WASHINGTON, Feb 2 (Reuters) – The head of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Intelligence Committee said on Friday he had not read the underlying materials referenced in a memo he and other Republicans on the panel assembled alleging bias against President Donald Trump in the FBI and Justice Department’s Russia probes.
Representative Devin Nunes told Fox News Channel the committee had arranged with the Justice Department to allow a limited number of people to read the relevant documents as part of the panel’s own investigation into Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential election.
READ MORE: Read the controversial Nunes memo, released despite warnings from U.S. officials
“I thought the best person on our committee was the chairman of the Oversight Committee, Trey Gowdy, who has a long career as a federal prosecutor, to go and do this. And then they, over a series of meetings, would come back and brief us, the committee members,” Nunes said.
WATCH: Trump declassifies memo alleging FBI misconduct, calls it ‘terrible’
The previously classified document, written by Republicans on the House of Representatives intelligence committee, alleges that the federal probe of potential collusion between Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Russia was a product of political bias against Trump at the FBI and Justice Department.
Ignoring a plea from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Trump approved the release of the memo without redactions, deepening an extraordinary breach between the president and senior law enforcement officials over a probe that has dogged him during his first year in office.
READ MORE: Trump’s release of Nunes memo prompts anger from FBI, politicians
Democrats said the four-page memo mischaracterizes highly sensitive classified information and was intended to undermine Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s criminal probe into the Russia matter launched in May 2017 that grew out of an earlier FBI investigation. They warned Trump against using it as a pretext to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who hired Mueller and oversees the investigation, or Mueller himself.