The House Intelligence Committee voted unanimously Monday evening to release a ten-page Democratic rebuttal to a memo authored by Devin Nunes, made public last week, that alleged an FBI scheme to undermine President Trump.
The president now has five days to decide whether to authorize the release of the document to the public. It’s unclear whether he is inclined to do so.
“We will consider it along the same terms that we considered the Nunes memo, which is to allow for a legal review, national-security review, led by the White House counsel’s office and then within five days the president will make a decision about declassifying it,” Raj Shah, a White House spokesperson, told reporters on Monday.
If the president decides to block the document, the House of Representatives has the authority to override him in a closed-door vote.
When the Republican-led committee voted to release the Nunes memo last week, it declined to make public the rebuttal, in a decision that incensed Democratic lawmakers like Adam Schiff, the group’s ranking minority member.
President Trump claimed the Nunes memo “totally vindicated” him, but other than in the Sean Hannity–adjacent universe, it landed with a thud.
Earlier on Monday, Trump attacked Schiff on Twitter and praised Nunes as a potential “Great American Hero.”
