GOP Rep Hurd on Memo: ‘This Is About Making Sure That We’re Protecting the Civil Liberties of Americans’

Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Rep. Will Hurd (R-TX) said the FISA memo alleging abuse by the Justice Department was “about making sure that we’re protecting the civil liberties of America.”

Partial transcript as follows: 

STEPHANOPOULOS: But just says it wasn’t circular reporting if you had read the underlying intelligence.

HURD: So – so a press release or some newspaper article should be able to be used in order to spy on an American, that newspaper article was about – was all based off the information that they already had access to, and what’s interesting is nobody is questioning whether some of the information was unverified, right. Nobody’s questioned that, nobody’s questioned that there were rumors that were involved in this, and – and for me, this is about making sure that we’re protecting the civil liberties of America.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But as the congressman who has read all the underlying materials, just said – said that is only one part of a very large file that was presented to the judge.

HURD: Well, when you introduced me today, you didn’t say I was from San Antonio or I spent all my life in Texas, that doesn’t change the fact that I’m a Republican member of Congress, right. You know, the information that – is that we’re talking about is unverified info – nobody questions that, and the gentleman from California –

STEPHANOPOULOS: Which information is unverified?

HURD: The – most of the information in the Steele dossier, what information there – is there is probably the only –

STEPHANOPOULOS: Because you didn’t read the underlying document.

HURD: You don’t have to read the underlying documents because we’ve had – and the gentleman from California said that we haven’t interviewed the FBI or DOJ on this. And I’ve spent countless hours in hearing with DOJ and FBI asking questions about this. So I’ve had the opportunity to ask the people that created the underlying document about this, and that’s what came to some of the conclusions and why I voted to release the memo.

(h/t Grabien)

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