Trump Promises ‘Letter’ on Democratic Russia Memo

WASHINGTON — 

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday declined to say whether he would authorize the release of a Democratic rebuttal to a Republican memo alleging FBI abuses of power during a probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Speaking from the Oval Office, Trump instead promised to soon release a "letter" on the memo. Trump must decide by the end of Friday whether to declassify the memo, written by Democrats on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

Trump last week authorized the release of the Republican version of the memo, which claimed the FBI improperly obtained a warrant to spy on Carter Page, a former Trump campaign adviser, and his connections to Russia.

One of the issues is whether and to what extent the FBI relied on a dossier, compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele and funded in part by the Hillary Clinton campaign, as evidence to secure the surveillance warrant from a federal judge.

The Republican memo said the dossier formed an "essential part" of the warrant application, but doesn’t mention what other evidence, if any, was used. The GOP memo also suggested the FBI did not sufficiently disclose the political nature of the dossier and its author.

Democratic lawmakers contend the Republican-approved statement "cherry-picks" information and overstates the importance of the Steele dossier in the FBI warrant application.

White House officials have suggested, but not promised, that Trump will release the Democratic memo. Some have called for the original FISA application to be released to clear up the confusion.

Trump has said the Republican memo "totally vindicates" him of wrongdoing in the ongoing investigation into Russian meddling in the election and whether he obstructed justice in trying to limit the probe.

But the Republican document also noted that the investigation started months before the Page warrant request, when FBI agents began looking into another Trump adviser, George Papadopoulos.

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