Pro-Trump GOP staffers wrote the 'secret memo' Republicans are trying to release: report

House Republicans (and Russian bots) spent this week trumpeting a secret memo they say could bring an end to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. The document allegedly proves conduct by the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigations that rivals Watergate or, as one GOP congressman said Friday, “the KGB.”

But, as the Huffington Post reports, the document itself was written by Republican staffers.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), a Trump-backing Republican who has actively tried to discredit Mueller’s investigation, told the Huffington Post the memo “kind of aggregates” intelligence data proving widespread abuses by the DOJ and FBI.

“I believe that the contents of that memo need to be made available to the public immediately, and that that is a critical concern in kind of all of the Mueller, Russia, Trump discourse,” Gaetz said.

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), who served on Donald Trump’s transition team, has been leading the charge to release the memo to the public. As chair of the House Intelligence Committee, Nunes has launched his own tangential Russia investigation, notably charging Barack Obama’s administration with improperly “unmasking” members of the Trump transition team.

Nunes was accused of making that information public in order to give credence to Trump’s unproven claim that Obama “wiretapped” Trump Tower during the campaign.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the ranking Democrat on the House intel committee, accused his colleagues of once again trying to “carry water” for White House.

“Rife with factual inaccuracies and referencing highly classified materials that most of Republican Intelligence Committee members were forced to acknowledge they had never read, this is meant only to give Republican House members a distorted view of the FBI,” Schiff said. “This may help carry White House water, but it is a deep disservice to our law enforcement professionals.”