Dem lawmaker: Classified memo is ‘worse than a nothing burger’

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) of the House Judiciary Committee said the classified memo Republicans say indicates anti-Trump bias at the Department of Justice is “worse than a nothing burger.”

“It’s worse than a nothing burger, it’s like having nothing mustard,” Lieu told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “There is factual inaccuracies, it’s misleading. If they’re going to release that memo, then they have to release the Democratic memo so that the public has a full view of actually what happened.”

The phrase Lieu used to describe the House Intelligence Committee memo from GOP Chairman Devin Nunes (Calf.) was a riff on a phrase used by some to refer to Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with a Russian lawyer last summer.

{mosads}Lieu urged that neither the Nunes memo nor the Democratic countermemo be released because they wouldn’t be “helpful to the dialogue” about special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign. But one cannot be released without the other, Lieu said. 

Lieu told Blitzer that he couldn’t discuss the details of the memo but tweeted earlier Monday an analogy to the infamously hyped-up 1986 television special of Geraldo Rivera opening Al Capone’s vault. Millions tuned in to see what Rivera would find at the gravesite of the Chicago criminal.

“Remember Geraldo Rivera and the infamous Mystery of Al Capone’s Vaults? It’s like that, but Geraldo Rivera has more integrity.”

As a Member of the House Judiciary Committee, I read the partisan, classified Nunes House Intel memo. I can’t talk about it. However, here’s an analogy.

Remember Geraldo Rivera and the infamous Mystery of Al Capone’s Vaults? It’s like that, but Geraldo Rivera has more integrity.

— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) January 29, 2018

The House Intelligence Committee is expected to vote to make the memo public on Monday night, after reports that FBI Director Christopher Wray has viewed the document, which allegedly claims the Justice Department abused a surveillance program to spy on a campaign adviser to President Trump. 

Some Republicans believe the Nunes memo proves there is bias against Trump in the Department of Justice while Democrats have brushed off the claims.