Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said keeping the Democrats' now-classified response to the Nunes memo private "will confirm the American people’s worst fears" about the GOP's memo. | Andrew Harnik/AP Photo Schumer to Trump: Release Democratic memo

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Sunday pushed President Donald Trump to approve the release of a House Democratic memo designed as a counterweight to the GOP document released Friday accusing the FBI of misconduct.

The White House, after allowing the release of the GOP memo with no redactions, said in a statement that it would consider the Democrats' request for public viewing of their arguments "consistent with applicable standards, including the need to protect intelligence sources and methods." Schumer urged Trump to make that decision "as soon as possible."


"I believe it is a matter of fundamental fairness that the American people be allowed to see both sides of the argument and make their own judgments," Schumer said in a Sunday letter to the president.

Keeping the Democratic memo under wraps, Schumer added, "will confirm the American people’s worst fears that the release" of the document written by House Intelligence Committee Republicans "was only intended to undermine Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation" into Trump allies' role in Russian election meddling.

The GOP memo argues that the FBI allowed anti-Trump bias to infect its probe of former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, citing law enforcement officials' use of an unverified dossier financed by Democrats in their request to monitor Page.

The Republicans' memo also confirms, however, that the investigation into Russian connections to Trump's campaign did not begin based on that dossier, as pro-Trump critics have alleged. The GOP document further reveals that the initial court order used to monitor Page was requested after he formally left the Trump campaign.

House Republicans have said they anticipate the release of the Democrats' document, which attempts to undercut the GOP's memo as a pro-Trump political ploy, in the coming days after the full House has had time to approve it.