The Democratic minority on the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee on Saturday released a response to Republican charges that the FBI and Justice Department have abused the law in their investigation of possible ties between Russia and Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.

The Democrats' 10-page memo, released on Saturday in partially-redacted form, calls an earlier Republican version "a transparent effort to undermine" the FBI, the Justice Department, Special Counsel Robert Mueller, and congressional probes into possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.

The Republican memo, the Democrats allege, "also risks public exposure of sensitive sources and methods for no legitimate purpose."

The latest duel on Capitol Hill comes as Mueller's investigation gathers steam, including a guilty plea on Friday from Richard Gates, Trump's deputy campaign manager.

In a message posted on Twitter, Trump responded, "The Democrat memo response on government surveillance abuses is a total political and legal BUST. Just confirms all of the terrible things that were done. SO ILLEGAL!"

The Democratic memo charges that Republicans deliberately omitted facts from their document that undermine their allegation that the FBI conducted improper surveillance of one-time Trump campaign aide Carter Page, "whom the FBI assessed to be an agent of the Russian government."

The Democratic memo also disputes a Republican charge that the FBI initiated a counterintelligence investigation in late July 2016 based on an unverified dossier compiled by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele and paid for by the Democratic National Committee through a law firm.

By then, the memo reveals, "the FBI had already opened sub-inquiries into a (redacted number of) individuals linked to the Trump campaign." All the names except Page's were blacked out, but a footnote names Gates, former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, campaign aide George Papadopoulos, and one-time Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort.

The FBI received Steele's reporting in mid-September, more than seven weeks after launching its investigation of Page's ties to Russia.