Rep. Charlie Dent said Monday he would not have allowed the release of either of these House memos regarding alleged surveillance abuses for former Trump campaign aides.
“A lot of information seems to be cherry-picked. It provides an incomplete picture without proper context. There seem to be omissions of fact,” Mr. Dent, Pennsylvania Republican, said on CNN.
Mr. Dent said he couldn’t comment on the content of the Democratic memo since it has not been publicly released yet, but said he thinks now that Republicans released their brief, Democrats should have the same ability.
His hesitancy in releasing either memo has to do with exposing “sources and methods” for intelligence gathering, he said. He also said it takes away from the freedom to discuss things privately in committee meetings.
“It’s a partisan exercise — the Republican memo and the Democratic memo — and this should’ve never been released to begin with,” Mr. Dent said.
The congressman announced his plans to retire last year, citing political polarization among his reasons not to seek another term.
• Sally Persons can be reached at spersons@washingtontimes.com.
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