UPDATE 2: Bloomberg Politics reports President Trump was furious the DOJ advised Rep. Nunes not to release his memo.
Trump erupted in anger while traveling to Davos after learning that Associate Attorney General Stephen Boyd warned that it would be “extraordinarily reckless” to release a classified memo written by House Republican staffers. The memo outlines alleged misdeeds at the FBI and Justice Department related to the Russia investigation.
For Trump, the letter was yet another example of the Justice Department undermining him and stymieing Republican efforts to expose what the president sees as the politically motivated agenda behind Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe.
On Flight to Davos, Trump Erupted Over DOJ Role in Russia Probe (Bloomberg Politics)
UPDATE: The New York Times says Nunes' memo takes aim at Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, substantiating reports that President Trump could want the memo released so as to help him remove Rosenstein from the Russia investigation.
A secret, highly contentious Republican memo reveals that Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein approved an application to extend surveillance of a former Trump campaign associate shortly after taking office last spring ...
The renewal shows that the Justice Department under President Trump saw reason to believe that the associate, Carter Page, was acting as a Russian agent. But the reference to Mr. Rosenstein’s actions in the memo — a much-disputed document that paints the investigation into Russian election meddling as tainted from the start — indicates that Republicans may be moving to seize on his role as they seek to undermine the inquiry.
(...)
A handful of senior Justice Department officials can approve an application to the secret surveillance court, but in practice that responsibility often falls to the deputy attorney general. No information has publicly emerged that the Justice Department or the F.B.I. did anything improper while seeking the surveillance warrant involving Mr. Page.
CNN:
The House Intelligence Committee could vote as early as Monday evening to publicly release the Republican memo alleging abuses of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
(...)
The committee may also consider a Democratic memo by Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the committee, who said he would be offering his own memo Monday evening to counter the Nunes one.
Read more: Secret Memo Hints at a New Republican Target: Rod Rosenstein (NYT)
House Intel committee could vote on Nunes memo as soon as Monday (CNN)
President Trump reportedly wants Representative Devin Nunes (R-CA) to make public his four-page memo, even though the president's own Justice Department warns doing so would be "extraordinarily reckless" and dangerous to national security.
... White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly relayed the president’s view to Attorney General Jeff Sessions — although the decision to release the document ultimately lies with Congress.
Kelly and Sessions spoke twice [on Wednesday] — in person during a small-group afternoon meeting and over the phone later that evening — and Kelly conveyed Trump’s desire, a senior administration official said.
(...)
The intervention with Sessions, which has not previously been reported, marked another example of the president’s year-long attempts to shape and influence an investigation that is fundamentally outside his control. Trump, appearing frustrated and at times angry, has complained to confidants and aides in recent weeks that he does not understand why he cannot simply give orders to “my guys” at what he sometimes calls the “Trump Justice Department,” two people familiar with the president’s comments said.
As first reported by The New York Times, President Trump not only ordered Special Counsel Robert Mueller fired last June but also had been weighing ways to get rid of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, the man overseeing Mueller's investigation.
Trump recently revived his complaints that Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein was not properly supervising Mueller’s probe, and suggested that he should fire Rosenstein — a highly controversial action against the person officially overseeing the special counsel’s investigation, an adviser who speaks frequently with Trump said.
The president also made clear in recent days that he hopes that new questions facing the investigation allow him or his associates to make changes at the Justice Department ...
The president has told close advisers that the [Nunes] memo is starting to make people realize how the FBI and the Mueller probe are biased against him, and that it could provide him with grounds for either firing or forcing Rosenstein to leave ... He has privately derided Rosenstein as “the Democrat from Baltimore.” Rosenstein is not a Democrat. He was appointed as a U.S. attorney in Maryland by President George W. Bush and was kept in that post by President Barack Obama.
The Washington Post runs through a summary of President Trump's efforts to interfere in the ongoing Russia investigation and discredit federal law enforcement institutions, laying a clear trail for the special counsel to follow.
A person who has interacted with Mueller’s team said the prosecutors seem to be pursuing a theory that Trump’s actions over months have followed a consistent pattern. “Their theory appears to be that he goes after people who are not loyal,” this person said. “He wants in place people who are loyal, to make sure he doesn’t get in trouble in the investigation.”
...key episodes in this narrative include Trump’s order that Sessions not recuse himself from the investigation; the firing of Comey; his efforts to intervene to get the Flynn investigation dropped; and then, above all, Trump’s dictation aboard Air Force One in July of a misleading statement to be released by his son, Don Jr., about his meeting with the Russian lawyer at Trump Tower during the campaign — “the most obvious obstructive act,” ...
To prove obstruction of justice, Mueller would have to show that Trump didn’t just act to derail the investigation but did so with a corrupt motive, such as an effort to hide his own misdeeds. Legal experts are divided over whether the Constitution allows for the president to be indicted while in office. As a result, Mueller might seek to outline his findings about Trump’s actions in a written report rather than bring them in court through criminal charges. It would probably fall to Rosenstein to decide whether to submit the report to Congress, which has the power to open impeachment proceedings.
Read more: Trump sought release of classified Russia memo, putting him at odds with Justice Department (WaPo)