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Trump Says FBI and Justice Department Have ‘Politicized’ Investigative Process

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Friday that the top officials and investigators at the FBI and Justice Department had “politicized the sacred investigative process,” hours before the White House is expected to clear the way for Congress to release a controversial memo that is said to describe a bias among senior officials in the agencies.

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By
EILEEN SULLIVAN
, New York Times

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Friday that the top officials and investigators at the FBI and Justice Department had “politicized the sacred investigative process,” hours before the White House is expected to clear the way for Congress to release a controversial memo that is said to describe a bias among senior officials in the agencies.

The early-morning Twitter post reinforced reports that Trump, in allowing the memo to be released, is seeking to clean house in the upper ranks of the FBI and the Justice Department, even at the risk of losing his own FBI director, Christopher A. Wray. Earlier this week, Wray made an unusual public plea not to release the document, which could reveal classified sources and methods.

Blaming senior government officials for favoring Democratics over Republicans is among the main themes in the memo, according to people who have seen it. The memo is said to accuse federal law enforcement officials of abusing their authorities when they sought permission to surveil former Trump campaign adviser, Carter Page.

Trump had an opportunity to block the memo, which his own top national security officials have requested because of national security concerns. But a senior administration official said that the president was expected to tell Congress on Friday that the memo could be released without redactions. The document was written by aides to Rep. Devin Nunes of California, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee who has been an avid supporter of Trump.

Democrats who have seen the memo say it is a Republican attempt to push a narrative that would undercut the investigation into Russia’s 2016 election meddling and possible coordination with the Trump campaign.

In response to Trump’s Twitter post Friday, Rep. Adam B. Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said it is unthinkable that the top elected official in the United States would release classified information to attack the FBI.

Trump has consistently criticized the FBI and the Justice Department while asking senior officials for loyalty. The president has also denounced the Russian investigation and called it a hoax and a witch hunt.

Speaker Paul Ryan told reporters Thursday that the memo was not an attempt to undercut the Russia investigation. Instead, he described it as Congress carrying out its oversight role.

“This memo is not an indictment of the FBI, of the Department of Justice. It does not impugn the Mueller investigation or the deputy attorney general,” he said, referring to Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating the Russian election meddling and whether Trump obstructed justice.

Republicans who have seen the memo say it described a political bias that influenced a key decision in the early stages of the Russia investigation.

Page was on the radar of intelligence agencies for years when Trump named him to be one of his foreign policy advisers in 2016. He had visited Moscow in July 2016 and was preparing to return there that December when investigators obtained the warrant. White House officials have described Page as a gadfly who had been “put on notice” by the campaign and whom Trump did not know.

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