Brad Wenstrup
House Republican on memo intel: Open it up
01:55 - Source: CNN
Washington CNN  — 

Republican Rep. Brad Wenstrup says he would back the release of more classified information related to a recently released GOP memo, including a Democratic rebuttal memo, relevant testimony and other material.

“I’m all for that. Open it up,” Wenstrup said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

The Ohio Republican, who sits on the House Intelligence Committee, was speaking alongside a Democratic colleague on the panel, Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut.

Himes said he backed the release of any relevant transcript that would shed light on what recently retired FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe said in testimony about the importance of an opposition research dossier on then-candidate Donald Trump in obtaining a warrant on former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

“I would even support, if it could be redacted in such a way as not to be damaging, I would support releasing the underlying FISA applications,” Himes said.

Both Wenstrup and Himes sit on the House Intelligence Committee, which has become embroiled in a dispute over the release of the GOP memo alleging that in seeking the warrant, the FBI relied on a dossier of opposition research about Trump and Russia that Democrats helped fund.

The pair disagreed about the veracity of the GOP memo, but both called for more transparency around it.

Wenstrup took issue with characterization of the GOP memo as misleading or unvetted, but said the competing Democratic memo should be released as well.

“If they want to put out their memo, let’s do that,” Wenstrup said.

Himes, meanwhile, said the Democratic memo would make the case that the FBI did not mislead the surveillance court in seeking a warrant on Page.

The memo would show that, “the FBI, because they are very careful people, didn’t mislead the judge, that the judge had some sense that this information came out from a political context,” Himes said.