The White House will soon release a classified memo that Republicans say shows bias against President Trump in the Russia probe, chief of staff John Kelly said Wednesday.
“It will be released here pretty quick, I think, and then the whole world can see it,” Kelly said during an interview on Fox News Radio. “This president has said from the beginning, ‘I want everything out. I want this thing. I want the American people to know the truth.'”
The top aide said he has seen the four-page memo, which White House attorneys are still reviewing. The White House has five days to examine the memo, which the House Intelligence Committee voted Monday to release.
{mosads}Kelly’s comments are the latest sign the controversial memo will become public, which could further inflame the feud between the president and his GOP allies and the Justice Department.
Trump was overheard telling a Republican lawmaker following his State of the Union address that he “100 percent” supports the memo’s release.
“Oh yeah, don’t worry, 100 percent,” Trump told Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.), who urged Trump as he left the House chamber to “release the memo.”
Other White House aides, including press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said Wednesday, however, that no final decision has been made.
“We are still going to complete the legal and national security review that has to take place before putting something out publicly,” she said on CNN.
FBI Director Christopher Wray and top Justice Department officials are said to oppose releasing the memo because they say it contains misleading conclusions about the Russia investigation and could compromise classified information.
Those concerns are shared by Democrats in Congress, who have dismissed the memo as a selectively edited political document meant to undermine the Russia probe.
Republican lawmakers contend that it raises serious concerns about the surveillance practices the FBI used in probing Russian interference in the 2016 election, and whether any Trump campaign officials cooperated with it.