Roy Blunt says memo on FISA warrants needs to be released

Sen. Roy Blunt said Monday that the memo reviewed by the House Intelligence Committee has not been released to their Senate counterparts.

“I haven’t seen the memo and Chairman Burr of our committee has asked for the memo and not seen it,” Mr. Blunt, Missouri Republican, said on “The Hugh Hewitt Show” referring to Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr.

Mr. Blunt said the memo, which supposedly offers evidence that the FBI withheld information from the FISA court judge that issued surveillance warrants issued for some members of the Trump campaign, needs to be made available to the public as well. The memo was written by Rep. Devin Nunes, California Republican, a member of the House Intelligence Committee who reviewed the evidence.

“I think we can’t continue to use all of these excuses not to know what our investigating agencies have been doing. I think there are some real problems here the American people should be concerned about,” Mr. Blunt said.

The senator said he was not doubting the process of obtaining warrants through the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, but said he believes Congress needs to act as a check on the system. He said if there were violations, or political motivations behind FISA warrants issued on members of the Trump campaign, then that needs to be looked into.

The House Intelligence Committee could vote as early as Monday on whether to release the memo to the public.