GOP releases memo suggesting FBI anti-Trump bias

WASHINGTON—Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee released on Friday the controversial memo detailing what they call the FBI’s anti-Trump bias at the start of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. President Donald Trump declassified the memo earlier Friday, and GOP lawmakers promptly published it. The document recounts the series of events in 2016 that launched the Justice Department’s investigation into Russian election hacking and possible connections to the Trump campaign. According to the document, FBI investigators relied heavily on a dossier from British intelligence officer Christopher Steele when they authorized surveillance of people connected to Trump. The Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign paid Steele $160,000 to compile derogatory information about Trump and his relationship with Russian officials, according to the Republican memo. The memo asserts Steele “was desperate that Donald Trump not get elected” and the FBI should not have used the dossier as a basis for its investigation and subsequent surveillance authorizations. “I think it’s a disgrace,” the president said of the alleged FBI bias. “A lot of people should be ashamed of themselves.” Democrats, some Republicans, and the Justice Department itself urged Trump not to authorize the release of the memo, fearing the partisan document could undermine the work of intelligence officers during an ongoing probe. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, warned the memo would only bolster Russian President Vladimir Putin. “Our nation’s elected officials, including the president, must stop looking at this investigation through the warped lens of politics and manufacturing partisan sideshows,” he said in a statement. “If we continue to undermine our own rule of law, we are doing Putin’s job for him.”