Politics

Paul Ryan Explains Why GOP Voted To Make Their Memo Public [VIDEO]

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Jack Crowe Political Reporter
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House Speaker Paul Ryan explained during a Tuesday press conference why Republicans voted Monday night to publicly release a GOP memo detailing partisanship in the FBI but refused to do the same for a Democratic memo that reportedly counters the Republican claims.

The House Intelligence Committee voted Monday night along party lines to release a memo drafted by House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes, that reportedly details how partisanship in the FBI compromised the investigation into Russian involvement in the 2016 presidential elections. The GOP voted against publicly releasing Democratic California Rep. Adam Schiff’s memo, which provides a counter to the Republican memo, but they did vote to allow its release to all House members so that it can be reviewed and considered for public release.

“I would remind you that the Democrats tried blocking the rest of the members of Congress from even having access to the memo that the rest of the members of the majority wrote. Yesterday the majority voted to provide access to the Democrats memo,” Ryan told reporters. “The process is this, it’s an 11G process…which is a memo gets released to the broader members, they read it, then you go through and scrub to make sure no sources and memos are being compromised and then you go through the process of releasing it.”

“The majority’s memo already went through that process, the minority’s memo that just got popped on us yesterday is now going through that process. I would just tell you, Unlike the Democrats on the intelligence committee, who voted to deny access to the memo to the broader members, Republicans supported doing so,” he added.

Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd counseled Republicans against making the memo public before submitting it to the Department of Justice for a security check, calling the act “extraordinarily reckless.”

Schiff previously said neither memo should be made public but the Democrats should be able to release theirs if the GOP memo was made public. He derided Republicans for the vote Monday night.

“Today this committee voted to put the president’s personal interest, perhaps their own political interests, above the national interest,” Schiff said.

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