Rep. Adam Schiff said Democrats would have “limited recourse” if the White House redacted passages from their memo. | Win McNamee/Getty Images Schiff warns White House against political redactions from Dem memo

Rep. Adam Schiff predicted Tuesday that the White House would not block the release of a Democratic memo related to the Russia investigation, but he warned the administration against trying to obfuscate the document by redacting portions that could embarrass President Donald Trump.

The memo, drafted by Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, is intended to rebut one released last week from committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.). The Nunes memo alleges that the FBI improperly sought a surveillance warrant against former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page based on a dossier of unverified intelligence.


Nunes' memo said the FBI did not disclose that the dossier had been funded in part by Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee, though he later acknowledged that the FBI did tell the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court the document had political origins.

The White House "tried to make the case that they released the Nunes memo in the interest of transparency. So, to say, ‘Well, we don't want the country to see this,’ I think is untenable,” Schiff told CNN.

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“What I'm more concerned about ... is that they make political redactions," the California Democrat said. "That is, not redactions to protect sources or methods, which we’ve asked the Department of Justice and the FBI to do, but redactions to remove information they think is unfavorable to the president. That could be a real problem, and that's our main concern at this point.”

The House Intelligence Committee voted unanimously Monday to release the Democratic response memo, giving Trump five days to review the request for release and decide whether to object.

White House spokespeople have said the administration will undertake the same review process with the Democratic memo that it did with Nunes’. There has been no public indication the White House would try to redact portions of it.

Schiff said Democrats would have “limited recourse” if the White House redacted passages from their memo. They could try to force a vote to release the full version in the House of Representatives or seek a declassification review from the FBI and Justice Department. Both of those options “take time,” Schiff said.

“There aren't a lot of options,” he said. “But it will certainly appear that the White House is trying to stonewall again if, in fact, they make these political redactions that we fear.”

