President set on releasing classified memo linked to Russia probe

Washington: President Donald Trump has told a lawmaker he plans to release a secret Republican memo alleging that a politically motivated Department of Justice and the FBI flagrantly abused regulations to spy on his campaign.

The issue of the memo has gripped Washington just as the Russia meddling probe edges closer to the White House.

Republicans are keen to see the four-page memo – written by Republican lawmaker Devin Nunes, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and a close defender of Trump – released, and his committee voted to do so.

After finishing his State of the Union address, Trump was caught on television cameras telling a Republican lawmaker who urged him to release it, “Don’t worry, 100 per cent.”

Democrats say the memo is highly distort- ed and political, and ultimately aims to discredit special prosecutor Robert Mueller’s probe of possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in the 2016 election.

According to news reports citing people who have seen the document, it sums up how the Justice Department and FBI were able to obtain a so-called FISA national security warrant to run surveillance on Carter Page, a Trump election campaign advisor with extensive Moscow contacts.

“There are legitimate questions about whether American civil liberties were violated by the FISA process,” House Majority leader Paul Ryan said on Tuesday.

“There may have been malfeasance at the FBI by certain individuals.”

The memo alleges that the department depended on the contentious and unproven “Russia dossier” –compiled by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele and financed in part by Democrat Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign – to justify the warrant to the top-secret FISA court.

In addition, the memo alleges that after Trump became president, the warrant was extended by Deputy Attorney-General Rod Rosenstein – the DOJ official who appointed Mueller to lead the Russia probe, and the only person who can fire him.

Rosenstein took charge of the probe when Attorney-General Jeff Sessions recused himself – a move Trump has often criticised.

The release of the document, based on highly classified information, is strongly opposed by the Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Democrats also say they cannot debunk it without themselves releasing top secret counter-intelligence information. Release of the memo would come just as Mueller is pressing the White House to let him interview Trump in the Russia investigation. Besides collusion, Mueller is examining whether Trump illegally attempted to obstruct the investigation.

Analysts say the memo has two targets. One is the Republican base, which is all too ready to believe that the probe is a politicised operation by a corrupted, anti-Trump Justice Department and FBI.

Secondly, it aims to discredit Mueller and to undermine Rosenstein.

That, Democrats speculate, would allow Trump to pick a replacement who would then fire Mueller.

According to reports in The New York Times, which have been denied by the White House, Trump has privately expressed over the past year the desire to get rid of both Mueller and Rosenstein.