Sen. Richard Blumenthal said Thursday the possible release of an Intelligence Committee memo is reminiscent of “McCarthy era” politics.
“The release of this memo is really reminiscent of the darkest days of the McCarthy era,” the Connecticut Democrat said on CNN. “The character assassination, it endangers methods and sources of the intelligence community, and it reflects an effort to distract from the Mueller investigation.”
He was referring to Sen. Joe McCarthy who used a fear of communism in the 1950s to launch government investigations into various agencies. Mr. Blumenthal said Republicans are using similar tactics to accuse the FBI of political bias to undermine special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of President Trump.
The House Intelligence Committee voted Monday to release the memo to the public, but the final decision is up to the White House.
The Connecticut Democrat said that the memo given to the White House counsel to review is different from the one approved by the committee. He said Mr. Nunes made alterations, which Republicans contend were minor grammatical changes, prior to presenting the memo to the White House.
“What we know for sure is that they are unauthorized by the minority on the committee,” Mr. Blumenthal said. “They were made without their knowledge or approval.
“DOJ has also said that it would be extraordinarily reckless,” he said, referring to releasing the memo publicly.
The White House could release the Nunes document as early as Thursday.
• Sally Persons can be reached at spersons@washingtontimes.com.
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