself from the probe.
Rosenstein met with [TGT] on Tuesday to talk about the countermemo and begin the declassification review."