In his first response to the release of the formerly classified Republican memo, United States President Donald Trump took on to Twitter on Saturday, where he claimed that the memo released “totally vindicates” him.
Trump’s fellow Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives released on Friday a previously classified memo that portrays senior officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Justice Department as being biased against him in the federal investigation into potential collusion between his 2016 presidential campaign and Russia.
The memo raised questions about what its Republican authors called “the legitimacy and legality” of FBI and Justice Department interactions, with a special court to gain permission to eavesdrop on former Trump campaign advisor Carter Page, an oil industry consultant with numerous contacts in Russia. It cited “a troubling breakdown of legal processes established to protect the American people from abuses” related to the court, set up under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
A remaining issue is whether Trump uses the memo as rational for firing Deputy U.S. Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Special Counsel Robert Mueller in May 2017 after the president fired FBI Director James Comey, and oversees Mueller’s work.
Democrats said the memo mischaracterises highly sensitive classified information as part of a coordinated propaganda effort to discredit the FBI and Justice Department, and terminate Mueller’s investigation, which potentially threatens Trump’s presidency.
