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Eco Pirates

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February 3, 2018
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DOCU

DRAMA

A intelligence memo is photographed in Washington, Friday, Feb. 2, 2018. Associated Press
Trump says Russia-probe memo proves bias; Dems say no

By ERIC TUCKER, MARY CLARE JALONICK and case — and Trump’s — that abuses in the early ate and that federal authorities concealed the
CHAD DAY stages of the FBI’s investigation made it worse full details of who was paying for the informa-
Associated Press than worthless. tion.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Claiming vindication The Democrats, having none of it, said the four- The disclosure of the document is extraordinary
and straining to derail the Russia probe, Presi- page memo merely cherry-picks Republican since it involves details about surveillance of
dent Donald Trump declassified a top secret talking points in an effort to smear law enforce- Americans, national security information the
congressional memo Friday, and suggested ment and undercut the current federal investi- government regards as among its most highly
it proved the investigation of his presidential gation by special counsel Robert Mueller. Rep. classified. Its release is likely to further escalate
campaign was fatally flawed. Democrats said Adam Schiff, the committee’s top Democrat, an intra-government conflict that has divide
the document did nothing to clear him or his said the GOP document “mischaracterizes the White House and his hand-picked law en-
campaign, and the FBI called the memo inac- highly sensitive classified information” and its forcement leaders.
curate and incomplete. release “will do long-term damage to the intel- Trump, who lashed out at the FBI and Justice
Butting heads just as they had before the ligence community and our law enforcement Department Friday morning, refused to express
memo’s release, Trump and his critics stuck to agencies.” confidence in Deputy Attorney General Rod
the positions they had staked out in the weeks The memo’s central premise is that the FBI relied Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller and is men-
leading up to the hotly disputed release of the excessively on anti-Trump research funded by tioned by name in the memo.
memo prepared by Republicans on the House Democrats in seeking a warrant to monitor the
intelligence committee. The memo makes their communications of a Trump campaign associ- Continued on Page 3