Ignoring Security Concerns, Trump to Make Russia Documents Public

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump ordered law enforcement and intelligence officials to declassify documents related to the Russia investigation and other inquiries, White House officials said Monday, the latest instance of the president siding with Republican allies on Capitol Hill over federal law enforcement.

Trump decided to declassify text messages about the Russia inquiry from a handful of law enforcement officials, summaries of interviews in the case and documents related to the surveillance of a former Trump campaign aide investigated for his links to Russia. For months, Trump and some of his most fervent congressional supporters have clamored for the material’s release against the protests of the intelligence and law enforcement communities.

The move is all but certain to further deteriorate Trump’s relationship with law enforcement officials. As part of their monthslong attacks on the Russia investigation, the president and his allies have accused law enforcement officials of improperly obtaining a secret warrant to wiretap Carter Page, a campaign adviser. Little evidence has emerged to back the Republicans’ assertions, and Democrats have accused them in return of politicizing a legitimate inquiry with major national security implications.

Justice Department officials originally received authorization to wiretap Page from the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in October 2016. Among the materials being prepared for release are nearly two dozen pages of the Justice Department’s last renewal of its application. The wiretap was renewed three times, including once by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who supervises the special counsel investigation.

Much of the application was previously released in July, angering the intelligence community and members of law enforcement who believed the information should not have been made public and that its release set a dangerous precedent by making public secret methods of investigation.

Former and current FBI officials have expressed concern that Republican efforts to out the materials could have long-lasting consequences, making it harder to recruit informants willing to help with investigations who are the lifeblood of law enforcement.

But without the president’s backing, the protracted fight over the materials has left the Justice Department and FBI with little recourse to protect the materials from being made public.

Trump also told the Justice Department to release without redactions all text messages of four former FBI officials who worked on the investigation into Russia’s 2016 election interference and whether any Trump associates conspired with it. Those officials included former FBI Director James Comey and former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.

A Justice Department spokesman said the FBI and the department were working to comply with Trump’s order.

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., one of the president’s most ardent supporters on Capitol Hill, praised Trump’s decision in a statement and said it came in the face of “unnecessary delays, redactions and refusals.”

“These documents will reveal to the American people some of the systemic corruption and bias that took place at the highest levels of the DOJ and FBI, including using the tools of our intelligence community for partisan political ends,” Gaetz said.

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the ranking minority member on the House Intelligence Committee, accused the president of abusing his power “to intervene in a pending law enforcement investigation by ordering the selective release of materials he believes are helpful to his defense team and thinks will advance a false narrative.”

In addition to parts of the application, Trump also ordered the director of national intelligence and law enforcement officials to declassify FBI interviews about the case with Bruce Ohr, a Justice Department official who has been caught up in Trump’s attacks on national security officials.

Ohr, a veteran prosecutor who fought Russian organized crime for years, met repeatedly with a British spy who specialized in Russia, Christopher Steele, who compiled a dossier of explosive, unverified claims about Trump during the 2016 campaign. Steele was also an FBI informant, but agents ended that relationship in late 2016 because he had spoken to journalists about the work he did for the bureau.

Steele investigated ties between Trump and Russia for the same research firm, Fusion GPS, where Ohr’s wife was a contractor.

Ohr met with Steele almost a dozen times from late 2016 to May 2017, according to congressional officials. FBI agents interviewed Ohr after the meetings and documented the information.

Ohr was the only current official singled out by Trump when he announced this summer that he was reviewing the clearances of several national security officials. Trump has repeatedly attacked Ohr, calling for him on Twitter to be fired.