Top House Democrat within the Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff, is claiming that committee chairman, Devin Nunes “materially altered” the secret memo, detailing anti-Trump collusion within the FBI.
According to the Schiff, Chairman Nunes altered the contents of the memo, fabricating information in a way that will mislead the public – this is a serious and surprising accusation. The alledgedly altered memo was sent over to the White House for review, so that the process to release it to the public could begin. Although the House of Representatives voted to let the American people see the memo, the specific committee that Adam Schiff sits on did not get approved by the committee first.
Schiff described that the changes made in the document are “substantive” and “material” alterations. Furthermore, the alternations in the document were made without informing the committee members, nor did they have a chance to review the revised contents. As per Schiff, the committee members “were never apprised of, never had the opportunity to review, and never approved,” which means that “there is no longer a valid basis for the White House to review the altered document,” he wrote.
A spokesperson from Nunes, Jack Langer, gave a confirmation that the memo had been changed. However, in an interview with NBC News, he said that the changes majorly included “grammatical fixes and two edits requested by the FBI and by the Minority themselves,” referring to Democrats committee.
“The vote to release the memo was absolutely procedurally sound, and in accordance with House and Committee rules,” Langer said. “To suggest otherwise is a bizarre distraction from the abuses detailed in the memo, which the public will hopefully soon be able to read for themselves.”
According to the letter Schiff wrote to explain how the memo was altered, he said that the majority of Republican’s committee “no longer stands by the representation it has made to House Members in its original document and felt it necessary to deceive Committee Members during Monday’s vote.”
Based on the transcript that was received, Nunes said that “We will send the content over to the White House, and the president has five days to either agree with us that it should be made public, or the president could say that he does not want it made public.”
Himes tweeted out saying, “In a formal meeting, I asked Chairman Nunes not once, but twice, if his memo would be released precisely as we reviewed it.” He further added, “He said yes. Then altered it.”
It is clear that the Democrats are already desperate to undermine the horrifying findings within this secret memo. I cannot wait to read it for myself!
