House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes on Wednesday ripped the FBI's "spurious" objection to releasing his memo alleging agency abuses of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, calling it "no surprise."
"Having stonewalled Congress' demands for information for nearly a year, it's no surprise to see the FBI and DOJ issue spurious objections to allowing the American people to see information related to surveillance abuses at these agencies," the California Republican said in a statement.
"The FBI is intimately familiar with 'material omissions' with respect to their presentations to both Congress and the courts.
"They are welcome to make public, to the greatest extent possible, all the information they have on these abuses," Nunes said.
In its rare public statement, the FBI said it had "grave concerns" about the accuracy of Nunes' classified FISA memo on alleged FBI abuses in the Russia investigation that President Donald Trump has said should be released.
The statement marked the first time the agency had weighed in publicly on an issue that continued to divide the Justice Department and the White House.
The FBI said it was given only a limited opportunity to review the four-page memo, which was drafted by Nunes and other Intelligence Committee GOP staffers.
The memo focuses on the FBI's use of a dossier on President Trump and Russia by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele, alleging the FISA judge signed off on the warrant supposedly based on the dossier.
The document says the judge was not given full information about dossier, including that Democratic sources later paid for it.
Republicans have said the document reveals improper use of surveillance by the FBI and the Justice Department, while the agency said Wednesday that important facts were omitted.
"As expressed during our initial review, we have grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo's accuracy," the FBI said in its statement.
Nunes, however, disputed the FBI's analysis.
"Regardless, it's clear that top officials used unverified information in a court document to fuel a counter-intelligence investigation during an American political campaign," he said.
"Once the truth gets out," the four-term congressman added, "we can begin taking steps to ensure our intelligence agencies and courts are never misused like this again."
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