Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff (Calif.) said Monday that he could not comment on a Republican-written classified memo alleging Department of Justice surveillance abuses before calling it "very misleading spin."
The memo, penned by House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes (R., Calif.), is four pages long and, according to reports, accuses the FBI and the Justice Department of misusing their authority to surveil former Donald Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
The committee voted along party lines Monday to allow its release, giving Trump five days to decide whether to release it to the public.
Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the committee, told MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell that the memo is flawed and designed to attack the FBI and the Justice Department.
"While I can't comment yet on what's in the GOP memo, it is a very misleading spin designed to attack the FBI and the Department of Justice," Schiff said. "It has a lot of flaws in it. The fact they wouldn't allow the FBI to come to our committee to tell us the problems with it, and they wouldn't allow the House to be briefed in a closed session tells you all you need to know about whether they're interested in the underlying information, which the chairman himself hadn't even read."
Schiff slammed the vote to release the memo on Monday, saying Republicans had politicized the intelligence process.
"Sadly, we expect that the president of the United States will not put the national interest over his own personal interest," Schiff said. "But it is a sad day indeed when that is also true of our own committee."