Democrats press for a Monday vote to release their anti-Nunes memo
A week after Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee voted along party lines to release the classified memo compiled for Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) and not release the classified rebuttal written for the committee's top Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Schiff is pushing for a do-over on Monday evening. The four-page Nunes memo purports to show that the FBI improperly omitted the political origins of a dossier used to obtain a FISA warrant to surveil former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, while the 10-page Schiff memo reportedly shoots those assertions down. While Democrats are still pushing back against the Nunes memo, Nunes says he has other memos in the works.
Even though Republicans blocked the Schiff memo last week, some of those same Republicans, plus House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), have suggested they now favor releasing the memo, so long as sensitive national security information is redacted. If the House Intelligence Committee does approve the memo's release, President Trump has five days to object — he signed off on releasing the Nunes memo unredacted on Friday — and if he does, the full House could overrule him.
Trump has trumpeted the Nunes memo as a document that "totally vindicates" him in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russian election-meddling investigation, an assertion dismissed Sunday by Republican members of the House Intelligence Committee, as well as almost all intelligence experts. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) warned Trump in a letter that "a refusal to release the Schiff memo ... will confirm the American people's worst fears that the release of Chairman Nunes' memo was only intended to undermine Special Counsel Bob Mueller's investigation."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
The vast horizons of the Puna de AtacamaThe Week Recommends The ‘dramatic and surreal’ landscape features volcanoes, fumaroles and salt flats
-
Asylum hotels: everything you need to knowThe Explainer Using hotels to house asylum seekers has proved extremely unpopular. Why, and what can the government do about it?
-
Crossword: November 16, 2025The daily crossword from The Week
-
Trump DOJ sues to block California redistrictingSpeed Read California’s new congressional map was drawn by Democrats to flip Republican-held House seats
-
GOP retreats from shutdown deal payout provisionSpeed Read Senators are distancing themselves from a controversial provision in the new government funding package
-
Catholic bishops rebuke Trump on immigrationSpeed Read ‘We feel compelled’ to ‘raise our voices in defense of God-given human dignity,’ the bishops said
-
House releases Epstein emails referencing TrumpSpeed Read The emails suggest Trump knew more about Epstein’s sex trafficking of underage women than he has claimed
-
Newsom slams Trump’s climate denial at COP30speed read Trump, who has called climate change a ‘hoax,’ declined to send any officials to this week’s summit
-
UK, Colombia halt intel to US over boat attacksSpeed Read Both countries have suspended intelligence sharing with the US over the bombing of civilian boats suspected of drug smuggling
-
Trump pardons 2020 fake electors, other GOP alliesSpeed Read The president pardoned Rudy Giuliani and more who tried to overturn his 2020 election loss
-
Supreme Court to decide on mail-in ballot limitsSpeed Read The court will determine whether states can count mail-in ballots received after Election Day
