Trump: Democratic memo 'total political and legal bust'
US President Donald Trump has rejected a Democratic document rebutting a Republican memo which alleged bias and abuse of power in the Russia probe.
Earlier this month, Republicans released a memo that accused the Justice Department and FBI of spying on a former Trump campaign adviser, Carter Page.
On Saturday, Democrats in the House Intelligence Committee released a counter-memo, arguing that "FBI and DOJ officials did not 'abuse' the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) process, omit material information, or subvert this vital tool to spy on the Trump campaign."
Democrats released the memo after the White House signed off following negotiations between the FBI and the committee's top Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff of California, over what in the document should be redacted.
"In fact, DOJ and the FBI would have been remiss in their duty to protect the country had they not sought a FISA warrant and repeated renewals to conduct temporary surveillance of Carter Page, someone the FBI assessed to be an agent of the Russian government," the memo read.
"DOJ cited multiple sources to support the case for surveilling Page," and "the warrant request was based on compelling evidence and probable cause," said the document.
In response, Trump tweeted messages, rejecting the memo as a “total political and legal bust.”
The Democrat memo response on government surveillance abuses is a total political and legal BUST. Just confirms all of the terrible things that were done. SO ILLEGAL!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 24, 2018
Trump also added that "this whole Witch Hunt is an illegal disgrace...and Obama did nothing about Russia!" he later added.
The FBI and House Democrats have both said the GOP memo, which does not provide the full scope of evidence for what it claims, is misleading because it contains both omissions and inaccuracies.
US intelligence agencies claim Russia-linked hackers provided WikiLeaks with damaging information -- in the form of thousands of hacked emails -- about Hillary Clinton to skew the 2016 presidential election in favor of Trump.
Trump has repeatedly denied allegations that his campaign colluded with Russians and has condemned the investigations. Russian President Vladimir Putin has also denied the allegations.
The White House said in a statement that the Democratic memo does not counter Trump's statements that there has been no collusion between his campaign and Russia.
"While the Democrats' memorandum attempts to undercut the President politically, the President supported its release in the interest of transparency," the statement read.
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