The White House is likely to give Congress approval to make public a secret Republican memo alleging FBI bias against President Donald Trump in its Russia probe, a White House official says, as tensions over the disputed document grip Washington.
Trump, who had the authority to prevent its release, instead is likely to allow the four-page document to be made public on Friday with no redactions, the official said, in a move that could further heighten tensions between the Republican president and the top domestic law enforcement agency.
The document has become a flashpoint in a wider battle between Republicans and Democrats over Special Counsel Robert Mueller's criminal probe into potential collusion between Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and Russia.
Mueller's probe grew out of the FBI's Russia investigation after Trump fired the agency's previous director.
Democrats have painted the memo crafted by Republican members of the House Intelligence Committee as misleading, based on a selective use of highly classified data and intended to discredit Mueller's work.
The FBI on Wednesday expressed "grave concerns about material omissions of fact" in the memo, whose release has the potential to prompt high-level resignations in US law enforcement agencies.
One top Republican lawmaker, Senator John Thune, on Thursday voiced concern that release of the document without redactions could expose US intelligence agencies' sources and methods.
"We have had the last couple of days to look at it to make sure it doesn't give away too much in terms of classification. And right now I think ... we'll tell the Congress, probably tomorrow (Friday), that the president is OK with it," the White House official told reporters on Air Force One as Trump returned to Washington from a Republican retreat in West Virginia.
In addition to the concern expressed by the FBI, whose director Christopher Wray was appointed by Trump after he fired predecessor James Comey, the Justice Department also has registered concerns about making the memo public.
Thune, the Senate's No 3 Republican, urged his House colleagues to allow the Senate Intelligence Committee to review the memo and heed the FBI's concerns before they made it public.
Democrats have said Trump's allies hope to use the memo to potentially give Trump an excuse to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who hired Mueller after Comey's firing, or even Mueller himself.
But Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan defended the document's release, saying it was part of congressional oversight of electronic surveillance such as that used in the Russia probe and important to protect American civil liberties.
'NOT AN INDICTMENT'
"This memo is not an indictment of the FBI, of the Department of Justice. It does not impugn the Mueller investigation or the deputy attorney general," Ryan said.
The memo was commissioned by Republican Devin Nunes, chairman of the House intelligence committee, and purports to show that the FBI and Justice Department misled a US court in seeking to extend electronic surveillance of Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, four sources familiar with it have said.
Intelligence committee Democrats wrote their own memo that panel Republicans prevented from being released at the same time. Thune said if the Republican memo is released, the Democratic one should be, too.
Mueller's investigation and the FBI probe that preceded it have hung over Trump's year-old presidency. Russia and Trump have both denied any collusion. The president has called Mueller's investigation a "witch hunt" and "hoax."
Adding to the fissures in Washington, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi on Thursday called on Ryan to remove Nunes as the intelligence panel's chairman.
They made the demand after the committee's senior Democrat, Adam Schiff, late on Wednesday said he discovered that Nunes had sent the White House a version of the memo that was "materially altered" and not what the panel voted on Monday to release.
"This action is not only dangerous, it is illegitimate, and violates House rules," Pelosi said.
Former US director of national intelligence James Clapper told Reuters by email: "What struck me about the FBI statement was concern about factual errors of omission; it said nothing about jeopardy to sources and methods. I'm sure there many such considerations, but the distortion of fact is the larger issue."
Wray also won backing for his stance from an association representing FBI agents.
Thune, at the West Virginia retreat, urged fellow Republicans to slow down regarding the memo's release.
"I think the Senate Intelligence Committee needs to see it, for sure," Thune said. "They need to pay careful attention to what our folks who protect us have to say about what this, you know, how this bears on our national security."
The four sources familiar with the memo said it contends that the FBI and Justice Department failed to tell a judge on a US court that some of the information used to justify a surveillance warrant included portions of a dossier of Trump-Russia contacts that was opposition research paid for by Democrats.
However, the sources said the memo does not mention that the request to extend surveillance on Page, which began before Trump took office, also relied on other highly classified information and that US agencies had confirmed excerpts from the dossier included in the request.
US intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 campaign using hacking and propaganda, an effort that eventually included attempting to tilt the race in favor of Trump.
