Paul Ryan now claims 'there may have been malfeasance' at the FBI

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) suggested Tuesday that "there may have been malfeasance by people at the FBI." Ryan's concession follows Monday's controversial vote by the House Intelligence Committee to release a secret memo that reportedly accuses senior FBI officials of misusing their authority to obtain a surveillance order on President Trump's former campaign associate, Carter Page. Democrats, as well as a number of conservatives, have blasted the memo for fueling speculation of a deep state conspiracy.

Ryan said: "It is our job in conducting transparent oversight of the executive branch to get to the bottom of that. Sunshine is the best disinfectant. And so what we want is all of this information to come out so that transparency can reign supreme and accountability can occur."

The Department of Justice had warned that making the memo public would be "extraordinarily reckless." The editor at large of The Weekly Standard, Bill Kristol, told The Washington Post: "It's pretty astonishing to have members of Congress and fairly serious commentators clamoring for the release even as Trump's Justice Department says they should wait for a full review. It's a distressing sign that the irresponsibility and conspiracy theorizing on the right is not just on the far right but among top people."

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