Schiff: Trump doesn’t want to release Dem memo because it ‘undermines his claim of vindication’

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) on Sunday said President Trump doesn’t want the public to see the “underlying facts” in the Democratic countermemo because they would undercut his “claim of vindication” in the Russia probe.

“The president doesn’t want you to see these facts from the FISA application because it completely undermines his claim of vindication,” Schiff told CBS’s “Face the Nation,” referring to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court application used to obtain a warrant to spy on a former Trump campaign aide.

{mosads}Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said he plans to work with the FBI to redact necessary information from the Democratic memo, which rebuts a document drafted by staff of the panel’s Republican chairman, Rep. Devin Nunes (Calif.).

The White House late last week blocked the release of the Democrats’ memo after previously allowing the Nunes memo, which alleged surveillance abuses at the Justice Department, to be made public. 

Schiff said Sunday he believes officials “followed all of the correct procedures” in drafting the application for a FISA warrant.

The California lawmaker, who has been feuding with Nunes and other House Intelligence Committee Republicans over the dueling memos, added that Trump is furthering his own interests by blocking the countermemo.

“This is a president who puts his own personal interests above the national security interest of the country,” Schiff said.