FBI has 'grave concerns' about accuracy of Nunes memo

Jan. 31 (UPI) -- The FBI expressed "grave concerns" about the accuracy of a confidential memo alleging the bureau abused surveillance laws while investigating President Donald Trump.

The agency released a statement Wednesday saying it determined key facts were left out of the memo written by House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., after being permitted to review the document.

"The FBI was provided a limited opportunity to review this memo the day before the committee voted to release it," the agency said. "As expressed during our initial review, we have grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo's accuracy."

The House Intelligence Committee voted Monday to publicly release the memo, giving Trump five days following the vote to make the final decision on its release.

Video following Trump's first State of the Union address showed Trump assuring Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-S.C., he will release the memo.

"Don't worry, 100 percent," Trump said in response to his call for the memo's release. "Can you imagine?"

In the memo Nunes alleges the FBI abused the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to obtain a warrant to place surveillance on Carter Page, a former foreign policy adviser on Trump's campaign during the 2016 presidential election.

The memo also states the bureau under President Barack Obama wasn't forthcoming about a dossier about Trump funded by Hillary Clinton's campaign.

Nunes again called for the memo to be released for the sake of transparency in a response to the FBI's warning.

"It's clear that top officials used unverified information in a court document to fuel a counterintelligence investigation during an American political campaign," he said. "Once the truth gets out, we can begin taking steps to ensure our intelligence agencies and courts are never misused like this again."

He added it was "no surprise" the agency objected to the memo's release after "having stonewalled Congress' demands for information for nearly a year."

"The FBI is intimately familiar with 'material omissions' with respect to their presentations to both Congress and the courts, and they are welcome to make public, to the greatest extent possible, all the information they have on these abuses," he said.