Trump said on Friday that he met with the Department of Justice, who felt that releasing the documents could have a perceived negative impact on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing ‘Russiagate’ probe, and has received calls from allies asking that the documents not be released, due to their sensitive intelligence content.
The president said that he expects the Department’s Inspector General to “move quickly” on reviewing the documents, and warned that regardless of what the Department of Justice (DOJ) says, he “can always declassify if it proves necessary.”
Trump’s original order to declassify - issued Monday - instructed the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the Department of Justice – including the FBI – to immediately declassify pages 10-12 and 17-34 of the June 2017 application to the FISA court, used to justify surveillance of Carter Page, as well as “all FBI reports of interviews prepared in connection with all Carter Page FISA applications.”
FISA warrants are usually used to request surveillance of foreign spies within the United States.
Trump’s declassification order also applied to FBI interviews with Bruce Ohr, a former Department of Justice (DOJ ) official who met with British spy Christopher Steele, author of the "Trump dossier" funded by Hillary Clinton’s campaign through the opposition research firm Fusion GPS. Ohr’s wife, Nellie, was employed by Fusion GPS at the time.
It also applied to text messages of former FBI Director James Comey and Assistant Director Andrew McCabe, as well as former FBI agent Peter Strzok and former FBI lawyer Lisa Page, related to the Russia investigation.
