Bharara: GOP memo could have ‘consequences’ for intel community

Former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara on Sunday warned that the House Intelligence Committee’s decision to release the GOP surveillance memo could have serious “consequences” for the intelligence community.

Bharara told host Fareed Zakaria on CNN that intelligence sources who can provide important information to the U.S. government will now be concerned that their identities will be revealed if one congressional committee decides along party lines to release such information. 

“I think people on both sides — career professionals, Republican, Democrat, liberal, conservative — do have a concern when they are trying to recruit people in the future that a future, potential recruit for intelligence purposes has to think to himself or herself, ‘If I decide to cooperate with the American government as an intel source, at some point in the future for political reasons, one committee of Congress on a party-line vote can choose to out me,'” Bharara said. {mosads}

“That has consequences and I think that’s important,” he continued.

The four-page document, drafted by the staff of Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), details a series of allegations that the FBI and Justice Department abused U.S. surveillance programs to obtain a warrant to surveil Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. 

The committee voted along party lines to release the memo to the public, a move supported by the White House and many Republicans.

Democrats assert that Republicans cherry-picked details to put into the memo in an attempt to undermine special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, while the GOP said the document serves as proof that top government officials were politically motivated to damage President Trump’s campaign.

The top Democrat on the panel, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), drafted a countermemo challenging the assertions made in Nunes’s memo. A committee source told The Hill that Schiff’s countermemo is expected to be put to a committee vote on Monday.