Democrat memo: how it compares to Republican account of Russia election meddling
The Democrat document attempts to undercut and add context to some of the main points from a declassified Republican memo that was released earlier this month that took aim at the FBI and the US Justice Department
It’s a war of the memos.
Both declassified memos focus on how the FBI and US Justice Department applied to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court soon before the 2016 election for a warrant to eavesdrop on Carter Page, an energy consultant who had served as a foreign policy adviser for the Trump campaign.
The surveillance started in October 2016, soon after Page left the campaign in the wake of questions about his Russian contacts.
But the duelling memos offer starkly different conclusions as to whether the warrant was justified.
Republicans claim they uncovered scandalously improper surveillance, and Democrats say law enforcement officials acted appropriately to conduct a counter-intelligence investigation into Russian meddling in the campaign.