The Director of the F.B.I. has openly challenged the White House not to release the secret memo that allegedly shows, according to the New York Times, the Justice Department abused its authority in investigating the Russia story.
“The F.B.I. was provided a limited opportunity to review this memo the day before the committee voted to release it,” Wray said in a rare public statement. “As expressed during our initial review, we have grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo’s accuracy.”
The director, along with the Deputy Attorney General, Rod Rosenstein, made a last-ditch appeal with a personal appearance at the White House but the Chief of Staff, John Kelly, later said the memo would be released “pretty quick.”
Donald Trump said last night he was 100% behind the release of the memo despite the fact that he hadn’t, at the time, read it.
The White House is pulling out all the stops to sow confusion and raise questions as to the validity of Robert Mueller’s investigation. According to Democrats who’ve seen the memo, it was cobbled together by Republican staff members who cherry-picked facts to make a case.
Understand that the F.B.I. has long prided itself on its independence and freedom from political pressure. Now you have the White House and Congress both openly questioning the Bureau’s investigations and its integrity.