[van id=”politics/2018/02/01/trump-sees-nunes-memo-way-to-discredit-russia-investigation-phillip-sot.cnn”]
By Kevin Liptak, Kaitlan Collins, Sara Murray and Dan Merica
President Donald Trump continues to tell his associates he believed the highly controversial Republican memo alleging the FBI abused its surveillance tools could help discredit the Russia investigation, multiple sources familiar with White House discussions said.
The President continues to direct some of his anger toward his Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
In phone calls last night and over the past days, Trump has told friends he believes the memo would expose bias within the agency’s top ranks and make it easier for him to argue the Russia investigations are prejudiced against him, according to two sources.
Trump was upset Wednesday in the wake of the FBI’s statement challenging the release of the a controversial memo crafted by Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee, led by Chairman Devin Nunes, a Trump ally. The statement was issued just hours after the President made clear he wanted the document public.
White House aides and advisers expect a decision from Trump on whether to release the controversial memo on Thursday, an official tells CNN, but the President has already made clear he is inclined to approve the document’s release.
The FBI, led by a director that Trump handpicked after he fired James Comey last May, released a harshly worded statement Wednesday afternoon condemning the release of a four-page memo that alleges surveillance abuses on behalf of the FBI and Justice Department.
People familiar with the President’s thinking say the fate of Rosenstein remains in question amid the expected release of the Nunes memo.
One person suggested if Rosenstein merely submitted an application to renew a FISA warrant (one granted under previous leadership and based, in part, on information from the infamous Steele dossier) that probably wouldn’t be a damning enough revelation for Trump to move to fire Rosenstein.
But another person said Trump is so frustrated with the Russia investigation and, in turn, Rosenstein that he may look for any opportunity to build a case for Rosenstein’s firing. He could argue that Rosenstein failed to scrutinize the information initially used to request the warrant and therefore didn’t do his due diligence.
These discussions are ongoing within the White House, one of the sources said.
Another source familiar with White House discussions said they would be “stunned” if anything happens to Rosenstein even though he’s not a Trump favorite.
As CNN has previously reported, the President has vented recently about wanting to fire Rosenstein. But for now, it remains unclear whether he’s willing to take such an extraordinary step, particularly given the backlash he faced after dismissing Comey.
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