Schiff worried White House will make ‘political redactions’ to Dem memo

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said Tuesday that he’s concerned that the White House could make “political redactions” to a Democratic memo rebutting a contentious document released last week by Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee.

Asked on CNN’s “New Day” if he was concerned about whether the White House would refuse to approve the release of the Democratic memo, Schiff said that he was more worried that the White House would withhold information from the document that they perceive as “unfavorable to the president.”

“What I’m more concerned about, Alisyn, is that they make political redactions,” he said, speaking to CNN’s Alisyn Camerota. 

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“That is, not redactions that 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,” he added. “That could be a real problem and that’s our main concern at this point.”

Schiff, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, acknowledged that if the White House were to make such redactions, House Democrats would have few options to address the matter.

But he also said that it would fuel allegations that the White House is “trying to stonewall” the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

President Trump on Monday morning called Schiff “one of the biggest liars and leakers in Washington,” and accused him of sharing confidential information, something the White House has previously suggested.

Schiff has denied those claims and on Monday shot back at the president by saying that White House chief of staff John Kelly needed to give Trump “a timeout.”

“Look, first he attacked me some months ago, calling me ‘sleazy Adam Schiff,’ now it’s ‘little Adam Schiff’ which, I don’t know, seems better. It’s also confusing,” he said on CNN.

“But bottom line is I think it may be time for Gen. Kelly to give the president a timeout. The country would certainly benefit from that anyway,” the California Democrat said Monday.

Republicans on the Intelligence Committee released a declassified memo on Friday alleging that FBI and Justice Department officials misused their authority to obtain a surveillance order on Carter Page, a former Trump campaign adviser.

But Democrats on the committee have argued that that document omits facts that would put the information into context, and have pushed to release their own memo rebutting the GOP document.

The Intelligence Committee voted on Monday to make the Democrats’ rebuttal public. The president now has five days to review that document and determine whether to OK its release.

The White House has indicated that Trump is open to releasing the Democratic memo, so long as it does not jeopardize national security or intelligence gathering.