"It's important for the public to see the facts, that the FBI acted appropriately in seeking a warrant on Carter Page," said Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.). | Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Photo Rep. Schiff: 'Not surprised' Trump disses Democratic memo

California Rep. Adam Schiff said Sunday he's "not surprised" by President Donald Trump's dismissal of the newly released Democratic intelligence memo.

"I'm not surprised the president doesn't like it," the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee said. "I'm not surprised, frankly, that the White House tried to bury this memo response as long as they could."


The memo was released Saturday as a counterweight to the Republican memo, which the president declassified several week ago. The GOP memo claimed FBI officials misled a secret surveillance court to obtain a warrant to spy on Carter Page, a former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser.

Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) countered a key GOP claim Sunday that a special surveillance warrant for Page wouldn't have been granted had it not been for dossier information compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele.

"It's important for the public to see the facts, that the FBI acted appropriately in seeking a warrant on Carter Page," Schiff responded on CNN's "State of the Union."

The FBI, he said, is not part of "some deep state, as the president apparently would like the public to believe.”

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Schiff also responded to criticisms lobbed at him Saturday night by the president, who called the congressman a "leaker" and "bad guy."

"I'm proud to be one of the bad hombres, I guess," Schiff said.

Trump told Fox News host Jeanine Pirro that Schiff leaks information to reporters in actions that were "probably not legal."

"You see this Adam Schiff has a meeting and leaves the meeting and calls up reporters and then all of a sudden they'll have news and you're not supposed to do that — it's probably illegal to do it," Trump said. "You know he'll have a committee meeting and he'll leak all sorts of information. You know, he's a bad guy."

Responding Sunday, Schiff said the president was referring to a hearing where Trump's son, Donald Jr., was called to testify.

"I asked him about conversations he had with the president where the president was on that aircraft and they concocted this false statement about that meeting in Trump Tower with the Russians," Schiff said. "And he refused to answer the questions, claiming attorney-client privilege, which clearly doesn't apply to a situation where neither he nor his father are attorney nor client.

"Our position is — and the Republicans have adopted it as well — if witnesses refuse to answer questions and make bogus claims of privilege, as he did, as Steve Bannon did, we call them out on it," Schiff added.

"Well, the president doesn't like that. But that's not a leak. That's a fact."