As President Donald Trump prepares to release a GOP-penned memo that alleges bias at the FBI, Democrats want the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee to be removed over the memo.
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi says Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., took "deliberately dishonest actions" by altering the classified document on the investigation into Russia's election influence.
Pelosi, D-Calif., made the demand Thursday in a letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis.
Pelosi says Nunes violated House rules by altering the memo after it was sent to the White House following a vote by the committee on Monday.
She wrote that Nunes' actions "make him unfit to serve as chairman."
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., echoed Pelosi's demands.
Schumer said that House Republicans are trying to "sow conspiracy theories and attack the integrity and credibility of federal law enforcement as a means to protect President Trump and undermine the work of special counsel Mueller."
Trump, meanwhile, has told associates that he believes the memo could help discredit Robert Mueller's investigation into his campaign's possible connections to Russian election interference.
He was overheard telling a Republican lawmaker Tuesday that he would "100 percent" release the memo.
The FBI has been embroiled in a bitter feud with the White House over the document, arguing that the agency has "grave concerns" about its accuracy.
Democrats and law enforcement officials say the four-page GOP memo "cherry-picks" information from a much longer application to the FISA court.
Those documents typically run 50 to 60 pages, officials said.
Nunes fired back at the FBI and Department of Justice on Wednesday for what he called "spurious objections" to the release.
"Having stonewalled Congress' demands for information for nearly a year, it's no surprise to see the FBI and DOJ issue spurious objections to allowing the American people to see information related to surveillance abuses at these agencies," he said in a statement on Wednesday.
Nunes, who became the chairman of the Intelligence Committee in 2015, has faced accusations of bias for his close ties to the White House.
He was a member of Trump's transition team and initially pushed back against calls for a House investigation into possible ties between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.
Last March, Nunes admitted to conducting a clandestine meeting on White House grounds a day before vaguely disclosing the possible "incidental collection" of Trump team's communications before the inauguration.
He quickly came under fire from Democrats, who said he violated ethics laws by coordinating the disclosure.
A month later he stepped aside from his committee's probe into Russia election meddling while his conduct was reviewed.
On Thursday, an online petition started by CREDO Action garnered more than 20,000 signatures of people calling on Ryan to dismiss Nunes.
