WASHINGTON: Washington braced Thursday for the release of an explosive memo alleging abuse of power in the FBI’s probe of Donald Trump’s campaign, which has magnified tensions between the White House and the government’s premier law enforcement body.

A White House official told AFP that Trump has read the memo, and Fox News and other media reported Wednesday he has decided to allow the release of the highly classified document before the weekend. The four-page memo was written by Republican lawmaker Devin Nunes, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, and purports to show the Justice Department and the FBI as deeply politicized, anti-Trump agencies.

Its release would amount to an outright rejection of the FBI’s extraordinary warning Tuesday against the memo’s release — a warning that was unsigned but had to be approved by agency director Chris Wray.

“We have grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo’s accuracy,” the FBI said. A decision to release the four-page document put the White House on a direct collision course with Trump’s own Justice Department, the broader intelligence community, Congressional Democrats and many Republicans.—AFP