The FBI and Justice Department go on the offensive to convince Trump to oppose GOP memo release
- FBI Director Christopher Wray advised the White House to oppose the release of a classified GOP memo that he says includes false information.
- The Justice Department has also implored the Trump administration to reject calls to make the memo public, citing national security concerns.
- But Trump, under pressure from Republican lawmakers who say the memo proves there is bias at the FBI and the DOJ, seems inclined to release it.
FBI Director Christopher Wray said he is opposed to the public release of a classified memo that Republicans point to as evidence of bias at the FBI and the Justice Department against President Donald Trump, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.
Wray echoed Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who on Monday warned White House chief of staff John Kelly that the memo is misleading and contains inaccurate information, according to Bloomberg.
On Sunday, Wray met with Republican Rep. Devin Nunes, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and co-author of the memo, to review its contents. The next day, Republicans on that committee voted to disclose the memo, giving Trump five days to decide whether to make it public.
In response to Rep. Jeff Duncan's plea to release the memo after Trump's State of the Union address Tuesday night, Trump said, "Oh, yeah, don't worry, 100%."
On Wednesday morning, Kelly, the president's chief of staff, hinted that Trump would follow through on his promise.
"[The memo] will be released here pretty quick I think and the whole world can see it," Kelly said during an interview on Fox News Radio Wednesday morning.
The Justice Department is strongly opposed to Trump authorizing the memo's release, citing inaccuracies in the document and the potential for classified national security information to be compromised, according to The Washington Post.
But Trump, who has led the charge in criticizing top law enforcement officials for abusing their surveillance powers, appears to be inclined to overrule the DOJ's objections.
Some Democrats were quick to note the irony in Trump potentially bucking Wray's advice to oppose the memo's release.
"Despite opposition from his own FBI Director," Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania said in a tweet Wednesday, "@realDonaldTrump and Congressional Republicans are continuing their shameful attacks on our brave law enforcement officers."
The memo in question is said to contain evidence that certain officials at the FBI and the DOJ abused their surveillance powers to spy on Carter Page, a Trump campaign adviser, during the 2016 presidential campaign and after the election. Rosenstein, whom Trump selected as deputy attorney general, is reportedly implicated in the memo as one of the officials who approved the surveillance.
Andrew McCabe, who resigned as deputy FBI director on Monday, is also reportedly implicated in potential abuses. Wray met with McCabe after viewing the classified memo and expressed concerns about a coming report from the DOJ's inspector general that alleges McCabe abused his role in the FBI's investigations into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server as secretary of state and the Trump campaign's ties to Russia.
The GOP memo has become a rallying cry among Republicans who believe the FBI and the DOJ are biased against Trump. Democrats say Republicans' attacks against those agencies are a distraction, meant to undermine special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 election and whether the Trump campaign colluded with Moscow.