China Daily Global Edition (USA)
Trump to allow release of memo unredacted: official
US President Donald Trump has decided to allow publication of a Republican memo arguing the Federal Bureau of Investigation abused its surveillance powers in its Russia probe, and is unlikely to redact any of the contents of the document, a White House official said on Thursday.
The move will likely ratchet up the partisan warfare over Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of the Trump administration and Trump’s 2016 campaign.
Trump has read the classified House Intelligence Committee memo that Republicans claim describes FBI antiTrump bias and will send it back to Congress for release to the public by Friday, two other White House officials said.
While one of those officials said earlier in the day that the president had agreed to some redactions requested by the FBI in the four-page document, the third official said later that redactions were unlikely. The White House has reviewed the memo to make sure it doesn’t reveal too much classified information, the third official said.
Democrats have condemned the document as a misleading and inaccurate attempt to undermine Mueller’s investigation at the cost of damaging the nation’s intelligence and law-enforcement agencies. FBI Director Christopher Wray urged Trump not to release the memo, according to a person familiar with that matter.
Former FBI Director James Comey, whose firing by Trump last year spurred appointment of a special counsel, issued a scathing statement on Twitter that appeared to criticize plans to release the memo.
“All should appreciate the FBI speaking up,” Comey said in the tweet. “But take heart: American history shows that, in the long run, weasels and liars never hold the field, so long as good people stand up. Not a lot of schools or streets named for Joe McCarthy.”