Trump also quoted a supporter, Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton, who explained how the case, in his opinion, connects to former Democratic presidential rival Hillary Clinton.
Trump's allies in Congress, led by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., say the real Russia scandal is the FBI conspiracy that they say launched a scurrilous investigation into whether Trump's campaign conspired with the Russians who attacked the 2016 election.
Republicans focus on details in the memo that they say confirm people involved with the Russia investigation bear a personal animus against Trump, including FBI investigators and the former British intelligence officer who authored the infamous, unverified dossier about the Trump camp's connections to Russia.
The FBI and Justice Department deny they've done anything wrong, and they opposed the public release of the memo.
Critics complain Trump and his allies are simply dirtying up federal law enforcement in order to raise doubts among their supporters about whatever the office of Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller eventually releases.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., lamented Friday that the controversy over the memo had stolen the focus of officialdom from Russian President Vladimir Putin's attack on Western democracies that began two years ago.
"The latest attacks on the FBI and Department of Justice serve no American interests -- no party's, no president's, only Putin's," McCain said. "The American people deserve to know all of the facts surrounding Russia's ongoing efforts to subvert our democracy, which is why special counsel Mueller's investigation must proceed unimpeded."
And former FBI Director James Comey pointed out the damage he said had been done to the underlying institutions involved -- trust has been broken between the intelligence community and Congress, he wrote, for no reason.