President Donald Trump is close to making a decision on whether to release a classified Republican memo alleging misconduct by the FBI in its investigation into potential ties between Russia and Trump’s 2016 campaign. Democrats and the Justice Department have urged him to block the document’s disclosure.

White House spokesman Raj Shah said he expected a decision to be made “pretty soon” on whether to halt the House intelligence committee from releasing the memo. The panel voted along party lines Monday to release it, and Trump now has five days to object. If he doesn’t object, then Congress can release it.

The president has read and been briefed on the memo, according to a senior administration official. The official was not authorized to be quoted about private deliberations and spoke on condition of anonymity. Trump is expected to approve the release of the memo as soon as Thursday.

Trump has said he wants the memo released despite the objections of the FBI and the Justice Department. The FBI declared Wednesday that it has “grave concerns” about the accuracy of the classified memo, which was written as part of an effort to reveal what Republicans say are surveillance abuses by the FBI and the Justice Department in the early stages of the investigation into potential ties between Russia and the 2016 Trump presidential campaign.

Senior FBI officials have also made direct appeals to the White House, warning that it could set a dangerous precedent.

Democrats made a last-ditch effort Wednesday evening to stop the memo’s release, saying it had been “secretly altered” by the Republicans who wrote it. California Rep. Adam Schiff said in a letter to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., that committee Democrats had discovered changes that were made after the Monday vote.

“The White House has therefore been reviewing a document since Monday night that the committee never approved for public release,” Schiff said in the letter.

Schiff asked Nunes for another vote on the memo, but Republicans didn’t appear to waver. A spokesman for Nunes said the committee vote was “procedurally sound,” and that “to suggest otherwise is a bizarre distraction from the abuses detailed in the memo, which the public will hopefully soon be able to read for themselves.”

The FBI’s stance means that Trump, by allowing the memo’s release, would be openly defying his own FBI director by continuing to push for its disclosure. It also suggests a clear willingness by FBI director Christopher Wray, who in the early stretch of his tenure has been notably low-key, to challenge a president who just months ago fired his predecessor, James Comey.

The FBI statement came the day after Trump was overheard by television cameras telling a congressman that he “100 percent” supported release of the four-page memo.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer are pressuring Speaker Paul Ryan to stop the memo’s release, and Pelosi on Thursday called for Nunes to be removed as chairman of the intelligence panel. She says Nunes took “dangerous,” “illegitimate” and “deliberately dishonest actions” by altering a classified GOP-written memo on the investigation into Russia’s election influence.

“It is long overdue that you, as Speaker, put an end to this charade and hold Congressman Nunes and all Congressional Republicans accountable to the oath they have taken to support and defend the Constitution, and protect the American people,” Pelosi wrote. “The integrity of the House is at stake.”

A Ryan spokesperson did not respond to inquiries about Nunes’ changes to the memo, and could not be reached about the Schumer letter or Pelosi letter.

Full text of the letter can be found below:

February 1, 2018

The Honorable Paul Ryan

Speaker of the House

H-232, United States Capitol

Washington, D.C. 20515

The decision of Chairman Nunes and House Republicans to release a bogus memo has taken the GOP’s cover-up campaign to a new, completely unacceptable extreme.

Both the DOJ and FBI oppose releasing the Nunes memo. As the Department of Justice warned, the public release of the memo would be an “unprecedented action” and “extraordinarily reckless.” The FBI also expressed that the agency has “grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo’s accuracy.”

It has now come to our attention that Congressman Nunes deliberately and materially altered the contents of the memo since it was voted on by the House Republicans. This action is not only dangerous, it is illegitimate, and violates House rules.

From the start, Congressman Nunes has disgraced the House Intelligence Committee. Since pledging to recuse himself from the Trump-Russia investigation, Congressman Nunes has abused his position to launch a highly unethical and dangerous cover-up campaign for the White House.

Congressman Nunes’ deliberately dishonest actions make him unfit to serve as Chairman, and he must be removed immediately from this position.

House Republicans’ pattern of obstruction and cover-up to hide the truth about the Trump-Russia scandal represents a threat to our intelligence and our national security. The GOP has led a partisan effort to distort intelligence and discredit the U.S. law enforcement and intelligence communities.

It is long overdue that you, as Speaker, put an end to this charade and hold Congressman Nunes and all Congressional Republicans accountable to the oath they have taken to support and defend the Constitution, and protect the American people.

The integrity of the House is at stake. We look forward to your immediate action on this subject.

sincerely,

NANCY PELOSI

Democratic Leader

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)