How Trump’s Allies Fanned an Ember of Controversy Into Flames of Outrage

The release of the memo mattered less than #releasethememo. After weeks of buildup, the three-and-a-half-page document about alleged F.B.I. abuses during the 2016 presidential campaign made public on Friday was broadly greeted with criticism, including by some Republicans. They said it cherry-picked information, made false assertions and was overly focused on an obscure, low-level Trump campaign adviser, Carter Page.