Senior Democrats have warned US President Donald Trump not to use a compromised memo as a basis to fire the special counsel that is investigating the alleged involvement of Russia in the US presidential election. The Democrats warned that such an action could trigger a constitutional crisis that hasn’t been seen since the Nixon era. The memo, which was written by Republicans claims that the FBI abused its powers. Donald Trump approved the declassification of the memo and said that it discloses a disgraceful story.
The Republican memo accuses the FBI as well as the Justice Department of using an uncorroborated and Democrat-funded report to obtain a warrant that gave the go-ahead to spy on an aide to President Trump. Democrats said that the release of the memo was maliciously done to disrupt the ongoing investigations into alleged ties between the Trump Campaign and the Kremlin. President Donald Trump has constantly denied the allegations of collusion. The FBI had warned against the release of the memo, saying that many key facts had been omitted.
The Democrats’ Opinion
Leaders of the Democratic Party insist that the memo that was released on Friday is a “shameful effort to discredit” the FBI and inquiries into Russia’s involvement in the presidential election. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Nancy Pelosi and eight other senior Democrats in a statement warned the President against trying to fire special counsel Robert Mueller or the deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein. In the statement, the Democrat leaders wrote that they write to inform President Trump that they considered such a verdict as an attempt to obstruct justice in the ongoing Russia investigation. They added that such an act could lead to a constitutional crisis that has not been seen since the 1970s when the then President Richard Nixon gave commands to sack justice officials involved in the Watergate scandal. The White House later decided that no charges would be imposed on the Department of Justice and Mr. Rosenstein was expected to carry on his job.
The Democrats have drafted their own 10-page rebuttal memo showing that the FBI was more than obliging with the surveillance court than the Republicans led on. According to anonymous officials quoted by the US media, the FBI and justice department, in fact, told the court that information it received from Steele was politically motivated.
