Jan 19, 2018

House Republicans demand release of classified FISA abuses memo

House Intel Chair Devin Nunes. Photo: Mark Wilson / Getty Images

Conservative members of the House are calling for the release of a classified House Intelligence Committee memo, apparently drafted by GOP committee members, that outlines how the controversial Trump-Russia Steele dossier was purportedly used as a pretext for the FBI to obtain FISA wiretaps against American citizens.

Why they’re fighting: After a party line committee vote allowed members to read the classified memo yesterday, it was highlighted in a segment on Fox News’ Hannity last night. That prompted Republicans like Mark Meadows, who spoke earlier in the evening on the House floor about the memo, and Steve King to promote its release via social media with the hashtag #ReleaseTheMemo while House Intel’s ranking Democrat Adam Schiff blasted its contents as “a profoundly misleading set of talking points.”

Some prominent #ReleaseTheMemo tweets:

The statement from House Intel's ranking Democrat, Adam Schiff:

[T]he Majority voted today on a party-line basis to grant House Members access to a profoundly misleading set of talking points drafted by Republican staff attacking the FBI and its handling of the investigation. Rife with factual inaccuracies and referencing highly classified materials that most of Republican Intelligence Committee members were forced to acknowledge they had never read, this is meant only to give Republican House members a distorted view of the FBI.
This may help carry White House water, but it is a deep disservice to our law enforcement professionals.

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Data: The Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins; Map: Andrew Witherspoon/Axios. This graphic includes "probable deaths" that New York City began reporting on April 14.

More than 62,300 U.S. health care workers have tested positive for the novel coronavirus and at least 291 have died from the virus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Tuesday. COVID-19 had infected about 9,300 health professionals when the CDC gave its last update on April 17.

By the numbers: More than 98,900 people have died from COVID-19 and over 1.6 million have tested positive in the U.S. Over 384,900 Americans have recovered and more than 14.9 million tests have been conducted.

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Data: The Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins; Map: Axios Visuals

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