Here's the
transcript of the January 29 HPSCI meeting if you want to read it yourself. (I haven't done so yet.)
And here are some excerpts from a
Lawfare Blog summary of the transcript.
Adam Schiff, the lead Democrat on the Committee, made three motions: 1) that a rebuttal memo (the "minority memo") put together by the Dems should be made available to all members of the House, just as the Nunes majority memo was; 2) that the DOJ and FBI should be allowed to review both memos and then recommend to the Committee whether or not the Nunes memo should be released publicly; and 3) that if the Nunes memo gets released, the Dems rebuttal should also be released. All reasonable requests, all voted down by the Republicans.
Schiff emphasizes that only he and Rep. Trey Gowdy have seen the underlying intelligence on which the Nunes memo is based (only members of the Gang of Eight have access to the intelligence, but Gowdy viewed the intelligence for the majority).
I have to wonder if any of this is why Gowdy announced today that he's not going to seek re-election in November. I think it probably does. Either to protect himself, or to avoid what he believes will eventually be an inevitable impeachment. Or maybe he even has more reason.
Democratic Rep. Mike Quigley complains that the [Nunes] memo has distracted the committee from its work on the Russia investigation. [Rep. Mike Conaway (a Republican who has been leading the Russia investigation alongside Schiff in the wake of Nunes’s unofficial recusal)] points out that Steve Bannon is scheduled to come in for a second hearing on Wednesday (this hearing has since been canceled). [...] Schiff notes that the committee has yet to schedule a follow-up hearing with Corey Lewandowski. Nunes chimes in: “This is not a place to discuss the Russia investigation.”
Surely he doesn't mean this Committee, since that's exactly what it's supposed to be doing. He must mean this particular meeting, which is to call a vote on whether to release the Nunes memo.
Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell argues that releasing the memo to the public will breach an agreement between the committee and the Justice Department that “there would be limited access to the mostly highly sensitive of materials as relates to Russia.” [...] Swalwell makes the point that Nunes’s memo risks destroying the relationship between the committee and the intelligence community, making it impossible for the committee to function as an oversight body.
This is the very point ex-intelligence officer Paul Pillar made in
his article today on the subject.
All committee members vote in favor [of permitting the entire House access to the minority memo] except Republican Rep. Mike Turner, who was reportedly unable to make it back to Washington in time for the vote.
Nunes then reads into the record a letter from Republican Rep. Peter King calling for the Nunes memo’s public release under House Rule X, clause 11(g). Rep. King speaks in favor of the memo’s publication, noting that FBI Director Christopher Wray discussed the memo with Nunes and Gowdy the day before.
In response to King’s comment regarding Wray, Swalwell asks “what did the FBI say as to dissemination to the public?” He does not receive a response.
This is where Rep.
Crawford comes in on TV saying Wray said there were no factual errors in the memo, a bald faced lie, as we found out today when the FBI released
a statement saying the exact opposite. I have to wonder again if Gowdy decided to get out in part because he knew the GOP body was going to be lying, and he didn't want to get caught in it. Trey Gowdy, who always gave me the creeps, may turn out to be the only smart Republican in the bunch. These guys are on some seriously shaky ground. Orange jumpsuits all 'round, please.
Democratic Rep. Jim Himes asks Nunes whether his memo will be released in full or whether “references to highly classified information” will be redacted. Nunes does not directly answer, but suggests that the memo will be released without redactions, saying only: “We will make the content available.”
Nunes is obviously trying to be obtuse and uncooperative with the Democrats on the Committee.
[Schiff then makes his second motion] to postpone the vote until the FBI and Justice Department can review the Nunes memo in full and brief the committee. Nunes announces that “the Department of Justice and the FBI have been under investigation by this committee for many, many months for FISA abuse and other matters … I would urge my colleagues to vote no, we are not going to be briefed by people that are under investigation by this committee.”
The DOJ and FBI have been under investigation for many, many months? That must have come as a real shock. We were just told this news after this meeting on Monday. All this time, we were under the impression that the House Intel Committee was investigating possible Russian collusion with the Trump campaign. We knew they were going to clear Trump by the way they were conducting the investigation, but we didn't know they were using their time to investigate the FBI instead!
None of the Democrats appear to have been aware of this investigation.
That has to be a very serious violation of the Committee's own rules and procedures. In fact...
Quigley argues that Nunes has violated rule 9(a) of the committee’s rules, which requires the committee to conduct investigations “only if approved by the chair in consultation with the ranking minority member”—meaning Schiff. But Schiff says that this is the first he’s been formally notified of it.
This investigation should be officially disbanded, and Nunes should be sanctioned and removed from his position on the Committee.
Quigley asks Nunes whether he has coordinated the memo with the White House. “As far as I know, no,” says Nunes.
As far as he knows?? Who knows if he doesn't?
Quigley then asks whether any of the majority’s staff have coordinated with the White House. Nunes refuses to answer and cuts him off.
That'll be a "yes" then.
I'm going to assume that at the very least, Mueller will eventually haul Nunes in to the obstruction investigation.*
[Dem Rep. Jim] Himes voices his concern that the committee will apparently be releasing the memo unredacted, noting that “an immense amount of classified information will be available to the public.”
[...]
Swalwell suggests that, if Nunes insists that the FBI and Justice Department are under investigation, the committee could pass the memo to an inspector general of another agency for review before its release. He suggests the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Nunes does not respond.
Jesus Christ. Nunes is in very, very deep.
Schiff requests a delay of the memo’s release until after a briefing by the FBI and Justice Department. The Republicans vote it down along party lines. All Democrats vote in favor.
I guess that includes Gowdy. Coward. He's not out of the woods in this, either, if this goes to the obstruction case, no matter whether he retires from office or not. Of course, he could always be "flipped".
Schiff now requests that the minority’s memo be released publicly alongside Nunes’s memo. Conaway says that he will oppose the motion. He would prefer for the minority memo to go through the same process as the Nunes memo: pause for a “time of reflection” after releasing the memo to the House before releasing it to the public.
How handy. The rebuttal has to lag behind. And how long might it take for "reflection" in this amazingly corrupt GOP-led committee?
Schiff argues the majority is behaving hypocritically: the committee’s Republicans criticized Hillary Clinton for what FBI Director James Comey called her “extremely careless” handling of classified information, but they are now planning to vote to release classified information in what the Justice Department called an “extraordinarily reckless” fashion.
Hypocrisy is the least of their crimes.
All present Republicans vote against [the third motion requesting release of the minority memo along with the majority one]. All Democrats vote for it, with the exception of Rep. Jackie Speier, who votes present.
What the hell is Jackie's problem?
Finally, the committee votes on Nunes’s motion to release his memo to the public.
All Republicans present vote in favor—except for Rep. Will Hurd, who has stepped out of the room and will add his “aye” vote retroactively at the end of the meeting. All Democrats vote against making the memo public.
Schiff calls for another vote on his motion to release the minority memo alongside the Nunes memo, now that the committee has voted for the Nunes memo’s release. The vote is the same.
Schiff requests that the transcript of these proceedings be released to the public as soon as possible.
But that's not even the worst...
When Benjamin Wittes and I reached out to the offices of every committee Republican (except Nunes) and asked whether the representatives had faith in the factual conclusions of the memo, only three members of the committee answered in the affirmative (six did not respond to our repeated requests to contact them, and three responded but conspicuously did not answer our question as to the memo’s integrity).
WTF is wrong with these people? It seems the whole of the Republican elite has gone to the dark side. Why would you implicate yourself in such shady, and even illegal, activity? Something is terribly wrong in this government.
[O]f the majority, only Nunes, Conaway and King speak up over the course of the meeting—and Conaway’s points are mostly procedural, not a substantive defense of the memo. Also notable is that Rep. Chris Stewart told us last week that he would support the Nunes memo’s release if sensitive information were redacted, and yet voted for the unredacted memo’s publication. During the meeting, Conaway similarly voiced concerns over publication of classified information—albeit regarding the minority memo—but voted in favor of the unredacted Nunes memo’s release as well.
Un-freaking-believable. This Committee has gone light years beyond being worthless and has stepped over into some very dark territory.
UPDATE:
My god, it gets even worse!
*UPDATE:
UPDATE: Mike Quigley has posted
his interview with Anderson Cooper.
UPDATE 2/1:
Just. Wow.
