Democrats released a heavily censored memorandum Saturday that was crafted by Rep. Adam Schiff in response to one written by Intelligence Committee Chair Rep. Devin Nunes, which alleged that federal agents had exceeded their authority in obtaining a special warrant to spy on former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page as part of the Trump-Russian probe. Trump ordered the release of the Nunes memo two weeks ago even though many in law enforcement and intelligence circles opposed this. At the same time, he stood in the way of releasing the Schiff response memo on the grounds it contained sensitive classified material:
President Trump blocked the memo’s outright release two weeks ago, with the White House counsel warning that the document “contains numerous properly classified and especially sensitive passages.” Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee had since been haggling with the F.B.I. over redactions.
Democrats have insisted that Mr. Trump’s deference to national security concerns in the case was hypocritical and politically motivated. Just a week before blocking their memo’s release, the president had ignored similar objections from the Justice Department and the F.B.I. to declassify the contents of a rival Republican memo, which was based on the same underlying documents. Mr. Trump asserted, incorrectly, that the Republican document vindicated him in the special counsel investigation into Russian election interference.
Here is a copy of Schiff’s 10-page memo.
Here is page 4 of the Schiff memo: