President Obama's former director of national intelligence warned Friday that the release of a Republican memo summarizing the abuse of government surveillance authorities is a bad decision by the GOP that politicizes their oversight function.

"Absolutely they should conduct oversight, but there's a process for this that is discreet and confidential," former DNI James Clapper said on CNN.

"Exposing this as a political act I think is politically egregious," he added.

"Absolutely they should conduct oversight, but there's a process for this that is discreet and confidential" Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper says of the House Intelligence Committee https://t.co/S7q0EwYEYa pic.twitter.com/aexA38Sfti — New Day (@NewDay) February 2, 2018



Nonetheless, Republicans on Friday were expected to release the memo from the House Intelligence Committee. Republicans have warned for weeks now that the memo summarizes what they have learned about the Obama administration's decision to surveil members of President Trump's transition team.

The FBI has said it has "grave concerns" about its release, but Republicans have said the information is explosive and will reveal the political abuse of senior officials in the FBI and Department of Justice.