Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., rebuffed the Justice Department after it sent a letter to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., warning against the release of a memo on alleged surveillance abuses without giving access to agency and the FBI.

Such a move would be "extraordinarily reckless," Stephen Boyd, the assistant attorney general for legislative affairs, wrote in a letter to Nunes on Wednesday.

"I would say this to my friend Stephen Boyd, let's lower the rhetoric," Gowdy said in response on CNN during an evening interview with Erin Burnett.

Gowdy, a member of the House Intelligence Committee who has been instrumental in talks about the process for releasing the four-page memo to the public, said he doesn't care if the agency sees the report, even though the FBI, which is under the jurisdiction of DOJ, says it was blocked from gaining access to it.

"Everything in the memo they already have," Gowdy said. "What they don't know specifically is what are the complaints. And I'm fine to share them with them, but you can't possibly say a memo was reckless if you haven't read it."