The reason why Hillary Clinton wasn't named as funding the dossier in the controversial FISA warrant requesting surveillance of Trump associate Carter Page, was that her identity was masked – and so was Donald Trump's.

In a memo that was released Friday, Republicans had tried to argue that the FBI and the Justice Department did not disclose the political origins of the 'dirty dossier' when requesting to snoop on Page, indicating bias.

But on CNN Tuesday, the House Intelligence Committee's top Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff, said neither presidential candidate was named in the warrant, because their identities were 'masked.'

'Even when they refer to Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in the FISA court application they refer to them as "candidate one" and "candidate two," this is how the masking process works,' explained Schiff.

Schiff and the Democrats have been pressing for their own memo to be released, arguing that it outlines some information that the Republican memo selectively left out.

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House Intelligence Committee ranking member, Rep. Adam Schiff, said on CNN Tuesday that both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump's names were 'masked' in the controversial FISA warrant to surveil Carter Page

Rep. Adam Schiff said that Hillary Clinton (left) and Donald Trump (right) were referred to as 'candidate one' and 'candidate two' in the FISA warrant, which is why Clinton wasn't directly identified as financing the 'dirty dossier'

The dueling memos have to do with FISA warrants that allowed the government to snoop on Carter Page (pictured), a former Trump associate with ties to Russia

Last night, the House Intelligence Committee voted in favor of releasing the minority memo, and it's now been sent over to President Trump.

On CNN Tuesday, Schiff already began filling in some of the blanks.

For one, Schiff argued that it wasn't true the FISA court didn't know the dossier came from a politically biased source, it's just that the warrant didn't disclose names.

'And it's deeply ironic that the same people who have been complaining about improper unmasking our suggesting that names should have been unmasked in the FISA application,' Schiff grumbled.

The request to monitor Page was made on October 21, 2016, in the waning days of the presidential election, so the candidates involved could likely be identified by the process of elimination, Schiff suggested.

President Trump cited an op-ed penned by the Wall Street Journal's editorial board about the contents of the Republican memo, which warned that the FBI 'became a tool of anti-Trump political actors'

'I think the FISA court was made well aware of the potential political bias of those that were supporting Christopher Steele's work and, by that point of course, it was only one other candidate in the race,' the California Democrat said.

Schiff also revealed that the uncorroborated, salacious material found in the dossier was not put before the FISA court.

The Intelligence Committee's ranking member said that some of his colleagues had assumed that it was because they hadn't read the classified, underlying material the warrant was based upon.

'So one of my colleagues, for example, said we don't have evidence that Michael Cohen made a trip to Prague, this is also part of the dossier, but that Michael Cohen trip to Prague wasn't part of the material provided to the FISA courts,' Schiff explained.

'So it's very disingenuous to say, "Well the FISA court was misled because we don't believe Michael Cohen went to Prague," when that information was never provided to the court,' Schiff said.

Schiff said the committee plans to release a transcript of deliberations between lawmakers as they discussed releasing the Democratic memo Monday night.

Last week the same committee stalled Democratic efforts to have their memo released in tandem with the one penned by Republican staff.

President Trump welcomed the findings in the Republican memo with open arms, tweeting Saturday that, 'This memo totally vindicates "Trump" in probe.'

'But the Russian Witch Hunt goes on and on. Their was no Collusion and there was no Obstruction (the word now used because, after one year of looking endlessly and finding NOTHING, collusion is dead),' the president added. 'This is an American disgrace!'

The president also cited a Wall Street Journal op-ed, which accused the FBI of becoming a 'tool of anti-Trump political actors.'

On Monday, Trump also tore into Schiff personally, while showing support for the committee's chair, Rep. Devin Nunes, a California Republican.

'Little Adam Schiff, who is desperate to run for higher office, is one of the biggest liars and leakers in Washington, right up there with Comey, Warner, Brennan and Clapper!' Trump said. 'Adam leaves closed committee hearings to illegally leak confidential information. Must be stopped!' the president charged.

Talking to CNN Tuesday, Schiff joked that he thought this latest nickname was better than its previous iteration.

'You know, the last nickname they gave me was "Sleazy Adam Schiff" now I'm just "Little Adam Schiff," which seems like an improvement, does that mean he's warming up to me?' the congressman mused. 'It's all so very confusing.'

With the committee now green-lighting the minority memo's release, sending it on to Trump, Schiff said his bigger concern was that the Republicans would selectively redact it.

'That is not redactions to protect sources or methods, which we've asked the Department of Justice and FBI to do, but redactions to remove information they think is unfavorable to the president,' Schiff said. 'That could be a real problem and that's our main concern.'

The White House, for its part, has confirmed receiving the Democrats' memo.

'As stated many times, the Administration will follow the same process and procedure with this memorandum from the minority as it did last week,' said White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to CNN.