Washington, Feb 3: The bitterness between Donald Trump and the FBI has intensified after the release of a controversial Republican memo, with the
president calling it a “disgrace” while the agency’s chief pledging to defend his agents.
The memo which was released Friday accuses senior law enforcement officials of misleading a court in order to conduct surveillance on a former Trump campaign adviser during its probe into the alleged Russian collusion in the 2016 election.
“The memorandum raises serious concerns about the integrity of decisions made at the highest levels of the Department of Justice and the FBI to use the government’s most intrusive surveillance tools against American citizens,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said.
The memo, written by House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes, alleges that the FBI used the opposition research dossier on Trump and Russia written by ex-British intelligence agent Christopher Steele to secure a FISA surveillance warrant on former Trump foreign policy adviser Carter Page without disclosing that the dossier was funded in part by Democratic sources.
Sanders said the decision to release the memo was made with input from the President’s national security team — including law enforcement officials and members of the intelligence community. “..for whom the president has great respect. He is especially grateful to the hardworking rank-and-file public servants who work every day to keep America safe and uphold our laws while protecting the constitutional rights of all Americans,” Sanders said in a statement.
Noting that minority members of the Committee have reportedly drafted a separate memorandum, Sanders said the administration stands ready to work with Congress to accommodate oversight requests consistent with applicable standards, including the need to protect intelligence sources and methods. Meanwhile, a controversial Republican memo that accuses the FBI of political bias has primarily been written by Indian-American lawyer Kashyap “Kash” Patel, according to a media report. The “Kash memo” portrays the FBI in a negative light, alleging that the agency helped the Democratic party and its presidential candidate Hillary Clinton against Donald Trump, the eventual winner of the 2016 presidential elections, The New York Times reported.
PTI
