"You think about, 'Is this happening in America or is this the KGB?' That's how alarming it is", he said.

Where did the memo come from?

House Republicans have released an anticipated memo alleging surveillance abuses by the FBI in its investigation of Russian influence in President Donald Trump's campaign.

What most concerns me today is that a foreign adversary attacked our democracy in 2016, suffered no consequences, and is poised to do it again.

On Twitter, Comey urged his former colleagues to "take heart: American history shows that, in the long run, weasels and liars never hold the field, so long as good people stand up".

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi, and eight other key Democrats also issued a statement addressed to Trump after the release of the memo.

Mr. Ohr was well aware of Steele's anti-Trump purpose and the unreliability of the evidence, but the court was told none of this.

Los Angeles Times The memo was classified as top secret.

Other Republicans, however, defended the decision, saying the information needed to be released to the public in order to ensure full transparency.

Nunes has insisted that it is neither cherry-picked nor partisan, and House speaker Paul Ryan underlined that the memo is not part of a battle against law enforcement. Trump had five days to object to its release, but he declassified it on Friday.

A decent respect for the larger issues involved should prompt members of all parties to call for cooperation and openness. What's more effective is to fire Bob Mueller's boss. Ohr later provided the FBI with his wife's opposition research, the memo says.

Page, according to news reports, had been a subject of FBI interest for at least three years before the dossier came out; a 2015 court case included intercepted 2013 exchanges in which Russian spies discussed efforts to recruit Page.

Is that a big deal?

There are numerous reasons for suspicion of the memo's claims. And last month, Andrew McCabe admitted in closed-door testimony to the intelligence committee that without the Steele dossier, there would have been no FISA application. These sorts of warrants aren't handed out by federal judges like candy at Halloween. "We are not weasels".

In that way, allowing the memo's release was a clumsy political move on Trump's part.

"Y'all know the dossier wasn't the only evidence used to get a warrant?"

"None of this is true", the Democrats said. Indeed, the FBI used journalism funded by Steve Bannon to investigate Hillary Clinton.

"I doubt there will be any redactions". The constant harassment of the Justice Department by various Republicans, especially those on the House Intelligence committee, should be viewed as obstruction of justice.

WASHINGTON-"This is earth-shaking. It's worse than Watergate", said Iowa Rep. Steve King.

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, called the decision "reckless and demonstrates an astonishing disregard for the truth".

The much-anticipated memo from Rep. Devin Nunes does not definitively answer whether the FBI engaged in any misconduct.

He said the agency's special agents remain professional and focused on protecting the US from terrorists and criminals.

The Washington Post's Jennifer Rubin - who presents herself as belonging to the right - described the memo as a "nothingburger", linking to a Friday-published op-ed of hers in which she advances the narrative of "Russian meddling in the 2016 election" as axiomatic.

It reminded us which Republicans (hello, Thom Tillis and Richard Burr) are willing to meekly watch them do so.

The memo apparently accuses the Department of Justice (DoJ) and the FBI of abusing a surveillance programme known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (Fisa) during the election campaign.