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Rep. Schiff it evening i want to give a quick briefing on the events in the committee. I think we have a deeply regrettable line in this committee where for the first beenin the 10 years ive on the committee there was a vote to politicize the declassification of intelligence and compromise sources and methods. I made a couple of motions this afternoon, first we scheduled a hearing today, a business meeting so that the minority memoranda could be made available to the members of the house. We expect that vote to be noncontroversial and it was. The house members will now have access to the minority memoranda. I made a secondary motion that prior to the public release of either memoranda, that the fbi and the department of justice have the opportunity to come and briefed the entire house in a classified session on both memoranda, on the underlying that thematerials so committee could make it responsible judgment as to whether the memoranda should be made public. That motion was voted down by the majority. The majority expressed concern that something in the minority memoranda or otherwise could compromise sources and methods. We asked that both memoranda be be vetted but that was voted down. I spoke to the director of the fbi. He expressed strong interest in being able to brief our Committee Prior to any release of these materials about concerns the bureau and the department have. Interest by the director of the fbi to the appointee of president trump. That was they were not willing to meet with the director of the fbi to hear the bureaus concerns. Instead, they voted against allowing their own members, as well as the members of the broader house of representatives to be briefed by the department of justice and fbi. Finally, i moved that if the majority was going to release the memoranda publicly they release the minority news as well. They be released jointly. The majority on a partyline basis voted against both memoranda been released to the public. They then took up their own memoranda and voted it out to make public. We had a separate vote on minority memoranda and the majority voted against it and allowing the public to see it. They released the memo crowd doesnt want to release the memo now. The most they would do is say that at some indeterminate point, a week or so from now, they would consider whether to release the minority memo. We raised the transparently political objective behind this which is to allow the majority to set a start just set a certain narrative a week or so before they release a full statement. Nonetheless, this is where we are. We have votes today to politicize the intelligence process. To prohibit the fbi and the department of justice from express and concerns to the committee into the house and from selectively releasing from the public on the majoritys distorted memo without the full facts. A very sad day in the history of this committee. As i said to my Committee Colleagues during this hearing, sadly we can fully expect that the president of the United States will not but the National Interest over his own personal interest. It is a sad day indeed when that is also true of our own committee. Today this committee voted to put the president s personal interest, pressed on political interest, but the National Interests in the nine themselves even the ability to hear from the department and the fbi. That is a deeply regrettable state of affairs. It does show how when you have a deeply flawed person in the oval office, that flaw can infect the whole government and today tragically, it affected our committee. At this point, i yield to my colleagues. We are not talking about the investigation. We are talking about distraction that they have created. That is sad and unfortunate, because if youre a democrat or republican, you should care just as much about this. They attacked the democratic process. They hacked into boards of election and one can imagine a scenario in which they were just as likely to attack the republican them credit as democrat. It was disclosed to the minority today for the first time that the majority has evidently open an investigation of the fbi and the department of justice. Under our committee rules, there has to be the product of consultation with the minority but we learned about that for the first time today. It has been publicly reported that there was a subset of the majority working on some kind of inquiry intoon or the department of justice and fbi. Apparently the chairman made it formal today according to the majority, the fbi is under investigation and so is the department of justice. This is a wholesale broadside that against two of our respective institutions and brings to mind something that i brought to the committees attention a week ago when we first took up the majority memo. That is we need to be concerned with not just what happens during this presidency, but the lasting damage that may be done. Unfortunately, that damage has become all the more greater today. Are you comfortable with how usa handles the situation under review . I think the department of justice has done what they could majority has been unwilling to share with them the nature of the concerns they have, the memoranda, to provide feedback to the department. The department was all too accurate in saying it is extraordinarily reckless. Why would you not to give the fbi the opportunity to come in and say, you are right your wrong . They denied the department in bureau that opportunity. I think that is a grave disservice to the hardworking men and women in the fbi and the apartment of justice. Are you confident there was no abuse of government by the department of justice and fbi . Ofi havent seen any abuse the investigative process by the fbi or the department of justice and what i have seen is a deliberate attempt from the very beginning of this investigation to distract attention from russia probe. What we saw today is only the most recent chapter of a series of events that began the day after the first hearing of our investigation in march 20, james comey be came before our committee and testified that the fbi had opened an investigation while in the truck campaign. Very next day, our chairman went on a midnight run to obtain documents that he would go to present to the white house claiming that they showed evidence of an unmasking conspiracy. We would very soon learn that affect he obtained that information from the white house and it was a sharad. It was a charade. It was designed to do the white house is bidding. Im for it im afraid it is a continuation of the same phenomenon. This is an effort to circle the wagons around the white house and distract from the russian probe. Understand, [indiscernible] you had conversations with mr. Ray. That satisfy the justice departments concerns . Satisfyeview did not either the bureau or the departments concerns. The director of the fbi asked for the opportunity to come before the committee express those concerns. The request was denied by the chairman. What was the rationale you, why is that not being released . Mr. King made the request to release the majority memoranda in a statement advocating its release said that we need full transparency. So when i moved to have the minority memo released in the interest of full transparency, they took the view that full transparency means only one side gets hurt. They voted down the opportunity for the country to see the minority memoranda and frankly, report of the facts. [indiscernible] i would only say because at this point i cannot comment on the contents of the majority or minority memoranda, that i think mr. Mccabe has been deeply and unfairly maligned. He has been a career public servant. He has done an admirable job serving the country. And others have done a german is to service to mr. Mccabe. Also is there a chance that the memo could be released before the five day window . Or do you all have to wait for five days to do which am says . Marty vote to deprive his of having the memo released was on a partyline basis. In terms of the timetable, this has never happened in my experience so we are in uncharted waters. If the president expresses the view short of five days, i am copacetic with anything been published that ups me. I dont know they have to wait five days. The white house has made it clear that they want the memo published, even though they have not read it. That should tell you all you need to know about the president s priorities, even without reading it, even without hearing from the intelligence agencies what damage it might do [nohe public release, audio] i have no confidence that theyll review will take place. In fact, i think it is clear that the majority has no intention of having this gleaningd at least from what the white house has said over the weekend, it doesnt look like they have much of an intention to vet it either. The preclusion desk the conclusion is precooked. If and when the majority allows the minority memoranda to see the light of day, we will are going to do the responsible thing and seek to have the department of justice and fbi redact anything from our memo that could compromise sources. [indiscernible] that was not the subject of a motion today. The last thing i will mention is i also moved that the transcript of the open proceeding made available to the public tomorrow. The chair committed that would happen. I think you need to read the transcript to see my colleagues on the one hand argue for full transparency and then vote down a motion to make public the minority memoranda. I think you need to see them expressed concern about possible compromise methods and vote down the opportunity to have the department of justice and fbi way and on those very issues. We are staying focused on conducting the Russian Investigation and that will go forward. We expect mr. Bannon to come in on wednesday. Were told by majority, i did ask when mr. Lewandowski would come back because he refused to answer the same question. They dont have a date for mr. Lewandowski. Their holdings to manage one standard and other witnesses like mr. Lewandowski to another. We press on. Thank you. Cspans washington journal live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Coming up tuesday morning, a look at the rising cost of housing in u. S. Cities and how it is impacting the middle class. Joining us will be the Hills National correspondent reid wilson. A democratic, smith from illinois will talk but his concerns with the trump administrations science policy. As part of cspans 50 capital store, georgia Lieutenant Governor will discuss key Public Policy issues in the state. Be sure to watch cspans washington journal live at 7 00 eastern tuesday morning. Join the discussion. Now an event previewing cities include kellyanne conway, nancy pelosi and senator Shelley Moore capito and angus

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