U.S. President Donald Trump says a classified memo written by congressional Democrats to rebut a Republican document made public last week is "very political and long" and must be "heavily redacted."
On February 9, Trump blocked the release of the memo, which is a response to a Republican memo that Trump allowed to be released.
The Republican memo claimed the FBI and Justice Department were biased against Trump in the federal investigation of Russia and the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
"The Democrats sent a very political and long response memo which they knew, because of sources and methods (and more), would have to be heavily redacted, whereupon they would blame the White House for lack of transparency," Trump tweeted on February 10. "Told them to re-do and send back in proper form!"
Trump's decision to block the release of the memo angered Democrats, who said it smacked of a double standard on transparency.
Trump allowed the release of the Republican memo on February 2 with no redactions.
Democrats said the Republican memo mischaracterized highly sensitive classified information and was intended to discredit Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of possible collusion between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia.
