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Jan. 29 (UPI) -- The House Intelligence Committee on Monday voted to publicly release a classified memo that accuses the FBI of abusing surveillance laws in its investigation of an opposition research dossier on Donald Trump. Trump now has five days to decide whether to release the memo to the public.
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The memo, written by House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., says the FBI abused the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to obtain a warrant to place surveillance on Carter Page, a former foreign policy adviser on Trump's campaign during the 2016 presidential election, a source told CNN.
The New York Times reported that the memo shows the FBI under President Barack Obama was not forthcoming about the dossier being funded by Hillary Clinton's campaign.
Republicans say the memo reveals high-level corruption in the FBI and proves the investigation into alleged Russian influence of Trump's campaign was influenced by partisan politics.
"I have read the memo," tweeted Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa. "The sickening reality has set in. I no longer hold out hope there is an innocent explanation for the information the public has seen. I have long said it is worse than Watergate. It was #neverTrump & #alwaysHillary."
But Democrats say Nunes' memo misconstrues facts and Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who is also on the House Intelligence Committee, has vowed to release a memo to counter Nunes' claims.
Republicans on the committee said they said they will vote on whether to release the memo after members had a chance to review it.
Schiff then accused Republicans of blocking his memo.
"Committee Republicans JUST voted to declassify their spin 'memo' and prohibit release of the Democratic response in what they claimed was 'the interests of full transparency,'" Schiff tweeted. "It was transparent alright -- transparently cynical and destructive."
