US Democrats release counter-memo over Russia probe

APD NEWS

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Democratic legislators released a significantly-redacted rebuttal Saturday of a controversial Republican memo alleging bias and abuse of power in the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

The Republican memo, which was released earlier this month over the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Department of Justice's objections, said that Democrat-funded research prompted the FBI to spy on Carter Page, a former campaign aide to President Donald Trump.

"FBI and DOJ officials did not 'abuse' the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) process, omit material information, or subvert this vital tool to spy on the Trump campaign," the Democrats' text said, referring to the process under which secret surveillance warrants are obtained.

"In fact, DOJ and the FBI would have been remiss in their duty to protect the country had they not sought a FISA warrant and repeated renewals to conduct temporary surveillance of Carter Page, someone the FBI assessed to be an agent of the Russian government."

A print of a memo released by the Democratic minority on the US House of Representatives Intelligence Committee is seen, in Washington, DC, US February 24, 2018.

The White House, which had initially blocked the release of the Democratic memo, citing its inclusion of sensitive information, again took aim at the now-redacted text.

Deputy spokesman Raj Shah termed it a "political-driven document" that is "loaded with uncorroborated allegations" and "fails to answer serious concerns raised" in the Republican memo.

Devin Nunes, the architect of the Republican text, also criticized the Democratic rebuttal.

"What you're not gonna see is anything that actually rejects what was in our memo," which aimed to show "that FISA abuse had occurred," Nunes said at an annual Republican conference.

Democrats "are advocating that it's okay for the FBI and DOJ to use political dirt paid for by one campaign and use it against the other campaign," he said.

"In the United States of America, that is unacceptable."

US intelligence has concluded that Russia sought to influence the 2016 election that brought Trump to office, but the president has repeatedly denied colluding with Moscow.

(AFP)