Democrats say the FBI assessed Trump associate to be Russian agent

Congressman Adam Schiff, (D), the ranking member of the House Committee on Intelligence. Photo / AP

Democrats on the US House Intelligence Committee have defended official investigations into claims of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election in a party memo.

The 10-page, partially-redacted document, which was posted to the panel's website today, sharply criticised a previously released Republican memo as a "transparent effort to undermine" investigations by the FBI, Justice Department and Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

The memo defends the FBI's obtaining of warrants to conduct temporary surveillance of Carter Page, an associate of President Donald Trump's election campaign, whom the Democrats say "the FBI assessed to be an agent of the Russian government".

The move comes after weeks of discussions with the Justice Department.

The White House on February 10 objected to its release, citing national security concerns.

That sent the Democrats back to negotiations with the FBI over how much of the memo needed to be blacked out.

US President Donald Trump had no such concerns about an earlier classified memo written by Republicans, which he declassified on February 3 over strong objections from the FBI.

In that memo, Republicans took aim at the FBI and the Justice Department over the use of information from former British spy Christopher Steele in obtaining a secret warrant to monitor Page.

The top Democrat on the intelligence panel, California Congressman Adam Schiff, had criticised Trump for treating the two documents differently. But he still pledged to work with the FBI on redactions.

House intelligence committee Democratic memo is released and says FBI assessed Carter Page, a Trump campaign adviser, to be a Russian agent: pic.twitter.com/kgrshZ0cBz

— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) February 24, 2018

Rep. Devin Nunes says he welcomes the release of the Democratic memo that seeks to undercut his own, adding that it includes "really interesting things that sound really bad," but nothing that "actually rejects what was in our memo" https://t.co/EaRjX2nydf https://t.co/wl0qlGTFcU

— CNN (@CNN) February 24, 2018

- Reuters, AAP, AP