Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) called on House Speaker Paul Ryan to remove Rep. Devin Nunes (D-CA) as House Intelligence Committee chairman on Thursday for his decision to release the FISA memo to the public.
Chuck Schumer wrote:
The decision of Chairman Nunes and House Republicans to release a bogus memo has taken the GOP’s cover-up campaign to a new, completely unacceptable extreme.
Both the DOJ and FBI oppose releasing the Nunes memo. As the Department of Justice warned, the public release of the memo would be an “unprecedented action” and “extraordinarily reckless.” The FBI also expressed that the agency has “grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo’s accuracy.”
“Congressman Nunes’ deliberate actions make him unfit to serve as Chairman, and he must be removed immediately from this position,” Schumer added.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) wrote a similar letter on Thursday, demanding that Speaker Ryan strip Rep. Nunes of his chairmanship.
Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee voted to release the memo to the public on Monday; President Donald Trump has five days to object to the memo’s release.
The memo allegedly describes how senior Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officials used the unverified Trump dossier to obtain a surveillance warrant on Trump campaign staffer Carter Page. The memo also supposedly details how those senior officials in the DOJ and the FBI misled the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on how the Trump dossier was actually opposition research funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC).
The Senate minority leader argued, “It is long overdue that you, as Speaker, put an end to this charade and hold Congressman Nunes and all Congressional Republicans accountable to the oath that they have to support and defend the Constitution, and protect the American people.”
Sen Schumer concluded, “The integrity of the House is at stake. We look forward to your immediate action on this subject.”