House Intelligence Committee releases Democratic memo defending Russia probes

Democrats on the U.S. House Intelligence Committee defended official investigations into claims of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election in a party memo released on Saturday.

The 10-page, partially-redacted document, which was posted to the panel's website, sharply criticized a previously released Republican memo as a "transparent effort to undermine" investigations by the FBI, Justice Department and Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

The memo defends the FBI's obtaining of warrants to conduct temporary surveillance of Carter Page, an associate of President Donald Trump's election campaign, whom the Democrats say "the FBI assessed to be an agent of the Russian government."

(Reporting by David Morgan, editing by G Crosse)