President Trump Considers Release Of Russia Memo
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WASHINGTON (CBSMiami) - A classified memo that alleges the FBI and Justice Department went too far in its surveillance of Trump campaign officials as part of an investigation into Russian interference in the presidential election will not be released on Thursday.
The plan now is for the White House to return the memo, with redactions approved in consultation with the FBI, to the House Intelligence Committee on Friday.
The memo, which was written by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, alleges that the FBI and DOJ used unverified information in a court document to fuel a counterintelligence investigation on Trump campaign officials, especially the monitoring of Carter Page - a campaign foreign adviser.
FBI Director Christopher Wray personally pushed to stop the memo from being released, saying it contains inaccuracies and a slanted narrative.
"If the White House decides to release the Nunes memo, Director Wray is prepared to issue a rebuttal," said CBS News Sr. National Security Analyst Fran Townsend.
Congressman Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, says Republicans fundamentally changed the memo's content before delivering it to the White House. He said the memo is not the same one the intelligence committee voted to released and it should be recalled and re-voted on before its made public.
A spokesman for Nunes refuted the claim saying the changes were "minor edits including grammatical fixes and two changes requested by the FBI and Democrats."
Democrats say the changes watered down some of Nunes previous assertions.
Congressman Nunes responded to the F-B-I's objections calling them "spurious."
Wednesday night, as he was leaving the State of the Union speech, President Trump said he was committed to making the memo public.
"Oh yeah, don't worry, 100 percent," he said
When asked, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly said that he expects it to be released 'pretty quick'
