Washington: US President Donald Trump on Friday released a secret, controversial intelligence memo that criticises the FBI and top justice department officials for its biased and motivated investigation.
The memo alleges that the FBI and the justice department, which have been investigating possible collusion between Mr Trump’s campaign and the Russians to sway the 2016 presidential elections, abused their power to obtain a warrant for surveillance of a member of Mr Trump’s campaign team. But Democrats who have seen it say that the memo cherry picks classified information to cast Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, as the villain in an FBI plot to surveil former Trump aide Carter Page.
Hours before declassifying the four-page controversial Republican memo and sending it to the House committee, which released it, Mr Trump publicly attacked the FBI’s leadership and the justice department, accusing them of politicising their investigations in favour of Democrats.
“The top Leadership and Investigators of the FBI and the Justice Department have politicised the sacred investigative process in favour of Democrats and against Republicans,” Mr Trump tweeted.
He called the alleged bias “something which would have been unthinkable just a short time ago. Rank & File are great people!”
Mr Trump sees the release of the memo as key to making the changes he wants at the justice department.
