President Donald Trump said on Saturday the release of a previously classified Republican memo that alleges abuse by the FBI and Department of Justice "totally vindicates" him in the Russia probe.
"This memo totally vindicates “Trump” in probe. But the Russian Witch Hunt goes on and on. Their was no Collusion and there was no Obstruction (the word now used because, after one year of looking endlessly and finding NOTHING, collusion is dead). This is an American disgrace!" Trump tweeted Saturday.
House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., released the memo Friday that alleges officials at the FBI and DOJ used bias against Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, ultimately leading to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller to investigate charges of collusion between aides working for then-candidate Trump and Russian officials.
Trump approved the memo's release on Friday and said its revelations were a "disgrace," adding, "A lot of people should be ashamed of themselves."
Reaction among lawmakers was swift. Rep. Pete King, R-N.Y., also on the House Intelligence Committee, called for public hearings about the FBI and Justice Department actions that led to FISA warrants allowing the surveillance of former Trump adviser Carter Page.
However, fellow Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona blasted the memo's release, saying it served "no American interests" to make the information public.
Democrats were mainly in unison in their condemnation of the Nunes memo, including House Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Adam Schiff of California who said it was "deeply misleading and factually inaccurate." House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi also criticized the memo, releasing a statement on Friday calling it a "desperate attempt to distract the American people from the truth about the Trump-Russia scandal."
Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee are pushing to release their own memo and in a statement on Friday said the Nunes document failed to provide "vital context." Trump said Friday he "would be inclined" to allow a Democratic rebuttal if it passed a "security and legal review," according to a White House statement.
Democrats contend the four-page memo mischaracterizes highly sensitive classified information and was intended to undermine the Mueller criminal probe that was launched in May 2017 as an outgrowth an earlier FBI investigation.
Jerrold Nadler, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said in a statement that Trump's decision to allow the release of the memo was "part of a coordinated propaganda effort to discredit, disable and defeat the Russia investigation."
On Saturday, Nadler circulated a memo to House Democrats disputing the conclusions of the Nunes memo and arguing that Page was a lawful target of surveillance, according to NBC News.
"Carter Page was, more likely than not, an agent of a foreign power. The Department of Justice thought so. A federal judge agreed," Nadler wrote in the memo.
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