Both Connecticut senators slammed a controversial memo released to the public today from the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal said the release of the memo sacrifices national security in the name of an ongoing agenda, and is laying the groundwork for an attack on special counsel Robert Mueller who is investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
“This despicably wrong decision is a desperate attempt by President Trump and his Capitol Hill lackeys to smear the special counsel and it will fail,” Blumenthal said. “It is wrong because it endangers undercover agents, informants, and others who risk their lives for our intelligence community.”
Written by Republican Rep. Devin Nunes of California, the memo focuses on an application for the electronic surveillance of a Trump campaign volunteer.
The memo asserts that the FBI and the Department of Justice left out relevant information in that application that would have shown conflicts of interest by those investigating President Trump’s alleged Russian ties.
Sen. Chris Murphy pointed to a section of the memo where Nunes challenges the authenticity of Christopher Steele’s infamous dossier that made the initial connection between Trump and a Russian conspiracy. Murphy said that missed the mark.
“There’s absolutely nothing in it that suggests there was any vendetta for Trump at the FBI and it confirms that well before that dossier shows up, they were already on to some real wrongdoing,” Murphy said.
The top Leadership and Investigators of the FBI and the Justice Department have politicized the sacred investigative process in favor of Democrats and against Republicans - something which would have been unthinkable just a short time ago. Rank & File are great people!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 2, 2018
President Trump tweeted earlier today that the memo proves that investigators favored Democrats over the Republicans in their review.