Nunes memo: Read the full, unredacted document

The House Intelligence Committee as released the so-called Nunes memo, a document that Republicans say prove that elements of the Russia investigation are politically motivated attacks against President Donald Trump.

The memo, written House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes' staff, focuses on a FISA warrant against former Trump campaign aid Carter Page during the 2016 campaign. That warrant was obtained by the Department of Justice in October 2016, and the request for the warrant was reliant at least in part on a dossier compiled by Christopher Steele, which claimed that Russia may have compromising information on Mr Trump. The FBI has noted that the Steele dossier was not the sole piece of evidence used for the warrant.

Mr Nunes' memo notes that Mr Steele's dossier was compiled for the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign, and that the Department of Justice's applications for the FISA warrant did not note that funding source.

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Reaction to the memo's release was swift and fractured.

True to form, Republicans claimed that the contents of the four page document prove that the FBI and Department of Justice were biased in their quest to spy on Carter Page, while Democrats and individuals sympathetic to the American spy apparatus, said that the memo's release amounted to little more than an attempt to discredit special counsel Robert Mueller.

"That’s it? Dishonest and misleading memo wrecked the House intel committee, destroyed trust with Intelligence Community, damaged relationship with FISA court, and inexcusably exposed classified investigation of an American citizen. For what? DOJ & FBI must keep doing their jobs," former FBI Director James Comey, who was fired by Mr Trump last year at least in part because of the Russia investigation, tweeted.

Meanwhile, civil rights organisations chimed in to say that the memo highlighted deeply troubling actions of the Justice Department and FBI, but said that the Nunes memo itself succeeded only in further confusing an already opaque spy practice.

“The completeness and accuracy of government representations to the FISA court are longstanding concerns. The Nunes memo makes serious charges of FBI and Justice Department misconduct in obtaining a warrant to surveil an American citizen, but on its own does not contain the facts needed to substantiate its charges,” Christopher Anders, the deputy director of the American Civil Liberties UNion's Washington legislative office, said in a statement. “Rather than one side or the other cherry-picking facts, all Americans deserve to see all of the facts, including both the minority report and the underlying documents. The goal should be more transparency, not less, particularly when a congressional committee chairman makes serious charges of abuse but does not provide the facts to either prove the charges or allow Americans to make up our own minds.”

The White House itself released a statement saying that the memo "raises serious concerns about the integrity of decisions made" at the top level of the Justice Department and FBI.