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Amid growing partisan rancor over the investigation of possible
collusion between President Donald Trump's campaign and Moscow,
many of Trump's fellow Republicans have been clamoring for the
release of a classified memorandum commissioned by Republicans,
which they say shows anti-Trump bias at the U.S. Department of
Justice.
Democrats have criticized that memo as "highly misleading"
talking points intended to undermine the investigation led by
Special Counsel Robert Mueller into Trump and his associates.
They accused Republicans of inappropriately releasing classified
information by allowing every House of Representatives member to
read it.
Moscow denies attempting to influence the presidential election.
Trump denies any collusion.
"Regrettably, it has been necessary for Committee Democrats to
draft our own memorandum, setting out the relevant facts and
exposing the misleading character of the Republicans' document
so that members of the House are not left with an erroneous
impression of the dedicated professionals at the FBI and DOJ,"
Representative Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat, said in a
statement.
The dispute has fueled doubts about whether the House panel's
investigation has become too politicized to produce a credible
report. House Intelligence is one of three congressional
committees looking into the issue, along with the Senate
Intelligence and Senate Judiciary Committees.
Schiff said panel Democrats will ask that their memorandum be
made available for review by all House members on Monday at the
committee's normally scheduled meeting.
A spokesman for Representative Devin Nunes, the panel's
Republican chairman, who commissioned the Republican memo, did
not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A top Justice Department official told Nunes in a letter on
Wednesday that allegations of impropriety at the department are
unfounded, according to a senior U.S. official.
"We believe it would be extraordinarily reckless for the
Committee to disclose such information publicly without giving
the Department and the FBI the opportunity to review the
memorandum and to advise the (committee) of the risk of harm to
national security and to ongoing investigations that could come
from the public release," Assistant Attorney General Stephen
Boyd said in the letter.
"Indeed, we do not understand why the Committee would possibly
seek to disclose classified and law enforcement sensitive
information without first consulting with the relevant members
of the Intelligence Community," the letter said.
The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that some conservative
House Republicans had discussed the Republican memo and their
plans to release it with Trump.
Schiff and Senator Dianne Feinstein called on Twitter Inc
<TWTR.N> and Facebook Inc <FB.O> on Tuesday to investigate
accounts promoting the Republican memo that were reportedly
linked to a Russian influence operation.
Separately, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee asked
its Republican chairman, Chuck Grassley, to share with Mueller
transcripts of its interviews in the Russia investigation.
Aides to Grassley did not immediately respond to a request for
comment.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; additional reporting by Mark
Hosenball; editing by Grant McCool)
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