Washington, Feb. 3 (TNS): The US Congress has released a memo accusing the FBI of abusing its power in its investigations into Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
The memo, commissioned by Republicans, alleges the FBI used unsubstantiated evidence to spy on a Trump aide.
Approving its release, Mr Trump called the memo a “disgrace”.
But Democrats say it is aimed at derailing investigations into Mr Trump, while the FBI says key facts have been omitted.
Controversy over the memo has raged for days.
Approved by the House Intelligence Committee on Monday and by Mr Trump on Friday, the document raises “concerns with the legitimacy and legality” of the handling by the justice department and the FBI of requests for surveillance warrants against a Trump aide called Carter Page.
It says this represents “a troubling breakdown of legal processes established to protect the American people from abuses”.
The memo argues that the FBI and justice department did not tell the judge that some of their justification for the warrant relied on a much-disputed dossier, funded in part by the rival Hillary Clinton campaign.
Compiled by a former British intelligence agent, Christopher Steele, that dossier was financed in part through the campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to dig up data on alleged links between Mr Trump’s campaign and Russia.
Before the election, the memo says, Mr Steele told a senior justice department official that he was “desperate” that Donald Trump not win the vote.
