President Trump has defied expectations in deciding not to release the Democratic response to the Devin Nunes memo alleging abuses of surveillance powers against Trump campaign foreign-policy adviser Carter Page. Democrats called the Nunes memo biased and misleading and said it comprised cherry-picked information from the documentation of one part of the investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Trump had widely been expected to OK the memo’s release by Saturday at the latest. A letter from White House counsel Don McGahn indicated the memo, most closely associated with California Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, could yet be declassified and released after certain passages are addressed. The Nunes memo was released without redactions. Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell, appearing late Friday on CNN, said he would withhold judgment as to whether the White House decision was politically motivated until he and other members of the House Judiciary Committee heard from “the professionals” at the FBI and Justice Department. A letter signed by Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray accompanied the McGahn letter and supported the view that national-security and other concerns existed, CNN reported. Swalwell has in the past indicated a belief that the White House collaborated with Nunes, a House Republican from California who had previously recused himself from involvement with the Russia probe because of perceptions of conflict, on the majority memo.
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