House Speaker Paul D. Ryan said Tuesday there are “legitimate questions” about the FBI’s behavior in targeting members of then-candidate Donald Trump’s team, and said that’s why the House is pressing ahead with the release of a controversial GOP memo on the subject.
Mr. Ryan said the public deserves to see the conclusions of Republicans on the House intelligence committee, which voted on Monday to release the memo. That decision is now being reviewed by the president, who is reportedly inclined to release it.
“What we want is all of this info to come out so that transparency can reign supreme,” Mr. Ryan told reporters.
He also defended the committee’s decision not to release a Democratic memo to the public yet, saying it’s further behind in the process.
The GOP wrote its memo some weeks ago and had already voted to make it available to other members of Congress, many of whom then asked that it be released to the public — after being scrubbed so no sources or methods were given away.
Democrats countered this week with their own memo, and demanded it be released to the public along with the GOP one. Instead the committee voted to let other members of Congress see it first — just as they had on the GOP memo.
Mr. Ryan said the House’s investigation into whether the FBI abused powers under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is proper, but said it does not and should not conflict with the criminal probe being led by special counsel Robert Mueller.
Mr. Ryan also said he doesn’t see a reason for Mr. Trump to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who is overseeing the investigation after Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.