Posted on 09/18/2018 1:05:05 PM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
U.S. intelligence officials, blindsided by President Donald Trump's order that they make public highly sensitive files in the Russia investigation, are hoping the White House will allow them to conduct a formal declassification review and damage assessment before they are forced to release the documents, current and former officials tell NBC News.
Senior executives at the FBI, Justice Department and Office of the Director of National intelligence were scrambling Tuesday to respond after being taken by surprise by a White House press release Monday directing them to release classified material they had previously determined should not be made public.
But officials remained hopeful Tuesday that the White House would allow the declassification review to go forward, even as they expressed private outrage that Trump and his allies in Congress were seeking to disclose secret information for what appeared to be purely political purposes.
Officials said it was unclear how long the review would take. One challenge is that Trump ordered the release of only those text messages related to the Russia investigation. That will require the FBI to sort through tens of thousands of messages to figure out which ones apply.
Meanwhile, Trump said on Twitter that the documents would show there was no basis for the surveillance of his campaign aide.
"Really bad things were happening, but they are now being exposed," Trump wrote. "Big stuff!"
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
Is the Pope a pedophile?
Everyone knew he was going to do it.
Are they really this stupid ?
FAKE NEWS
Hopefully Trump has a complete unredacted set, so he can release if the agencies are going to slow-walk the publication.
I suppose “immediately” is subject to interpretation?
If Admiral Rodgers has anything to do with it, he does.
“Blindsided” my rear end. They knew what was coming.
They weren’t surprised. Predictable - run out the clock. If the President has the UNREDACTED versions as we’ve been told, why doesn’t he release them himself?
The shredders are breaking down, a truckload is in route!
Inching closer to the Clintons and the Halfrican’s criminality.
As Hillary famously said, “If Trump gets elected, we’ll all hang.”
Nice.
You mean like all of the previous claims of the stupendous damage to intelligence assets releasing unredacted documents? In every case, the only damage was to political hacks in the DOJ, FBI and CIA. Why the flock should we believe them now?
“Blindsided”??? Anyone with a pulse knew Trump was going to do this. Below Byron York article is from July 24th.
Thanks for the “news” NBC, what a bunch of idiots. If you search for “Trump to declassify” on google news with date range 1/1/18 to 9/1/18 you get 112,000 results... ROTFL...
“Senior executives at the FBI, Justice Department and Office of the Director of National intelligence were scrambling Tuesday to respond after being taken by surprise...”
Oh, bullsh!t. Trump has been considering declassifying these docs for months. They’ve also been under subpoena by congress and requested by Judicial watch.
They’ve been stalling and will continue to stall, imo, until mueller drops his impeachment report.
Taken by surprise, what BS. Trump knows these sonsa bitches can’t be trusted why task them with the release?
Trump should have done this six months ago.
Sadly, the same people trying to parse “immediately” are some of the same ones who try to parse “shall not be infringed.”
Only in America can words have a multiplicity of meanings.
Gwjack
“as they expressed private outrage that Trump and his allies in Congress were seeking to disclose secret information for what appeared to be purely political purposes.”
Because those who committed the sedition were not political. Who are these ‘outraged’ pissants?
Blindsided my a$$.
Trump has talked about declassifying for a long time.
And Congress has demanded these documents for a long time too.
Cough them up. Or resign or get fired.
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