WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 17: U.S. President
Donald Trump participates in the inaugural meeting of the Presidents
National Council for the American Worker in the Roosevelt Room of the
White House on September 17, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Oliver
Contreras - Pool/Getty Images)
President Donald Trump ordered the declassification of several
documents and texts related to the FBI’s Russia investigation during the
2016 presidential election.
Included among the documents are the 21 pages of the FISA court
application used by the FBI to obtain a warrant to surveil Trump
campaign advisor Carter Page, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders
said in a statement on Monday.
Sanders added that the president has also directed the release of all
reports by the FBI of interviews with Justice Department official Bruce
Ohr in relation to the Russia investigation.
View image on Twitter
FISA documents declassified by @POTUS.
Trump further ordered the public release of all text messages concerning
the Russia investigation, “without redaction,” from former FBI Director
James Comey, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, former FBI agent
Peter Strzok, former FBI attorney Lisa Page, and Ohr.
The House Intelligence and House Oversight and Government Reform
committees have both been seeking the unredacted FISA applications on
Carter Page for months.
Fox News
reported sources familiar with the matter do not know how soon the
documents will be released, but the release covered “pretty much
everything that (House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes)
wanted … and the text messages are a bonus.”
Nunes stated on FNC on Sunday, “If the president wants the American
people to really understand just how broad and invasive this
investigation has been to many Americans and how unfair it has been, he
has no choice but to declassify” key documents.
House Majority Whip Steve Scalise praised Trump’s decision to release
the FISA documents and text messages, tweeting, the president “made the
right call. Americans deserve the truth about these egregious actions by
government officials.”
Freedom Caucus chair Rep. Mark Meadows tweeted after Trump’s announcement, “Transparency wins.”
“It’s time to get the full truth on the table so the American people
can decide for themselves on what happened at the highest levels of
their FBI and Justice Department,” he added.
House Intelligence Committee ranking member Rep. Adam Schiff,
D-Calif., accused Trump of “ordering the selective disclosure of
classified materials he believes helpful to his defense.”
“The DOJ and FBI have previously informed me that release of some of this information would cross a ‘red line,’” he wrote.
On Monday morning, Trump tweeted about a Fox News report concerning
Lisa Page’s testimony before the House Intelligence Committee in July
during which she stated the FBI had found no evidence of Russia
collusion by May 2017, when special counsel Robert Mueller was named to
take over the investigation.
“Therefore, the case should never have been allowed to be brought. It is a totally illegal Witch Hunt!” wrote the president.
In another tweet, he wrote, “Immediately after Comey’s firing Peter
Strzok texted to his lover, Lisa Page ‘We need to Open the case we’ve
been waiting on now while Andy (McCabe, also fired) is acting.”
“Page answered, ‘We need to lock in (redacted). In a formal chargeable way. Soon.’ Wow, a conspiracy caught?” Trump wondered.
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Randy
DeSoto is a graduate of West Point and Regent University School of Law.
He is the author of the book "We Hold These Truths" and screenwriter of
the political documentary "I Want Your Money."
