Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) called on President Trump to release a four-page memo detailing alleged abuse by senior Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigations officials during his State of the Union address on Tuesday evening.
“The President of the United States will walk down the center aisle and address this floor. I hope the first thing he does is hand to the Speaker of the House his consent and his agreement to allow transparency to reign, to declassify this memo, and put it before the American people,” Gaetz, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, said during a floor speech on Monday.
“And then let’s have a great debate about its consequences and the opportunity it presents to make things better, so these things never happen again,” he said.
The House Intelligence Committee on Monday voted to release the memo to the public, giving the president five days to object. However, the president does not have to wait five days to approve its release.
Democrats have fought the release of the memo, arguing that it is a distortion of facts. They have drafted their own classified memo, and demanded it be released at the same time.
The House Intelligence Committee on Monday voted to make the Democratic memo available to House members first, as was done with the original memo.
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