On Monday, Donald Trump ordered the FBI to immediately declassify a number of documents related to procurement of the FISA warrant against Trump adviser Carter Page. Trump has also ordered the release of transcripts from FBI interviews with Justice Department official Bruce Ohr. And Trump has ordered the FBI to publically produce all text messages related to the Russia investigation from Ohr, FBI director James Comey, deputy director Andrew McCabe, special agent Peter Szrok, FBI attorney Lisa Page. This is being done for the express purpose of undermining the Russia investigation.
We have been here before. This effort is the direct follow-on of the Republican Congressman Devin Nunes’ “release the memo” memo, and of earlier documents which Trump declassified in July. Those earlier releases were done over the objection of both the FBI and DOJ who warned that in releasing the information, Trump was threatening both sources and methods of the agencies and damaging an ongoing investigation. With this order, Trump has made it blindingly clear that the intent of his actions is just that: Damage the FBI, demean the DOJ, out sources, reveal methods, and attempt to cripple the Russia investigation … and, of course, any other investigation that gets in the way.
At each step, Trump and Nunes have thundered that the documents would prove that the investigation into Carter Page was based entirely on the memos from former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele, thereby invalidating the entire Trump–Russia investigation. However, both previous attempts to undermine the investigation have only reminded people of three things: The investigation was already underway when the FBI made its application for what was only the last in a series of FISA warrants against Carter Page, Steele’s information made up only a small part of a warrant application that was approved by a Republican-appointed judge, and Steele’s memos themselves are sporting a pretty good record when it comes to accuracy over the long term.
Trump’s last ah-ha presentation of documents fizzles so badly that even the Republican leadership brought in to view the information, left without making a statement. That’s why this time Trump isn’t trusting them. He and Nunes are turning to their true allies—the alt-Reich media and the on-line communities that have given them the ludicrous Pizzagate and its bastard offspring QAnon. Trump and Nunes are timing the release of this information so that their fans get a drop of thousands of texts and hundreds of documents just days before the midterm election. That’s not coincidental at all.
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