Posted on 09/05/2018 12:32:28 PM PDT by Red Badger
Trump has come under pressure by DOJ officials who do not want him to declassify the documents
President Trump is expected to declassify the redacted 20 pages of documents from the controversial Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant that have still not been made public, which allowed the FBI to spy on short-term campaign volunteer Carter Page, numerous sources told SaraACarter.com. This comes after nearly a year of stonewalling by the Department of Justice at the demand of lawmakers, who claim that the 20 redacted pages will reveal explosive information about the FBI’s handling of the Trump-Russia investigation, according to sources.
However, President Trump, who has been under pressure from some DOJ officials not to release the classified documents, “could always change his mind and it’s not a guarantee that it will happen, but the indications are that it more than likely will possibly be before the end of this week,” said a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the subject.
In July, the Justice Department released over 400 previously top-secret documents connected to the Page warrant. However, more than 20 pages of the FISA document remained highly classified and have only been viewed by a select group of Congressional members and investigators. The lawmakers are now asking that those documents be made public. Behind the scenes, the battle between Justice Department officials and senior members of Congress intensified over the past year, leading lawmakers to call on President Trump to intervene and declassify the documents.
In a 38 minute interview with the Daily Caller Tuesday, President Trump said the White House is “looking at it very seriously right now because the things that have gone on are so bad, so bad. I mean they were surveilling my campaign. If that happened on the other foot, they would’ve considered that treasonous. They would’ve considered that spying at the highest level. Can you imagine if we were doing that to Obama instead of Obama and his people doing that to us? Everybody would’ve been in jail for the next 500 years. OK? Can you believe it, where they paid this guy millions of dollars, it turned out? If you look at all of the things that are happening.”
All these documents will expose how the FBI handled this investigation and give clarity to the public
Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Devin Nunes (R-CA) told Fox New’s Sean Hannity this month that the remaining classified documents regarding Page need to be declassified because “there is exculpatory evidence that we have seen of classified documents that need to be declassified. The judges should have been presented with this exculpatory evidence that the FBI and DOJ had.”
In July, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R- IA) also requested the declassification of embattled Department of Justice official Bruce Ohr, whose wife Nellie Ohr worked in 2016 as a contractor for the research firm Fusion GPS, which was paid by the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign to investigate Trump’s alleged ties to Russia.
“All these documents will expose how the FBI handled this investigation and give clarity to the public,” said one congressional official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “The American people deserve to know the truth and our country needs to move on.”
The FISA documents, which were heavily redacted by the FBI and Department of Justice are expected to reveal detailed information showing that the bureau withheld exculpatory information from the highly secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) and the role former British spy Christopher Steele had in getting his unverified anti-Trump dossier to the bureau. Steele was hired by Fusion GPS’s Glenn Simpson, a former Wall Street Journal reporter, to compile the dossier.
New documentation obtained by Congress are already revealing the deep ties Ohr had to Steele and the bureau. Recent texts, notes and emails obtained by Congress reveal that Ohr worked as a backchannel for the FBI to move information being collected by Steele to the FBI.
The documentation also exposes Ohr’s inter-workings with the FBI and that he was in communication with former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, former FBI Special Agent Peter Strzok and his paramour former FBI Attorney Lisa Page. Strzok was recently fired by the FBI and Page has since left the bureau. McCabe was fired earlier this year after DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz released a scathing report showing that McCabe lied on numerous times to investigators and leaked information to the media.
A recent report by Fox New’s Catherine Herridge also exposes Ohr’s ties in 2016 to Robert Mueller’s Special Counsel’s lead prosecutor Andrew Weissmann. Weissmann, who was then chief of the DOJ’s criminal fraud division, was “kept in the loop” by Ohr about his contact with Steele and the FBI, according to the report.
Earlier this year, SaraACarter.com revealed that before Weissmann was appointed to the Special Counsel, he arranged a meeting with AP journalists investigating Paul Manafort and his Ukrainian business dealings. On April 11, 2017 Weissmann, the AP reporters and several FBI officials Weissmann brought into the meeting met with the reporters.
On April, 12 the AP published the explosive expose on Manafort.
According to sources who spoke with this news outlet, the meeting was attended by three different litigating offices. Two employees from the U.S. Justice Department and the other representative was from the U.S. Attorney’s office, according to the sources. FBI agents also attended the meeting, law enforcement sources confirmed.
At the time Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mueller, and chief Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores also declined to comment.
According to sources, FBI officials at the meeting complained about Weissmann’s failure to follow protocol with journalists. They issued a formal complaint against him to the Justice Department, as they were concerned the meeting with the journalists could harm the ongoing probe into Russia’s involvement in the 2016 presidential election.
Just do it. Let’s get her done.
RELEASE THE DOCUMENTS IN THE NAME OF FULL TRANSPARENCY!!!
Nike! Nike! Nike!
JUST DO IT!......................
It’s fascinating each time the redactions in the case against Trump have been revealed. There are FBI informants like Halper or stooges like Mifsud. Mark Levin just read one more from the newspaper last night. The NYT piece was called “Agents Tried to Flip Russian Oligarchs. The Fallout Spread to Trump.” It’s almost certain that some of the Russian dressing mentioned in that article is in some of the redacted material. This whole thing is turning into 100% deep state (I was initially open minded about classified evidence against Trump but a lot has been revealed and it is all bad behavior by the FBI and possibly also the CIA).
Just remember they were all Obama/Hilliary sycophants............
Of course...................
Don’t forget, they Dems KNOW what’s in them as well................
If he had done this 15 months ago, it might have mattered.
Today, just 2 months before the election, Conservatives will not have enough time or firepower to counter the Hard Left’s carefully planned non-stop media assault.
IF IT’S TRUE THERE WERE NO ACTUAL FISA HEARINGS, that can mean only ONE thing: OBAMA SIGNED OFF ON THE SPY WARRANTS!!
Do it Mr. President and we will start delivering heads on platters.
However, President Trump, who has been under pressure from some DOJ officials not to release the classified documents
**************
Trump should not care what the DOJ wants or recommends. They only want what is good for them. Its time he listen to us instead of them.
Many high profile conservatives have pleaded with him to declassify the docs. His reluctance to do what is entirely within his power to do is baffling and frustrating.
The Deep State needs to be exposed and held to account. It is IMPERATIVE that he declassify the FISA docs without further delay.
If he had done this 15 months ago, Dems and RINOs would be screeching about obstruction. The drip-drip-drip revelations since have shown that the DOJ claims of damaging national security were found to be bogus, so Trump can now declassify with that particular paper tiger defanged.
Today, just 2 months before the election, Conservatives will not have enough time or firepower to counter the Hard Left’s carefully planned non-stop media assault.
I actually think Trump should wait until Kavenaugh is confirmed, and declassify a month before the election so the story stays in the news cycle up to the election.
Sun Tzu never fought the Political Left.
The Democrats knew this release would come some day.
The Hard Left media has probably been sitting on the FISA documents for 15 months, or longer.
All of them wrote their counter-arguments and headlines months ago.
The Conservatives?
Completely helpless as usual.
Intelligence Committee Republicans could have posted the FISA documents in the Congressional Record months ago.
But, as expected, they did nothing.
Somebody has to do it since Sessions. Rosenweasel and Wray
continue to stonewall.
I disposed of that argument 15 months ago.
Trump should have declassified and released ALL documents relative to the Russia farce and issued blanket pardons to anyone involved.
No prosecutions? No obstruction?
Re: “Declassify a month before the election so the story stays in the news cycle up to the election.”
By “news cycle,” I presume you mean Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Rush Limbaugh, and Free Republic?
Bttt.
5.56mm
Your claiming to have disposed of that argument 15 months ago does not make that so. 15 months ago RINOs such as Lindsey Graham were giving Trump a very hard time on Russiagate. Now he has come around to seeing the problems with the investigation. So IMO that proves my claim better than yours.
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.