Democrats release counter-memo over Russia probe
WASHINGTON — The US House Intelligence Committee on Saturday released a classified Democratic memo that counters GOP claims that the FBI abused government surveillance powers in its Russia investigation.
Parts of the 10-page document, written by the GOP-controlled panel’s top Democrat Adam Schiff, were redacted to avoid revealing intelligencegathering sources and methods.
The White House rejected its release earlier this month, suggesting that sensitive information had to be removed first.
The memo argued that the FBI had valid justification for obtaining warrants to run surveillance on Carter Page, a former foreign policy adviser to President Donald Trump, long before it received information in a dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele.
Steele was allegedly hired to compile opposition research on Trump when he was candidate. The Democratic memo said that the information in the dossier was a small part of the case which the Department of Justice and FBI officials laid out in requesting for the court’s permission to spy on Page and in seeking renewals.
According to Democrats, federal officials told the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that they suspected Steele’s motive to compile the dossier, an account contradictory to a Republican memo released late January, but they failed to identify the political nature of the dossier’s origins.
“The Democratic response memo released today should put to rest any concerns that the American people might have as to the conduct of the FBI, the Justice Department and the FISC,” Schiff said in a statement.
He said the Democratic review of the initial application to eavesdrop on Page and three subsequent renewals “failed to uncover any evidence of illegal, unethical, or unprofessional behavior by law enforcement and instead reveled that both the FBI and the DOJ made extensive showings to justify all four requests”.
Just confirms all of the terrible things that were done. SO ILLEGAL!”
US President Donald Trump,
Trump has said that the GOP memo “vindicates” him in the ongoing Russia investigation led by special counsel Rober Mueller.
On Saturday, Trump tweeted: “Just confirms all of the terrible things that were done. SO ILLEGAL!”
The White House said in a statement that nothing in the Democratic memo undercuts the president’s statements that neither he nor his campaign colluded with Russia.
“While the Democrats’ memorandum attempts to undercut the president politically, the president supported its release in the interests of transparency,” the statement read.
However, Schiff has criticized Trump for treating the two documents differently, as the 4-page GOP memo was released with no redactions after being signed off by the White House.
FBI Director Christopher Wray and other senior law enforcement officials also warned that the Republican document was biased and omitted key information, viewed by critics as part of the GOP efforts to undermine Mueller’s investigation.
Both memos are part of the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin and Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election.
The release of the Democratic memo came after Mueller brought new charges to two former aides in Trump’s campaign. But those charges were unrelated to the alleged collusion.