Posted on 09/05/2018 11:13:50 AM PDT by Red Badger
President Donald Trump's top congressional allies are calling on him to release reams of classified documents connected to the FBI's Russia probe.
Republican Reps. Mark Meadows, Jim Jordan, Matt Gaetz and Lee Zeldin are asking Trump to declassify additional portions of the application the FBI submitted to surveil former Trump campaign aide Carter Page in late 2016. (A heavily redacted version was released last month).
They also want the president to declassify and release all of the official notes filed by top Justice Department official Bruce Ohr, whose relationship with former British spy Christopher Steele has become a focus of Republican inquiries about anti-Trump bias among top law enforcement and intelligence officials. They also intend to seek the declassification of "other relevant documents," according to a notice issued by Zeldin's office.
It's the latest attempt by Trump's allies on Capitol Hill to accuse the senior ranks of the Justice Department and FBI of systemic bias. Bureau defenders and Democrats say the effort is really about protecting Trump from the ongoing investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, which has edged deep inside Trump's inner circle.
The GOP lawmakers intend to formally announced their push on Thursday at a press conference. Trump has long backed his allies' complaints that the Justice Department has withheld sensitive documents that might expose bias behind the Russia probe, which was launched in July 2016 by the FBI. In January, he agreed to declassify a memo crafted by GOP staff of the House Intelligence Committee that officially confirmed, for the first time, the existence of the Page surveillance warrant. That document had been reported in media but not formally acknowledged by the FBI.
Ohr testified last week to members of the House Judiciary Committee and House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. GOP lawmakers emerged from the interview suggesting that Ohr had shed light on doubts about the credibility of the information Steele gathered in 2016 that suggested Trump's campaign engaged in a conspiracy with Russian officials to help win the presidential election.
Steele's memos, which became known as "the dossier," was financed through research firm Fusion GPS on behalf of the Clinton campaign. Steele had a longstanding relationships with Ohr during their previous work combating organized crime, and later delivered his information to the FBI. It became part of the bureau's application used to spy on Page.
Republicans suggested that the Democratic roots of his work on Trump should have discredited the surveillance application and that the FBI should have disclosed its political roots more explicitly to the court that ultimately approved the warrant.
In its warrant application, the FBI revealed that Steele appeared to be seeking information to discredit Trump's campaign but still found his allegations credible. Republicans have argued that the filing should have more explicitly disclosed that his work had been funded by Democrats.
Trump has argued that the Page surveillance warrant amounts to an effort by the FBI to spy on his campaign, though Page had left Trump’s orbit by then and was treated as a bit player. Trump told the Daily Caller in an interview Tuesday that he’s “looking very closely” at declassifying the warrant.
“The things that have gone on are so bad, so bad, he said. “I mean they were surveilling my campaign. If that happened on the other foot, they would’ve considered that treasonous.”
This will include the New York Times, which has never before hesitated to reveal classified information that comes their way, starting with the Pentagon Papers.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.