The GOP has released a politically charged memo on Friday that cast blame on the F.B.I. and Justice Department heads of abusing their surveillance powers to spy on a former Trump campaign adviser who is a suspect in a probe that checks whether he was an agent of Russia, The New York Times informs.
The memo raised concerns in national security officials and infuriated Democrats, who pointed accusations to the Republicans of distorting delicate government information through oversights and deceptions. President Trump released the memo despite the disagreement of the F.B.I., which had voiced “grave concerns” over it’s veracity in a rare public break from the White House.
The three-and-a-half-page memo, drafted by Republican congressional aides, blasted information used by law enforcement officials in their application for a warrant to eavesdrop the former campaign adviser, Carter Page, and mentioned the names of the senior F.B.I. and Justice Department officials who gave thumbs up to the highly classified application.
But it fell well short of making the case promised by some Republicans: that the proof it contained would cast doubt on the origins of the Russia inquiry and possibly undermine the investigation, which has been assumed by a special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III. The Page warrant is just one aspect of the broader probe.
Instead, the document confirmed that contacts between a former Trump foreign policy adviser, George Papadopoulos, and Russian intermediaries were a primary factor in the opening of the investigation in July 2016.
Representative Devin Nunes of California, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, portrayed the memo as recounting an “alarming series of events” in which intelligence and law enforcement agencies were “exploited to target one group on behalf of another.”
“Neither the initial application in October 2016, nor any of the renewals, disclose or reference the role of the D.N.C., Clinton campaign, or any party/campaign in funding Steele’s efforts, even though the political origins of the Steele dossier were then known to senior D.O.J. and F.B.I. officials,” said the memo, which was written by committee staff members.
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