House Intelligence Committee releases memo

T TV Sunday 25/February/2018 13:10 PM
By: Times News Service

After months of bitter fighting, the House Intelligence Committee on Saturday released a heavily redacted memo from Democratic lawmakers, fiercely denying Republican claims of FBI abuse in the ongoing Russia probe.
After months of bitter fighting, the House Intelligence Committee on Saturday released a heavily redacted memo from Democratic lawmakers, fiercely denying Republican claims of FBI abuse in the ongoing Russia probe. The Democrats' document is a rebuttal to the Republicans own memo claiming the F.B.I. relied on a controversial dossier funded in part by Democrats to justify spying on former Trump campaign aide Carter Page.
In their memo, the Democrats reject that claim, saying the evidence shows Page was under suspicion for his contacts with Russia long before the dossier by a former British agent was released. The 10 Page memo also denies the dossier sparked the federal investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 race. President Trump blasted the Democratic memo on Saturday in a tweet calling it 'a total political and legal bust'.
Earlier this month, the White House had blocked the Democratic memo, warning it contained "sensitive passages." that had to be removed. But President Trump took heat for ignoring similar objections from intelligence officials when he allowed the release of the Republican memo, which he said on Twitter vindicated him in Robert Mueller's investigation. Following Saturday's release of the rebuttal, the White House Press Secretary issued a statement saying, "While the Democrats' memorandum attempts to undercut the President politically, the President supported its release in the interest of transparency". The release follows a flurry of recent guilty pleas and indictments, including charges against 13 Russians for interfering in the campaign.
The dueling memos have come to symbolise the deeply partisan battle over the Russia probe and whether anyone on Trump's team colluded with Moscow, which Trump has repeatedly denied.