TEHRAN, February 25 -The Democratic minority on the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee on Saturday released a response to Republican charges that the FBI and Justice Department have abused the law in their investigation of possible ties between Russia and Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
TEHRAN,Young Journalists Club (YJC) -The Democratic minority on the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee on Saturday released a response to Republican charges that the FBI and Justice Department have abused the law in their investigation of possible ties between Russia and Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
The Democrats’ 10-page memo, released on Saturday in partially-redacted form, calls an earlier Republican version “a transparent effort to undermine” the FBI, the Justice Department, Special Counsel Robert Mueller, and congressional probes into possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.
The Republican memo, the Democrats allege, “also risks public exposure of sensitive sources and methods for no legitimate purpose.”
The Democratic memo and a Republican counterattack that included a point-by-point refutation of the minority Democrats’ conclusions, are an escalation of the partisan feuding that Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, and other members of his party have said is sabotaging the House committee’s investigation.
The latest duel on Capitol Hill comes as Mueller’s investigation gathers steam, including a guilty plea on Friday from Richard Gates, Trump’s deputy campaign manager.
In a message posted on Twitter, Trump responded, “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!”
In a statement, the committee’s Republican Chairman, Rep. Devin Nunes, renewed his allegations, saying: “The American people now clearly understand that the FBI used political dirt paid for by the Democratic Party to spy on an American citizen from the Republican Party.”
“We wanted it out because we think it is clear evidence that the Democrats are not only trying to cover this up, but they’re also colluding with parts of the government to help cover this up,” Nunes said during an appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Oxon Hills, Maryland.
WHITE HOUSE RESPONSE
In a statement released on Saturday, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said: “While the Democrats’ memorandum attempts to undercut the president politically, the president supported its release in the interest of transparency.”
The Democratic memo charges that Republicans deliberately omitted facts from their document that undermine their allegation that the FBI conducted improper surveillance of one-time Trump campaign aide Carter Page, “whom the FBI assessed to be an agent of the Russian government.”
The Justice Department’s request for a surveillance warrant “was based on compelling evidence and probable cause to believe Page was knowingly assisting clandestine Russian intelligence activities in the U.S.,” the memo says.
Source: Reuters
Your Comment