Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said Wednesday if the White House released the memo alleging FBI surveillance abuses, it "would certainly be a very serious affront" to Director Christopher Wray and the agency.
"It's kind of an assault on the principles of the FBI," Clapper, who served under former President Barack Obama, told Jake Tapper on CNN.
He also praised Wray for opposing the document's release in a rare public statement.
"Good for Director Wray, for no other reason than to try to defend the great men and women of the FBI," Clapper said.
"The fact that the FBI would put out a statement with that concern, rather than disclose the sources and methods, that struck me as quite significant."
The FBI said it had "grave concerns" about the accuracy of the classified memo by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes on alleged FBI abuses in the Russia investigation that President Donald Trump said should be released.
Nunes, the California Republican, and other party members allege the document reveals improper use of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act by the FBI and the Justice Department.
The memo centers on the agency's use of a dossier on President Donald Trump and Russia by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele, alleging that the FISA judge who signed off on the warrant supposedly based it on the dossier.
The document says the judge was not given full information about about the dossier, including that Democratic sources later paid for it.
The FBI said Wednesday that critical facts were omitted.
But Nunes ripped the FBI's statement, calling the agency's objections "spurious" and saying that the opposition was "no surprise."
Nunes also called for the document's release.
However, Clapper told Tapper that Nunes' position "certainly has that appearance" of trying to protect President Trump on Russia.
"He's acting as an agent on behalf of the White House and putting out a one-party partisan memo and then refusing to allow the Democrats to put out their rebuttal," he said.
"To me, this has the experience of purely a political stunt."
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