'Keep calm and tackle hard': FBI chief Chris Wray rallies bureau after Nunes memo release

Kevin Johnson | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Nunes memo: FBI, Justice Department abused surveillance The controversial Nunes memo is out. It claims the FBI and the Justice Department abused their surveillance authority on Trump's 2016 Presidential campaign. Democrats say the memo is misleading.

WASHINGTON – Hours after a Republican-led House committee released a document alleging surveillance abuses by the Justice Department and FBI, the bureau's director Christopher Wray sought to rally agents and analysts with a memo of his own.

"Talk is cheap; the work you do is what will endure," FBI chief Wray wrote in an internal message Friday. "We speak through our work. One case at a time. One decision at a time."

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President Trump on Friday approved the release of a memo prepared at the direction of House Intelligence Committee Chairman David Nunes, R-Calif., over the objections of Wray and Justice Department leadership. In an unusual statement this week, the FBI issued a public statement expressing "grave concerns'' about the accuracy of the memo.

Late Friday, Wray urged the bureau to move on. "We're going to keep doing that work because we know who and what we are and because we know our mission comes first," the director said. "The American people come first.

"Remember: keep calm and tackle hard," he continued.

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The document, which focused on a 2016 surveillance warrant approved to monitor former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, assailed the bureau and Justice for relying on a dossier prepared by a British intelligence agent whose work was funded in part by Democrats.

"The FBI was provided a limited opportunity to review this memo the day before the committee voted to release it," the FBI said earlier this week. "As expressed during our initial review, we have grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo’s accuracy."

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