Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), who is known for his attacks on Hillary Clinton, published by Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA).
Gowdy explained that the memo did not "vindicate" President Donald Trump in the Russia investigation -- far from it.
"It doesn't -- and I was pretty integrally involved in the drafting of it," Gowdy admitted. "There is a Russia investigation without a dossier. So to the extent the memo deals with the dossier and the FISA process, the dossier has nothing to do with the meeting at Trump Tower. The dossier has nothing to do with an email sent by Cambridge Analytica. The dossier really has nothing to do with George Papadopoulos' meeting in Great Britain. It also doesn't have anything to do with obstruction of justice. So there's going to be a Russia probe, even without a dossier."
"Have we reached such a degraded state that when a Republican tells the truth it's a story?" CNN's legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin half-joked.
Host Alisyn Camerota didn't want to say that it was necessarily a partisan concern, but Toobin cut in to say that it was absolutely a Republican problem, because they've been standing by Trump regardless of what has been found.
"Finally, yesterday, it was so excessive, what Trump said was so ridiculous that 'this memo invalidates the Russia investigation and discredits the FBI' that we saw some push-back from House members," Toobin said. "I mean, all they're doing is telling the truth."
Daily Beast editor John Avlon argued that it was a huge story because Gowdy threw the GOP talking points out the window and admitted it wasn't an accurate conclusion of the warrants obtained and the investigation.
Playing clips of Trump and campaign surrogates denying he knew Carter Page, Toobin noted it's almost as if the release of the Nunes memo and the attack on the FBI and Justice Department was "just a pretext and bogus and not based on any reality that it's purported to be."
He went on to say "the president has succeeded here," in that he created an "atmosphere of controversy," which has prompted many Americans not paying attention to dismiss Robert Mueller and the investigation.
"When you have the megaphone of the White House, when you have the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, you can create a controversy where none exists and that's what has been done here," Toobin said.
Avlon agreed saying they've clearly muddied the waters intentionally.
Watch the full discussion below:
