FBI Officials Who Have Read FISA Abuse Memo Say It Is 'Factually Accurate'

House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) has been telling reporters that the FISA abuse memo penned by Intel Committee Chair Devin Nunes (R-CA) and Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) is “distorted and misleading,” but according to Fox News, FBI officials who have had a chance to read the four-page memo can’t find any factual inaccuracies in it.

“Two senior FBI officials have now reviewed a controversial Republican staff memo alleging abuses of government surveillance programs during the 2016 presidential campaign,” Fox News’ Catherine Herridge reported, adding that a source familiar with the matter said that the officials “could not point to any factual inaccuracies.”

The two officials – one from the bureau’s counterintelligence division and the other from the legal division – followed up after an initial review of the memo during a rare Sunday trip to Capitol Hill by FBI Director Christopher Wray.

The House Intelligence Committee voted late Monday along party lines to release the memo, prompting a backlash from Democratic lawmakers. Top Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff called it a “very sad day.” President Trump has five working days to review the contents but is widely expected not to block its release.

The source told Fox News that House staffers “physically took the memo over to the White House” following the committee’s vote Monday night.

The source also said that “the FBI and Justice Department had ‘fought tooth and nail’ for close to a year to avoid providing the surveillance-related records to Congress.” According to the source, the additional records were provided this month only “after Republican committee Chairman Devin Nunes threatened to move forward with contempt of Congress citations” and  they back up investigators’ earlier findings.

House Republicans have hinted that the memo answers the question of whether the unverified “dirty dossier” was used to secure or extend surveillance warrants for Americans — including Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.

Rep. Mark Walker (R-N.C.) said today on Fox Business that the memo is a “very damaging document” that could lead to prosecutions.

“If you’re interested whether or not the dossier was used in court proceedings, whether or not it was funded by political opponents, you’ll want to see the memo,” Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., said.

Notably, Democrats on the Intel Committee have also fought the disclosure “tooth and nail.”

“My Democratic colleagues didn’t want us to find this information. They did everything they could to keep us from finding this information,” Gowdy said on “Fox & Friends” Tuesday morning.

He added, “I think it will be embarrassing to Adam Schiff once people realize the extent to which he went to keep them from learning any of this. That would be the embarrassment…”

Asked to clarify, he explained, “I mean, going to court to help Fusion GPS so we can’t find out they paid for the dossier, and that they were working for the DNC. That’s a pretty big step to go to court to try to keep the American people from learning something. So, if it were up to Adam Schiff, you wouldn’t know about Hillary Clinton’s email. You wouldn’t know about the server. You wouldn’t know about the dossier. I do find it ironic that he has his own memo now because if it were up to him, we wouldn’t know any of it.”