--- title: Nunes Memo: Democrats Could Release Counterpart description: It was just three days ago that the House Intelligence committee released the memo overseen by Rep. Devin Nunes detailing alleged FBI bias. canonical: https://time.com/5133828/democratic-memo-nunes-gop-russia-congress/ author: Alana Abramson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-02-05T18:29:27.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-12T08:56:36.569Z article:section: Politics og:title: The Democratic Response to the Nunes Memo Could Be Released Soon og:description: Here's what to know og:url: https://time.com/5133828/democratic-memo-nunes-gop-russia-congress/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt70da7822d9f68a91/6988cebe97cdff605b6b0dda/michael-flynn-house-intelligence-subpoena.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5568 og:image:height: 3132 og:image:alt: House Democrats on Trump Investigation og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Democratic Response to the Nunes Memo Could Be Released Soon twitter:description: Here's what to know twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt70da7822d9f68a91/6988cebe97cdff605b6b0dda/michael-flynn-house-intelligence-subpoena.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Democratic Response to the Nunes Memo Could Be Released Soon. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=404a0ce8-fd69-4561-9e91-1e001a067c4d&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: The Democratic Response to the Nunes Memo Could Be Released Soon. Here's What to Know [Watch (HLS stream): The Democratic Response to the Nunes Memo Could Be Released Soon. Here's What to Know](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/QteQZkGj.m3u8) (1:33)  _Published 2018-02-06. It was just three days ago that the House Intelligence committee released the memo overseen by Rep. Devin Nunes. Now, Democrats on the committee may have a chance to release their own. The committee voted Monday evening to make the memo public._  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Feb 5, 2018 6:29 PM UTC  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Feb 5, 2018 6:29 PM UTC It was just three days ago that the House Intelligence committee released the [memo overseen by Rep. Devin Nunes](http://time.com/5130772/nunes-memo-released-what-it-says/) detailing alleged FBI bias in obtaining a FISA warrant for former Trump campaign adviser [Carter Page](http://time.com/5128614/carter-page-gop-memo-fisa-warrant/). Now, Democrats on the committee may have a chance to release their own. The committee voted Monday evening to make the memo public, one week after Republicans blocked it from release. It will now be sent to the White House for President Trump to review. The Democrats on the committee claim that the memo released on Friday distorts classified information for political gain, aiming to discredit the FBI’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Here’s what you need to know. ## What is in the Democratic memo? Like the memo overseen by Nunes, we don’t know exactly what is in it because it is classified information and has not been made public. Led by California Rep. Adam Schiff, Democrats on the committee have said that their response contextualizes the Nunes memo, pushing back against allegations that the FBI was politically motivated. “The premise of the Nunes memo is that the FBI and DOJ corruptly sought a FISA warrant on a former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser, Carter Page, and deliberately misled the court as part of a systematic abuse of the FISA process. As the Minority memo makes clear, none of this is true,” Democrats on the committee [said Friday](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/02/02/trump-approves-release-controversial-nunes-memo-fbi-surveillance-russia-campaign/1082196001/) after the Nunes memo was released. “The FBI had good reason to be concerned about Carter Page and would have been derelict in its responsibility to protect the country had it not sought a FISA warrant.” Committee Democrats have also said that even if the vote to release the memo is approved, certain portions that disclose sources and methods of the investigation could be redacted. The Nunes memo was released in full, without any redactions. “We want to make sure that any redactions that are made are fully explained to the committee by the FBI and the Department of Justice, and likewise by the White House,” Schiff told reporters Monday after the vote. “We want to make sure the White House does not redact our memo for political purposes and obviously thats a deep concern.” ## Would the Democratic memo be released immediately? No. Should the committee vote to approve it by majority vote, it would follow the same procedure as the GOP memo, with Trump having a five-day window to reject its release. If the President objects, the release of the memo would be subject to a vote in the House of Representatives, according to the chamber’s rule book. There is no guarantee that Trump will approve the memo, even though he allowed the release the GOP version, which could further heighten partisan tensions. On Monday morning, Trump [targeted his ire at Schiff](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/05/us/politics/democratic-memo-adam-schiff-trump.html), the ranking Democrat on the committee, deriding him as “Little Adam Schiff” and “one of the biggest liars and leakers” in Washington D.C. — a claim to which Schiff quickly responded. > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/960492998734868480) > [](https://twitter.com/RepAdamSchiff/status/960513046438449152) ## Transcript This evening the House Intelligence Committee voted to release the minority response to the majority's memo, the Nunes memo. We think this will help inform the public of the many distortions and inaccuracies in the majority memo. And once again, Mr. Nunes refused to answer the question. At the very end of the hearing He gave a very lawyerly written response or read a written response saying that the White House had not been involved in the actual drafting of the memo. But in terms of whether it was coordinated with the White House or they were consulted or strategized. The whole concept He refused to answer those questions and obviously that's a very important question for our committees. We still want Don Jr. to come back before our committee and answer questions about his conversations with his father that produced that very false and misleading statement. We want Steve Bannon to come back to this committee. We want Corey Lewandowski to come back before this committee. Corey Lewandowski didn't even claim privilege. He just says, I'm not really prepared to answer those questions. Has he been subpoenaed by the majority? The answer is no. That's inexcusable. And there are countless other examples. We know that Don Jr. was direct messaging WikiLeaks. We would like to subpoena [ UNKNOWN ] to get those direct messages but the majority has so far refused. It's time for this majority to make the decision to be serious investigators, to get the information we need that can either prove or disprove this allegations. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5133828/democratic-memo-nunes-gop-russia-congress/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5133828/democratic-memo-nunes-gop-russia-congress/"},"headline":"The Democratic Response to the Nunes Memo Could Be Released Soon. 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