Ohio Rep Brad Wenstrup supports releasing the Democrats’ rebuttal memo, not asking for Rosenstein’s firing
Rep. Brad Wenstrup said Tuesday that the House Intelligence Committee voted to release the Democratic memo, repeating his message from this weekend: “Open it up.”
Brad Wenstrup
The Ohio Republican says the new memo doesn’t change anything about the information already released: “I’ll tell you, their memo doesn’t change anything that was in our memo, not one bit. And their memo had more sensitive, classified information, footnotes, sources and methods, but they have told us that they will have it vetted.”
Wenstrup appeared on the The Hugh Hewitt Show, refusing to join a GOP bandwagon calling for the firing of Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein.
“He has an opportunity to do the right thing,” he says, alluding to Rosenstein needing to resign.
Hewitt confirms that Wenstrup is not calling for the firing of Mueller or a halt to the Russian investigation.
“I’m not saying it shouldn’t happen, but I don’t think I’m there yet. But that doesn’t mean it’s not down the road,” Wenstrup said.
Republicans released a FISA memo Friday, drafted by Chairman Devin Nunes, California Republican, regarding the use of the fake Steele dossier to gather surveillance warrants on members of Trump’s campaign team.
Democrats say this allegation is based on cherry-picked information from the source documents, and their memo will provide clarification. Facts were listed so far by Brian Mudd, here.
Appearing CNN’s “State of the Union,” Wenstrup said he supported the notion of the rebuttal memo: “I’m all for that. Open it up” and later stating, “If they want to put out their memo, let’s do that.”
Democrat Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, who appeared on that same panel, went further: “I would even support, if it could be redacted in such a way as not to be damaging, I would support releasing the underlying FISA applications.”
Himes claims that the Democrat’s memo would show that, “the FBI, because they are very careful people, didn’t mislead the judge, that the judge had some sense that this information came out from a political context.”
