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House Intel votes to release controversial Republican memo alleging FBI spying 'abuses'

The GOP memo will be released after the White House has up to five days to review it.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes announces that his committee and the House oversight committee are starting the investigation into Russia and Obama Administration uranium deal on October 24, 2017.

Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee voted Monday night to make public a controversial GOP memo alleging the FBI and the Department of Justice abused their surveillance authority to target then-presidential candidate Donald Trump and his associates.

The Republican majority voted to release its four-page memo along party lines while blocking the release of a counter memo written by Democrats, said Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the panel's senior Democrat.

The GOP memo, written by Republican staff at the direction of Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., will be released after the White House has up to five days to review it.

Schiff said he believes the White House will allow its release, despite objections from the Department of Justice.

"I think we have crossed a deeply regrettable line," Schiff said after the vote.

The Intelligence committee is running its own investigation into Russia's interference in the presidential election and possible collusion with Trump associates.

Committee Republicans voted earlier this month to allow any House member to come into a secure room and read the GOP memo. Lawmakers were not allowed to make copies or take the memo with them since it contained classified information.

Republican House members soon began putting out press releases describing the memo as containing "shocking" revelations that threatened democracy itself. However, they refused to give details because revealing classified information is a federal crime.

Schiff has described the GOP memo as "a profoundly misleading set of talking points" that is "rife with factual inaccuracies" that give "a distorted view of the FBI."

The vote came just hours after FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who has been a target of fierce criticism from Trump and some conservative GOP lawmakers, abruptly announced his resignation Monday.

The committee's action is latest evidence of the deep partisan divide among its members, whose Russia investigation has been marred by political infighting.

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