Former Georgia U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss has been sitting on the sidelines of the unfolding Russia memo fight scratching his head. The retired Republican said he is perplexed by his onetime colleagues' decision to release a divisive memo alleging that the intelligence community abused surveillance rules to monitor a former Trump campaign hand.
“I don’t understand why folks that have to work with the intelligence community every day want to pick a fight with the intelligence community,” the Republican said in an interview Monday.
The former Senate Intelligence Committee chairman said it was counterproductive for the GOP to thrust the issue - which included classified information that had to be cleared for release - into the public sphere.
“Every organization has a few folks who from time to time need to be called on the carpet, and that’s what should have been done here. But it should have been done behind closed doors,” he said.
The House Intelligence Committee on Friday released what’s known as the Nunes memo after receiving President Donald Trump’s blessing. The document argues that the feds were politically motivated when they used intelligence from a Democrat-funded dossier to get the okay to surveil Carter Page, a former Trump campaign adviser.
Despite his criticism of the memo’s handling, Chambliss said he was disturbed by some of the allegations contained in the report. The idea that federal officials might have lied or withheld information to a surveillance court judge in order to get a warrant is alarming, he said.
“Those are things that you just don’t withhold from a judge, irrespective of whether it’s in a sensitive area like the intelligence world or just a normal 4th Amendment warrant that you’re seeking,” he said.
Democrats warned that releasing the document was reckless and that it was designed to undermine special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia inquiry. They have come forward with their own memo refuting the initial GOP document, which the House Intelligence Committee cleared for release on Monday night. It must still be okayed by Trump before it can become public.
GOP senators have largely kept their distance from the House report following its release, including the leadership of the Senate Intelligence Committee. But many conservative House Republicans from Georgia cheered the move, arguing the public has the right to know about the memo's contents.
Chambliss said there are “some people within the upper echelons of the FBI who were politically motivated” but that he does not expect this week’s fireworks to permanently damage the credibility of the law enforcement or intelligence communities. But it could complicate the working relationship between the feds and their congressional overseers, he said.
Chambliss was a prominent advocate for the intelligence community prior to his retirement in 2014, and he remains involved in the intel world today as a more informal outside adviser.
“I’m just glad I’m on the outside looking in,” he said.
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