President Donald Trump accused the country’s top law enforcement officials of political bias against the Republican Party and his administration in a tweet he sent early Friday morning. The tweet came just hours before the expected release of a memo commissioned by G.O.P. lawmakers that chronicles the F.B.I.’s purported abuses of its surveillance authorities during the 2016 presidential campaign.
“The top Leadership and Investigators of the FBI and the Justice Department have politicized the sacred investigative process in favor of Democrats and against Republicans — something which would have been unthinkable just a short time ago,” Trump tweeted. “Rank and file are great people!”
It is the latest marker of the rift between the president and the justice officials he appointed. Amidst the ongoing Department of Justice investigation into Russian involvement in the 2016 presidential election, Trump — and a good number of his Republican allies in Congress — have accused these officials of political bias and ulterior motive.
The memo, spearheaded by House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Devin Nunes of California, is said to describe the F.B.I.’s unlawful wiretapping of Carter Page, a former Trump campaign advisor. Republicans have called on Trump this week to release the memo.
“This stinks to high heaven,” North Carolina Republican Rep. Mark Meadows, the chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, tweeted on Jan. 23. “If this is anything what it looks like — the FBI changing course on investigation, putting their thumb on the scale to undermine Donald Trump and essentially help Hillary Clinton — that is as wrong as it gets. This demands further investigation.”
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