A video shows President Trump leaving the House chamber after his State of the Union address last evening and vowing to release a controversial memo that purportedly details FISA court abuses under the Barack Obama Administration.
The President was overheard on a hot mic discussing the memo with Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC).
“Great speech, Mr. President,” Duncan can be heard saying. “Let’s release the memo.”
“Oh yeah,” the President responded. “Don’t worry, 100%.”
CLIP: As President Trump exits the House Chamber, @RepJeffDuncan asks him to #ReleaseTheMemo. #SOTU #SOTU2018 pic.twitter.com/O1hHYFdPxM
— CSPAN (@cspan) January 31, 2018
President Trump had five days from Monday’s vote in the House Intelligence Committee to decide whether he has any objections to the release of the memo, though this certainly seems to suggest he’ll green light the effort.
Legislative Director Marc Short revealed that White House counsel had begun reviewing the document and that the President would make his decision “in a very responsible manner.”
He appears to have already made that decision.
22:36:35 Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC): Let’s release the memo
22:36:36 President Trump: Oh yeah, don’t worry, 100%.— Alan He (@alanhe) January 31, 2018
The five-day timeframe ends on Saturday. Let’s hope the President signs off on the memo’s release well before then, so the explosive information doesn’t fall on deaf ears in a weekend news dump.
Democrats have been adamantly opposed to the release of the memo, calling it Republican lies and falsehoods. High-ranking FBI officials, however, have recently claimed the memo contains nothing but facts.
According to Fox News reports, two senior FBI officials “could not point to any factual inaccuracies” in the memo.
Two Senior FBI officials have now reviewed the Republican staff memo, alleging abuses of government surveillance programs during the 2016 election, a source familiar with the matter tells Fox News, adding that the officials “could not point to any factual inaccuracies.”
— Pat Ward (@WardDPatrick) January 30, 2018
Republicans have vowed that the factual information contained within the memo will be nothing short of shocking to the American people.
“If you’re interested whether or not the dossier was used in court proceedings, whether or not it was funded by political opponents, you’ll want to see the memo,” Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) said.
House Speaker Paul Ryan added that there “may have been malfeasance at the FBI by certain individuals” that requires congressional oversight.
After his ‘100%’ comment, President Trump added: “Can you imagine that?” He was alluding to the response should he not release the memo.
“You’d be too angry,” he said.
So would the American people, Mr. President. Release that memo!
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