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. (our emphasis)With attention focused on the Kavanaugh debacle and the prosecutorial walls closing in on Putin asset Donald "Rump" Trump (a.k.a., "Agent Orange"), it was time to pull out all the stops and inject more self- serving poison into the American political bloodstream. As one example of the duplicity at work here, the Carter Page FISA warrant issued in October 2016 was never the catalyst for the FBI's undertaking its counterintelligence probe, as Agent Orange and his dutiful, lying lackey Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Kremlin) would have people believe. It was the babbling of Agent Orange advisor George Papadopoulos to Australian official Alexander Downer in May 2016, and Downer's subsequent tipping off American intelligence to Papadopoulous's inside knowledge that the Russians were in possession of Hillary Clinton emails. Moreover, the judges who signed off on the four FISA warrants were all Republicans -- not "angry Democrats". (For background, Lawfare unpacked the meaning of the original, redacted Page FISA warrants back in July.) The text messages and other documents related to the early days of the investigation will also be deceitfully cherry- picked to put Agent Orange and his co- conspirators in the best light, while dangerously compromising sources and methods.
As the documents are un- redacted, a monumental effort to change the narrative will be engaged in by Nunes and his corrupt cronies, the right- wing noise machine and, of course, Agent Orange working those tiny twitter digits. Exposing and countering this barrage of bullshit will be a test of the "democracy dies in darkness" posturing of the non- Republican media: will they have the courage and sense to cut through to the truth or will they allow the liars and traitors to continue to undercut democratic institutions and the on- going investigations? It will also be a test of the Department of Justice and FBI, as Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) notes:
President Trump has intervened again in a pending investigation by ordering the selective disclosure of classified materials he believes to be helpful to his defense. The DOJ and FBI have previously informed me that release of some of this information would cross a “red line.”— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) September 18, 2018
So, if these slugs are allowed to release bowdlerized information on the Trump- Russia scandal less than 60 days before an election, isn't it fair game for the Mueller team and Southern District of New York to feel free to drop some indictments now too?
BONUS: Agent Orange may have put himself in legal jeopardy again by declassifying the documents and exposing himself to a violation of the Privacy Act.
BONUS II: Marcy Wheeler on the distorted view Agent Orange and his co- conspirators want to present.
