Donald Trump accuses FBI and Justice Department of favouring Democrats over Republicans

US President plans to publicly release controversial memo which alleges surveillance abuses by FBI officials investigating former Trump campaign official

Donald Trump has accused senior leadership at the department investigating potential links between his presidential campaign and Russia of developing a bias against the Republican Party.

"The top Leadership and Investigators of the FBI and the Justice Department have politicized the sacred investigative process in favor of Democrats and against Republicans - something which would have been unthinkable just a short time ago," he wrote on Twitter. "Rank & File are great people!"

The US President then sent a follow-up tweet - quoting American conservative activist Tom Fitton - which alleged the Democratsattempted to conceal their funding of a dossier that accused Mr Trump of personal ties to the Kremlin.

"You had Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party try to hide the fact that they gave money to GPS Fusion to create a Dossier which was used by their allies in the Obama Administration to convince a Court misleadingly, by all accounts, to spy on the Trump Team,” it read.

The 71-year-old's comments come despite the fact many FBI and Justice Department officials at the forefront of investigations into alleged collusion are Republicans. 

James Comey, the former FBI director fired by Mr Trump; Robert Mueller, the Special Counsel investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 election campaign; Jeff Sessions, head of the Justice Department; and Rod Rosenstein, Mr Sessions' deputy, are all or have been, registered Republicans.

On Friday, Mr Trump is set to approve the release of a Republican-authored memo which reportedly alleges surveillance abuses by FBI officials investigating Carter Page, a former Trump campaign official. 

A White House official said the decision was made after examining the memo over the last few days and making sure “it doesn’t give away too much in terms of classification.” 

The planned release comes despite objections from the Justice Department and the FBI, whose director, Chrisopher Wray, admitted to "grave concerns" about the accuracy of the classified document.