House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi warned the release of a previously classified Republican memo that alleges abuse by the FBI and Justice Department could lead to a "constitutional crisis,"
CBS Chicago reported Friday.
"It's appalling. It's a misrepresentation. It isn't even a release of intelligence material. It's a release of a distortion of it. Its purpose is, of course, to thwart the Mueller investigation," Pelosi said Friday. "If the president uses this fake, horrible release of distorted intelligence as an excuse to fire [deputy attorney general Rod] Rosenstein or [special counsel Robert] Mueller, it could lead to a constitutional crisis."
President Donald Trump on Friday announced he was declassifying the memo prepared by Republicans lawmakers and staff working for the House Intelligence Committee. The president has frequently lambasted the Mueller investigation that's probing allegations of collusion between Trump aides and Russian officials during the 2016 presidential election.
White House officials have said Trump was not going to fire Rosenstein, and the president in December said he had no intentions of firing Mueller either.
Pelosi maintained Republicans had "cherry-picked" information about the Russia probe in an attempt to discredit the Mueller investigation.
"They're not representing the facts to the American people, and yet the president has given it his imprimatur. This is unprecedented to the nth degree," Pelosi said.
With regards to what will happen next, Trump said in the Oval Office Friday, "Let's see what happens…But a lot of people should be ashamed."
Pelosi claimed Trump had "abdicated his responsibilities as commander in chief to protect the American people by protecting our intelligence sources and the rest." And, she singled out House Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes, R-Calif., for green-lighting the information's release, calling him a "stooge for the president."
Prior to the memo's release, Pelosi sent a letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan on Thursday claiming "Nunes' deliberately dishonest actions make him unfit to serve as chairman" and demanded that he be "removed immediately from his position."
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