{"id":10502,"date":"2018-02-01T06:21:40","date_gmt":"2018-02-01T11:21:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=10502"},"modified":"2018-02-01T06:21:40","modified_gmt":"2018-02-01T11:21:40","slug":"trump-russia-republicans-accused-tampering-memo-fbi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2018\/02\/01\/trump-russia-republicans-accused-tampering-memo-fbi\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Russia: Republicans accused of tampering with memo on FBI"},"content":{"rendered":"

The top Democrat on the US House Intelligence Committee has accused Republicans of tampering with a memo about FBI spying at the 2016 election.<\/p>\n

Adam Schiff said Republicans had changed the text after it was voted on.<\/p>\n

The secret document was passed by the Republican-dominated committee but needs approval from President Donald Trump to be made public.<\/p>\n

It is believed to accuse the FBI of abusing its surveillance powers to target the Trump campaign.<\/p>\n

Concerns about its contents were raised by the FBI itself which complained of “material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo’s accuracy”.<\/p>\n

Democrats fear the document may be an attempt to discredit the inquiry into Trump campaign links to Russia, which is being led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.<\/p>\n

If Mr Trump gives his approval, the memo may be released later on Thursday.<\/p>\n

What do we know about the memo’s contents?<\/h2>\n

The four-page document was compiled by staffers for House Intelligence Committee head Devin Nunes, a member of Mr Trump’s Republican party.<\/p>\n

It apparently accuses the Department of Justice (DoJ) and the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) of abusing a programme known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (Fisa) during the presidential election campaign.<\/p>\n

The allegation is that the FBI spied on a member of Mr Trump’s campaign on the basis of unproven accusations against Mr Trump known as the “Russian dossier”.<\/p>\n

That dossier was compiled by former UK intelligence agent Christopher Steele with money financed in part from Hillary Clinton’s campaign.<\/p>\n

Following his State of the Union speech on Tuesday night, Mr Trump was heard telling a Republican lawmaker he was “100%” for releasing the document.<\/p>\n

Were the changes to the memo significant?<\/h2>\n

According to Mr Schiff, the text approved by the committee on Monday is not the same as that given to the White House.<\/p>\n

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BREAKING: Discovered late tonight that Chairman Nunes made material changes to the memo he sent to White House \u2013 changes not approved by the Committee. White House therefore reviewing a document the Committee has not approved for release.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Mr Nunes sent a version of the memo that was “materially altered”, the Democrat said. He gave no details.<\/p>\n

Quoted by Reuters news agency, a spokesman for Mr Nunes described the changes to the memo as minor, including two edits requested by the FBI and Democrats themselves.<\/p>\n

Mr Schiff’s allegation was, the spokesman added, an “increasingly strange attempt to thwart publication”.<\/p>\n

What does the FBI say?<\/h2>\n

In a rare statement, the agency said it had had “limited opportunity” to review the document<\/a>\u00a0before the committee voted to release it on Monday.<\/p>\n

“We are committed to working with the appropriate oversight entities to ensure the continuing integrity of the Fisa process,” it added.<\/p>\n

The DoJ has said it would be “extraordinarily reckless” to release the memo.<\/p>\n

How are relations between Mr Trump and the FBI?<\/h2>\n

Trump officials say the memo proves his allegation that he has been treated unfairly by the FBI.<\/p>\n

Devin Nunes, who served on the Trump team during his White House transition, said it was “no surprise” the FBI had objected to the memo’s release.<\/p>\n

“It’s no surprise to see the FBI and DoJ issue spurious objections to allowing the American people to see information related to surveillance abuses at these agencies,” he said.<\/p>\n

After firing FBI director James Comey last year, Mr Trump reportedly asked his temporary replacement, Andrew McCabe, how he had voted in the 2016 presidential election.<\/p>\n

Mr McCabe resigned last month as Mr Trump accused him of pro-Democratic bias<\/a>. He had been planning to retire in March.<\/p>\n

In December, Mr Trump reportedly challenged Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Mr Mueller, over his loyalties.\u00a0He wanted to know whether Mr Rosenstein was “on my team”, CNN reports.<\/a><\/p>\n

Mr Schiff suggested the White House would use the memo, if released, to fire Mr Mueller or Mr Rosenstein.<\/p>\n

Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat on the Senate Intelligence committee, said the Republicans were clearly trying to “undermine the special counsel’s investigation”.<\/p>\n

Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The top Democrat on the US House Intelligence Committee has accused Republicans of tampering with a memo about FBI spying at the 2016 election. Adam Schiff said Republicans had changed the text after it was […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4270,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[109,2,3],"tags":[4763,3646,285,1172,4764,3649,442,4762],"class_list":{"0":"post-10502","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headline","8":"category-news","9":"category-usa","10":"tag-christopher-steele","11":"tag-department-of-justice","12":"tag-donald-trump","13":"tag-fbi","14":"tag-foreign-intelligence-surveillance-act","15":"tag-robert-mueller","16":"tag-russia","17":"tag-us-house-intelligence-committee","18":"pmpro-has-access"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10502"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10502\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10503,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10502\/revisions\/10503"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}