The US House Intelligence Committee has voted along party lines to release a classified memo that Republicans say shows anti-Trump bias by the FBI and the Justice Department in seeking a warrant to conduct an intelligence eavesdropping operation.
In approving the release under a rule never before invoked, the Republican majority ignored a warning from Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd that making the document public would be "extraordinarily reckless" without submitting it to a security review.
The move added new fuel to bitter partisan wrangling over investigations by congressional committees and Special Counsel Robert Mueller into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
Calling it a "sad day" for the intelligence committee, top Democratic Representative Adam Schiff said the panel also voted against releasing a Democratic memo that countered the Republican report and rejected his call for a briefing by Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray.
"Today this committee voted to put the president's personal interest, perhaps their own political interests, above the national interest," Schiff said.
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The memo was commissioned by Representative Devin Nunes, the committee's Republican chairman. A Nunes spokesman did not immediately respond for a request for a statement.
The Department of Justice declined comment.
Two sources familiar with the memo said it accuses the FBI and the Justice Department of abusing their authority in asking a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judge to approve a request to extend an eavesdropping operation on Carter Page, an adviser to Trump's 2016 campaign.
