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WASHINGTON – The Justice Department has managed, for now, to convince President Donald Trump to downgrade secret documents relating to the ongoing criminal investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 elections.
The White House said earlier this week that Trump had ordered the Justice Department to immediately decommission some previously drafted parts of a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act application regarding Carter Page, a former Trump campaigner overseen by the government. during the 2016 campaign. The publication of the classified documents would have marked an extraordinary intervention in the investigation in Russia, led by the special advisor Robert Mueller since May 2017.
Drew Angerer / Getty Images President Donald Trump had ordered the Department of Justice to declassify some previously drafted parts of a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act application regarding Carter Page (above), a former Trump campaign advisor, before the President change of opinion.
But Trump brought back Friday morning a series of tweets saying that the Justice Department had said at a meeting that the publication of the documents "could have a negative impact on the investigation in Russia". Trump said that he could "always downgrade if that proved necessary."
"Speed is very important to me – and to everyone!" Wrote Trump.
A spokesman for the Justice Department declined to comment, while a representative of the Inspector General of the Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump, in an interview with John Solomon and Buck Sexton of The Hill, said he wanted to release the documents because he had been asked by "so many people I respect" before listing a certain number of hosts Fox News and Fox Business Network. : "The great Lou Dobbs, the great Sean Hannity, the wonderful and great Jeanine Pirro."
Trump had also asked the government to publish all text messages exchanged by former FBI attorney, Lisa Page and former FBI agent Peter Strzok about the investigation of Russia, as well as the texts of other officials of the Ministry of Justice and the FBI. It turned out that Trump's statement – referring to "various documents NOT DEACTIVATED" – also applied to the publication of these texts.
Leah Millis / Reuters Part of the documents Trump had asked the Department of Justice to declassify were texts exchanged between former FBI lawyer Lisa Page (above) and former FBI agent Peter Strzok.
Trump's Republican defenders on Capitol Hill looked at various text messages exchanged by Strzok and Page to delegitimize Mueller's investigation, which has already destroyed a number of Trump's key associates. DOJ Inspector General, in a report criticizing the FBI's handling of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign, said the messages exchanged by Strzok and Page have damaged the FBI's reputation
Ryan Reilly is the senior judicial reporter for HuffPost. It covers the Department of Justice, Federal Enforcement, Criminal Justice and Legal Affairs. Have a tip? Reach him at [email protected] or on Signal at 202-527-9261.
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