By Editorial Board
Minneapolis Star-Tribune
When U.S. House Republicans opted to release the now infamous Nunes memo, which attempted to discredit the FBI on the Russia investigation, fairness demanded they simultaneously vote to release the Democratic response. That they did not made clear their true motive: to allow U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes, head of the House Intelligence Committee, to have the field to himself for a while, setting the narrative that the FBI was part of a nefarious “deep state” attempt to take down President Donald Trump.
The memo, of course, showed nothing of the kind and instead offered a surprisingly weak assortment of information and innuendo that led FBI Director Christopher Wray — a Trump appointee — to voice grave concernsover mischaracterizations and lack of context that he said presented an inaccurate picture. Trump declassified the memo anyway and crowed that it vindicated him on the Russia investigation. It did not.
Now after the Nunes memo has dominated headlines for days, in the name of “transparency” Intelligence Committee Republicans have joined Democrats in voting to release a Democratic rebuttal that next goes to Trump for final declassification. Trump should make it public at once, although we have little hope that he will. He already has attacked the ranking Democrat on the committee, U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, calling him “one of the biggest liars and leakers in Washington,” saying — without proof — that Schiff left closed hearings “to illegally leak confidential information” and closing ominously by saying that “Little Adam Schiff … must be stopped.”
It’s clear that the Nunes memo is part of a multilayered attempt to undermine and discredit the results of Robert Mueller’s investigation before findings are even released. Mueller, a former FBI director himself, has led a disciplined and wide-ranging investigation into alleged foreign influence in the U.S. election. That investigation must proceed, unimpeded, without interference in the release of its findings — least of all by the man who may have been the direct beneficiary of foreign actions.
