This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

In a long-awaited memo released on Saturday, Democrats on the House intelligence committee defended official investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.



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Donald Trump duly responded on Twitter, calling the Democratic memo “a total political and legal BUST” that he said “just confirms all of the terrible things that were done”.

The president added: “SO ILLEGAL!”

Investigations into Russian election meddling include the question of whether any Trump aides colluded in such efforts.

Trump has called the investigations a “witch-hunt” and insisted there was no collusion. Some Republicans in Congress have sought to defend the president by attacking investigations by congressional committees, the FBI and special counsel Robert Mueller.

Releasing his party’s document on Saturday, Adam Schiff of California, the ranking Democrat on the House intelligence panel, said in a tweet: “Some time ago, Republicans on our committee released a declassified memo that omitted and distorted key facts in order to mislead the public and impugn the integrity of the FBI. We can now tell you what they left out.”



Schiff’s tweet contained a link to the 10-page, partially redacted document, which was posted to the panel’s website.

The Democratic memo criticised the Republican memo as a “transparent effort to undermine” investigations. The memo also defended the FBI’s obtaining of warrants for temporary surveillance of Carter Page, an aide to Trump’s election campaign whom the Democrats said “the FBI assessed to be an agent of the Russian government”.

The release came after weeks of argument over how much of the Democratic document would be redacted. The White House objected to its release on 9 February, citing national security concerns. Democrats then negotiated with the FBI on what should be blacked out.



Trump had less concern about the earlier classified memo written by Republicans, known after the intelligence committee chairman as the Nunes memo, which he declassified on 2 February despite strong objections from the FBI. Trump claimed the memo “vindicated” him. Some Republicans disagreed.

Q&A What is the Nunes memo? Show Hide The memo was written by aides to Devin Nunes, chairman of the House intelligence committee and a member of the Trump transition team. The committee is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election but the inquiry has devolved into a fight about the ​separate FBI investigation​, now​ led by special counsel Robert Mueller​. On Friday, Nunes published the memo after Donald Trump declassified it. The memo revolves around a wiretap on Carter Page, an adviser to the Trump campaign, alleging the FBI omitted key information when it applied for the wiretap. The findings “raise concerns with the legitimacy and legality of certain DoJ and FBI interactions” with the court that approves surveillance requests, the memo says. It also claims “a troubling breakdown of legal processes established to protect the American people from abuses”. The memo criticizes investigators who applied for the wiretap, saying they used material provided by an ex-British agent, Christopher Steele, without sufficiently disclosing their source. The memo says Steele was “desperate that Trump not get elected”. The memo also says texts between an FBI agent and FBI attorney “demonstrated a clear bias against Trump” and says there is “no evidence of any co-operation or conspiracy between Page” and another Trump aide under investigation, George Papadopoulos. The memo casts deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein in a negative light. ​Rosenstein could fire Mueller. The president, said to dislike Rosenstein, could fire and replace him. The FBI ​argued against the memo’s release. Democrats wrote a rebuttal and sided with the bureau. ​The president reportedly told associates he believes the memo will help discredit the special counsel. Alan Yuhas

In the GOP memo, Republicans took aim at the FBI and the justice department over the use of information from a former British spy, Christopher Steele, in obtaining a secret warrant to monitor Page.



The warrant was obtained under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or Fisa. The main allegation in the Republican document was that the FBI and justice department did not tell the court enough about Steele’s anti-Trump bias or that his work was funded in part by Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

They argued that the reliance on Steele’s material amounted to an improper politicization of the government’s surveillance powers.

The Democratic memo countered that the justice department disclosed “the assessed political motivation of those who hired him” and that Steele was probably hired by someone “looking for information that could be used to discredit” then-candidate Trump’s campaign.

Republicans said that was not enough, since the Clinton campaign and the DNC were not named. Trump himself seized on the point in a tweet on Saturday evening: “Dem Memo: FBI did not disclose who the clients were – the Clinton Campaign and the DNC. Wow!”

Carl Tobias, a law professor from the University of Richmond, said the Democratic memo placed much that had transpired in context and helped “US citizens to sort out the truth”.

He added: “The memo also convincingly refutes the argument that the DoJ and the FBI were duplicitous in their request to the Fisa court.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Christopher Steele, the former MI6 agent who compiled a dossier on Donald Trump. Photograph: Victoria Jones/PA

Trump also attacked Schiff, who he called a “total phony”. Schiff responded: “Wait a minute, Mr President. Am I a phony, or sleazy, a monster or little? Surely you know the key to a good playground nickname is consistency. I thought you were supposed to be good at this.”

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Schiff also said the Democratic memo “confirms the FBI acted appropriately and that Russian agents approached two of your advisers, and informed your campaign that Russia was prepared to help you by disseminating stolen Clinton emails.”

Four former Trump aides have been indicted by Mueller. They are Michael Flynn, Trump’s first national security adviser; Paul Manafort, his second campaign manager; Rick Gates, Manafort’s deputy; and George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy adviser.

Flynn, Gates and Papadopoulous have accepted plea deals, seeking lighter sentences in return for cooperation. Manafort remains under house arrest on charges including money laundering and bank and tax fraud.

In a statement issued on Friday, he said: “Notwithstanding that Rick Gates pled today, I continue to maintain my innocence. I had hoped and expected my business colleague would have had the strength to continue the battle to prove our innocence. For reasons yet to surface he chose to do otherwise.”

This month, Mueller also indicted 13 Russian nationals alleged to have taken part in a huge effort to influence the election in favour of Trump.

On Saturday, the White House press secretary, Sarah Sanders, said: “As the president has long stated, neither he nor his campaign ever colluded with a foreign power during the 2016 election, and nothing in today’s memo counters that fact.”