President Donald Trump walks across the South Lawn upon return to the White House on Feb. 1, 2018.AFP / Getty Images
U.S. President Donald Trump is on the verge of defying the express wishes of his own Federal Bureau of Investigation by approving the release of a secret Republican memo that alleges wrongdoing by law-enforcement officials in connection with the Russia investigation.
Mr. Trump is likely to authorize the release of the memo on Friday, a senior administration official told reporters, which would allow the House Intelligence Committee to share it with the public soon afterward.
The memo reportedly alleges that prosecutors and agents omitted key information when they sought to initiate surveillance on Carter Page, a Trump campaign adviser. Mr. Page's contacts with Russians are under scrutiny as part of the probe into possible interference by the Kremlin in the 2016 elections.
Mr. Trump is moving ahead with the release of the memo despite objections from officials at the FBI and the Justice Department who say it is inaccurate and could compromise intelligence gathering.
Mr. Trump lashed out Friday at the FBI and Justice Department on Twitter: "The top Leadership and Investigators of the FBI and the Justice Department have politicized the sacred investigative process in favour of Democrats and against Republicans – something which would have been unthinkable just a short time ago. Rank & File are great people!"
The top Leadership and Investigators of the FBI and the Justice Department have politicized the sacred investigative process in favor of Democrats and against Republicans - something which would have been unthinkable just a short time ago. Rank & File are great people!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 2, 2018
Democrats have assailed the document as a political ploy and sought to make public a rebuttal, but they were blocked by Republican lawmakers.
Now, a handful of Republicans are also voicing misgivings about the race to publicize the memo. On Thursday, Senator Jon Thune of South Dakota urged his colleagues in the House to proceed with caution. "They need to pay careful attention to what our folks who protect us have to say about how this bears on our national security," said Mr. Thune, according to the Associated Press.
The push to release the memo is seen as part of a broader effort by Mr. Trump and his allies to discredit the Russia investigation headed by special counsel Robert Mueller. Mr. Trump views the probe as a politically motivated "witch hunt" and reportedly sought to remove Mr. Mueller from his post last year.
Federal prosecutors have filed criminal charges against four Trump advisers – including his former campaign chairman and former national security adviser – as part of the Russia investigation. Two of them have pleaded guilty to lying to investigators about their contacts with individuals linked to the Kremlin.
Mr. Trump's willingness to make the memo public opens an extraordinary divide between a president and his own law-enforcement apparatus. On Wednesday, FBI director Christopher Wray authorized the bureau to make an unusual public statement on the controversy. The FBI has "grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo's accuracy," the statement said.
Last week, Stephen Boyd, a senior Justice Department official appointed by Mr. Trump, wrote a letter to lawmakers stating that releasing the memo without allowing law-enforcement officials to advise them of the risks would be "extraordinarily reckless."
On Thursday, CNN reported that White House officials were concerned that Mr. Wray might resign if Mr. Trump went ahead with the release of the memo. Mr. Wray was appointed by Mr. Trump last year after the President fired his predecessor, James Comey.
The four-page memo reportedly alleges that law-enforcement officials improperly relied on a dossier prepared by a former British spy, Christopher Steele, to justify their request to initiate surveillance on Mr. Page, the Trump campaign adviser. Mr. Steele was engaged to generate opposition research on Mr. Trump by a firm that was hired first by a rival conservative group and then by the campaign of his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.
But experts say that such surveillance applications – which are granted by a secret court established for that purpose – are lengthy and do not rely on a single source of information. The memo also reportedly criticizes Rod Rosenstein, the number two official at the Justice Department, who appointed Mr. Mueller and oversees the Russia probe.
Mr. Trump and his allies are painting the FBI and the Justice Department – which tend to lean toward the conservative side of politics – as "part of some vast, left-wing, deep-state conspiracy," said Stephen Vladeck, an expert on national security law at the University of Texas. That notion is "preposterous."
The more alarming problem, added Prof. Vladeck, is the "increasing insinuation that there is no institution in America that is above politics."
Republican lawmakers, led by Devin Nunes, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, have said the release of the memo is necessary in order to bring to light serious concerns about the behaviour of law-enforcement officials (one Republican lawmaker who read the memo called it "worse than Watergate.")
Mr. Nunes is a close ally of Mr. Trump's and a former member of the President's transition team. Last year, Mr. Nunes had to step aside from Russia-related matters and submit to an ethics investigation after he co-ordinated with the White House to advance claims – without any basis – of improper wiretapping by former president Barack Obama.