President Donald Trump was reportedly furious last week when the Department of Justice released guidance against unveiling the contents of a classified memo that reportedly proves an anti-Trump bias within the FBI and the Justice Department, Bloomberg reported Monday.
Associate Attorney General Stephen Boyd told the House Intelligence Committee last week that it would be “extraordinarily reckless” to declassify and release the memo, comments that reportedly pushed Trump over the edge. The President blew up over Boyd’s letter while he was aboard Air Force One en route to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, according to four people familiar with the matter who spoke with Bloomberg. Trump was reportedly angry about the letter because he saw it as another example of the Justice Department trying to undermine him.
Bloomberg also reported that Trump told Attorney General Jeff Sessions that he needs to succeed in his job or he would be remembered as the worst attorney general in history, according to the people who spoke with Bloomberg.
On Monday evening, Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee voted in favor of releasing the memo. Trump now has five days to review the document and decide whether to make it public.
The memo was crafted by Rep. Devin Nunes’ (R-CA) staff and allegedly proves Republicans’ claims of the Justice Department’s bias against Trump.
FBI Director Chris Wray reportedly asked the House Intelligence Committee for the chance to come before them and express his concerns about releasing the classified memo.
Democrats have called the memo a “conspiracy theory” propagated by Russian bots and authored a counter memo to debunk some of the claims. That memo, however, was not approved for release Monday evening.
Read the full Bloomberg report here.
