Zippyjuan
02-04-2018, 03:01 PM
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/priebus-denies-that-trump-wanted-to-fire-mueller/2018/02/04/df0ac7d4-09c2-11e8-8890-372e2047c935_story.html?utm_term=.d9d01520cef0
Republican members of the House Intelligence Committee dissented Sunday from President Trump’s view that corruption has poisoned the special counsel’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
In a sign of a growing rift within the House GOP, four members of the panel dismissed the idea pushed by Trump and other Republicans that a controversial memo criticizing how the FBI handled elements of its Russia probe undermines the investigation led by Robert S. Mueller III into possible coordination between Trump associates and the Kremlin. The memo’s release Friday by the Intelligence Committee has raised fears Trump will fire Mueller or Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, who oversees the probe.
Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), who helped draft the memo, said Trump should not fire Rosenstein and rejected the idea that the document has bearing on the investigation.
“I actually don’t think it has any impact on the Russia probe,” Gowdy, who also chairs the House Oversight Committee, said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah) said the two are “very separate” issues.
“I think it would be a mistake for anyone to suggest the special counsel should not continue his work,” Stewart told Fox News Sunday. “This memo, frankly, has nothing at all to do with the special counsel.”
Gowdy and Stewart — along with Reps. Will Hurd (R-Texas) and Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) — represented the Intelligence Committee on the Sunday talk shows.
Their comments came as Democrats prepared to push for a committee vote Monday night on releasing their rebuttal to the GOP memo. Ranking Member Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) is expected to offer a motion to release the 10-page document, which Democrats have promised to send to the Justice Department for redactions. Republicans have warned that the document might contain too much classified information to release, and even if the motion succeeds, Trump has five days to block it.
The four Republicans who appeared on Sunday’s talk shows walked a careful line on the four-page GOP document, which alleges that the Justice Department abused its powers by obtaining a warrant for surveillance of former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page using information from a source who was biased against Trump. Their comments echoed those of Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), who supported the memo’s release on the argument that it lays out a “specific, legitimate” concern related to secret surveillance orders, but has insisted the findings do not impugn Mueller or Rosenstein.
Republican members of the House Intelligence Committee dissented Sunday from President Trump’s view that corruption has poisoned the special counsel’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
In a sign of a growing rift within the House GOP, four members of the panel dismissed the idea pushed by Trump and other Republicans that a controversial memo criticizing how the FBI handled elements of its Russia probe undermines the investigation led by Robert S. Mueller III into possible coordination between Trump associates and the Kremlin. The memo’s release Friday by the Intelligence Committee has raised fears Trump will fire Mueller or Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, who oversees the probe.
Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), who helped draft the memo, said Trump should not fire Rosenstein and rejected the idea that the document has bearing on the investigation.
“I actually don’t think it has any impact on the Russia probe,” Gowdy, who also chairs the House Oversight Committee, said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah) said the two are “very separate” issues.
“I think it would be a mistake for anyone to suggest the special counsel should not continue his work,” Stewart told Fox News Sunday. “This memo, frankly, has nothing at all to do with the special counsel.”
Gowdy and Stewart — along with Reps. Will Hurd (R-Texas) and Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) — represented the Intelligence Committee on the Sunday talk shows.
Their comments came as Democrats prepared to push for a committee vote Monday night on releasing their rebuttal to the GOP memo. Ranking Member Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) is expected to offer a motion to release the 10-page document, which Democrats have promised to send to the Justice Department for redactions. Republicans have warned that the document might contain too much classified information to release, and even if the motion succeeds, Trump has five days to block it.
The four Republicans who appeared on Sunday’s talk shows walked a careful line on the four-page GOP document, which alleges that the Justice Department abused its powers by obtaining a warrant for surveillance of former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page using information from a source who was biased against Trump. Their comments echoed those of Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), who supported the memo’s release on the argument that it lays out a “specific, legitimate” concern related to secret surveillance orders, but has insisted the findings do not impugn Mueller or Rosenstein.