Donald Trump accuses FBI leadership of political bias ahead of memo release
Donald Trump has attacked top officials he appointed at the justice department and FBI, accusing them of political bias in the investigation into Russian interference of the 2016 election.
On Friday morning the US president tweeted: "The top Leadership and Investigators of the FBI and the Justice Department have politicized the sacred investigative process".
Mr Trump is expected to approve the releases of a controversial memo that suggests the FBI abused its powers to spy on one of his aides.
The memo, commissioned by the Republican head of the House intelligence committee, Devin Nunes, is said to be critical of the FBI’s handling of part of the investigation into Russian election meddling.
It is said to focus on how the FBI handled information from Christopher Steele, the former British spy who compiled a dossier about alleged links between Donald Trump and Russia.
The memo reportedly says that the FBI failed to make clear Mr Steele was the source of information used to request a wiretap on Carter Page, a Trump campaign official, before the election.
The top Leadership and Investigators of the FBI and the Justice Department have politicized the sacred investigative process in favor of Democrats and against Republicans - something which would have been unthinkable just a short time ago. Rank & File are great people!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 2, 2018
The bid to release the memo has been viewed by critics as an attempt to undermine an inquiry into possible Russian collusion in the 2016 election.
“You had Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party try to hide the fact that they gave money to GPS Fusion to create a Dossier which was used by their allies in the Obama Administration to convince a Court misleadingly, by all accounts, to spy on the Trump Team.” Tom Fitton, JW
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 2, 2018
The question of whether it should be made public has triggered a fierce battle between Democrats and the FBI on one side and Republicans and Donald Trump on the other.
The FBI has also taken the unusual step of issuing a public statement warning against the memo’s release, effectively pitting itself against Mr Trump.
“With regard to the House Intelligence Committee's memorandum, the FBI was provided a limited opportunity to review this memo the day before the committee voted to release it," it read.
"As expressed during our initial review, we have grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo's accuracy."
However, senior Republicans have said Congress has a duty to see surveillance powers were used correctly.
