Alabama's junior senator Friday criticized the release of a memo alleging surveillance abuses against members of the Trump campaign team, in connection with the Russia investigation. Democrat Doug Jones says the report should have been prepared by prosecutors, and not politicians. "It has become so partisan ... that people are not only trying to undermine [special counsel] Robert Mueller, they are trying to undermine the FBI, and we need the FBI for our security of the United States," Jones told WBRC Fox 6 News. Republicans had a very different reaction. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said the memo raises serious concerns about the integrity of decisions that were made at top levels of the FBI and Justice Department.
The memo, authored by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), said the FBI relied on a discredited dossier paid for by Hillary Clinton's campaign and the DNC to obtain a FISA warrant authorizing surveillance against Carter Page. It also said that that former British spy Christopher Steele, who was fervently opposed to Donald Trump, was paid $160,000 dollars to create the dossier. The FBI concealed those facts from the FISA court when applying for the warrants, the memo said.