Trump attacks the leaders he picked at DOJ, FBI ahead of memo release
Updated 1820 GMT (0220 HKT) February 2, 2018
(CNN)President
Donald Trump positioned himself squarely against the leadership of the
FBI and Department of Justice on Friday ahead of the possible release of
a highly controversial Republican memo alleging the FBI abused its
surveillance tools, claiming the government agencies "politicized the
sacred investigative process in favor of Democrats and against
Republicans."
Trump,
by accusing the leadership of having a bias against Republicans, is
once again maligning people he appointed to their roles, including FBI
Director Christopher Wray, a man Trump nominated after he fired former
FBI Director James Comey in May.
The
tweet also puts Trump squarely on the side of Republican lawmakers who
view the memo, which was penned by House Intelligence Chairman Devin
Nunes and approved for release by the House committee earlier this week,
as a document that shows evidence of nefarious motives atop the FBI.
"The
top Leadership and Investigators of the FBI and the Justice Department
have politicized the sacred investigative process in favor of Democrats
and against Republicans - something which would have been unthinkable
just a short time ago," Trump wrote. "Rank & File are great people!"
The
tweet is especially notable since Trump once argued the FBI's
mistreatment of a Democrat, Hillary Clinton, in its handling of the
investigation into her email server led him to fire Comey. The
President, however, would later say that he considered "this Russia
thing" before dismissing the FBI director.
The
President's tweet also ignores the fact that many senior people
involved in the investigation, including Wray, former FBI Deputy
Director Andrew McCabe, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, Director
of National Intelligence Dan Coats and Comey, are all longtime
Republicans.
Trump has signaled for
days that he is inclined to release the memo and told a lawmaker who
urged him to publish it on Tuesday that he shouldn't worry.
The
fight over the memo has put the President at odds with his top law
enforcement officials, who have urged the White House to reconsider
releasing the document.
Top White
House aides are worried Wray could quit if the highly controversial
Republican memo alleging the FBI abused its surveillance tools is
released, multiple sources with knowledge of the situation told CNN.
Trump
reviewed the memo on Wednesday, White House officials told CNN, and
discussed it with his chief of staff, John Kelly, and the White House
counsel's office.
In recent phone
calls, Trump has told friends he believes the memo would expose bias
within the FBI's top ranks and make it easier for him to argue the
Russia investigations -- primarily the inquiry led by special counsel
Robert Mueller -- are prejudiced against him, according to two sources.
The
memo is expected to accuse the Department of Justice and FBI of abusing
the FISA surveillance program during the 2016 campaign, including how
they used material from the unverified dossier written by Christopher
Steele, a former British intelligence officer, as part of their
application to secure court approval of surveillance of Carter Page, a
Trump campaign foreign policy adviser.
CNN previously reported in April that the FBI used part of the dossier to win approval to secretly monitor Page.
Republicans
have already begun using the Nunes memo to discredit Mueller's
investigation into potential Trump campaign connections to Russian
meddling in the 2016 election.
Democrats have claimed that the document is nothing more than an attempt to undercut Mueller's investigation.
"There's
no evidence of a corrupt evidence to obtain warrants against people in
the Trump campaign," Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House
Intelligence Committee, said Friday. "That's been the President's
narrative, but there's no evidence of that."
Trump,
though, has appeared undeterred on releasing the memo. Though aides
claimed the decision to approve the document would be made after a
thorough interagency review led by the White House counsel's office and
the National Security Council, Trump was eager to release it before he
even read the document.
"Don't worry, 100%"
Trump told Rep. Duncan Hunter on Tuesday after the lawmaker urged him to
release the document. "Can you imagine?"
Trump
has been subject to a public and private pressure campaign on the memo,
too. Lawmakers, informal advisers and even his own son have publicly
called for the document to be released in full, without any redactions.
House
Speaker Paul Ryan has supported the plan to release the Nunes memo, but
has said the document is a "completely separate matter from Bob
Mueller's investigation and his investigation should be allowed to take
its course."
Ryan also said Friday
morning, as the release of the memo loomed, that he is in favor of
releasing a Democratic memo penned in response to the Nunes document.
"The
speaker is in favor of greater transparency," Ryan spokeswoman AshLee
Strong said in a statement. "If it is scrubbed to ensure it does not
reveal sources and methods of our intelligence gathering, the speaker
supports the release of the Democrats' memo."
