[ad_1]
President Trump has ordered the Justice Ministry to declassify the documents related to the investigation in Russia, including parts of a secret court order to monitor Trump's former campaign advisor, Carter Page. (Evan Vucci / AP)
Matt Zapotosky
A national security reporter covering the Department of Justice
Devlin Barrett
Reporter focused on national security and law enforcement
President Trump reiterated on Tuesday a specious claim that the FBI had spied on his campaign and suggested that his decision to declassify documents from the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 elections would reveal misconduct by the federal authorities. .
In the morning tweets apparently quoting a TV appearance of the representative Peter T. King (RN.Y.), Trump wrote: "What will be disclosed is that these mandates of FISA have no basis, that the important information is going to be a disproportionate influence of the (false) record. Basically, you have an anti-terrorism tool used to spy on an unprecedented presidential campaign in our history.
"Really bad things were happening, but they are now exposed," Trump wrote in his own voice. "Big trick!"
[Trump orders Justice Dept. to declassify Russia-related material]
The tweet is a reference to Monday night's Trump order, according to which the Justice Department would declassify documents related to the investigation in Russia, including excerpts from a secret court order to monitor the former Trump campaign advisor. The order was issued under what is known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, commonly referred to in the national security sphere by FISA.
Democrats and former national security officials said Trump's directive was dangerous – threatening to compromise an investigation into his own campaign and reveal confidential sources of law enforcement. Rep. Adam B. Schiff (Calif.), Democrat of the House Intelligence Committee, said Monday that the order constituted "manifest abuse of power" and that his conversations with the federal security forces, the FBI and the Department of Justice would consider the release of these materials "a red line that should not be crossed as they may compromise sources and methods".
The Justice Department, however, has presented a somewhat unobtrusive initial reaction, asserting in a statement that such a command from the president "triggers a declassification review process conducted by various intelligence community agencies." And that the officials "are already working with Director of National Intelligence to comply with the order of the President. "
The president's conservative allies have appealed this month directly to the president to publish the documents, and they praised Trump's directive as a victory for transparency. Like the president, they accused the Justice Ministry of hiding information that they said would undermine the investigation by the special prosecutor Robert S. Mueller III into Russian interference.
It was not immediately clear how soon the documents could be made public. In addition to ordering the declassification of the page order, Trump ordered the justice department to declassify the interviews conducted as part of its preparation. He also ordered the department to publish the investigation messages on former officials of the Department of Justice and the FBI, which he frequently criticized: former FBI director James B. Comey , former deputy director Andrew McCabe, former FBI lawyer Lisa Page Peter Strzok and former Justice Department official Bruce Ohr.
Thousands of text messages from Strzok and Page have already been made public. This is because the Inspector General discovered that the two people involved in the investigation in Russia and Hillary Clinton's investigation of Hillary Clinton's use of a private mail server were exchanging anti-Trump sentiments and that their communications were finally communicated to the Congress. .
Since the Washington Post revealed the existence of the page monitoring order last year, the details of the classified court orders were also released.
This summer, officials released heavily edited versions of the first FISA application in October 2016 and three renewals until September 2017.
[FBI obtained FISA warrant to monitor former Trump adviser Carter Page]
The unredacted parts of FISA's first claim explain in clear terms the FBI's suspicions that the Russians would recruit Page to act secretly as their agent, seeking to "undermine and influence the outcome of the 2016 US presidential election." ".
The unredacted part clearly shows that some of these suspicions are based on information provided by the former British spy Christopher Steele, who was hired by a US firm, Fusion GPS, to research Trump's possible links with the Russia. Although Fusion started working for a Republican donor, when Steele was hired, he worked for a law firm representing the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee.
These connections are at the heart of Trump's accusation against the FBI's investigation in Russia that it was rooted in the political opposition's pro-Democrat research. The president's supporters accused the FBI of abusing the government's surveillance powers to target a political foe, Trump. Current and former law enforcement officials vehemently rejected the allegations, saying they met the probable cause test for investigating Page and others for possibly acting on behalf of Russia. . Page had left the campaign before the start of electronic surveillance.
Trump supporters in Congress have argued that the release of the full document would show the unfair nature of surveillance. In particular, they focused on the first order of FISA in October. But the president's order focuses on the FISA's June 2017 pages – after Mueller was appointed special advisor to investigate Russian interference – which may contain more recent information on what the FBI found.
[ad_2]
Source link
