Trump Allows Barr to Declassify Surveillance Documents on 2016 Campaign
Not all information will come out to the public due to national security concerns.
President Donald Trump granted Attorney General William Barr permission to declassify the documents related to surveillance on his 2016 presidential campaign. From Fox News:
Trump also ordered the intelligence community to cooperate with Barr. The memo read: “The heads of elements of the intelligence community… and the heads of each department or agency that includes an element of the intelligence community shall promptly provide such assistance and information as the Attorney General may request in connection with that review.”
“Today, at the request and recommendation of the Attorney General of the United States, President Donald J. Trump directed the intelligence community to quickly and fully cooperate with the Attorney General’s investigation into surveillance activities during the 2016 Presidential election,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement.
However, not all of the information will come out to the public due to national security:
“With respect to any matter classified under Executive Order 13526 of December 29, 2009 (Classified National Security Information), the Attorney General may, by applying the standard set forth in either section 3.1(a) or section 3.1(d) of Executive Order 13526, declassify, downgrade, or direct the declassification or downgrading of information or intelligence that relates to the Attorney General’s review referred to in section 1 of this memorandum,” the memo said. “Before exercising this authority, the Attorney General should, to the extent he deems it practicable, consult with the head of the originating intelligence community element or department. This authority is not delegable and applies notwithstanding any other authorization or limitation set forth in Executive Order 13526.”
“Today, at the request and recommendation of the Attorney General of the United States, President Donald J. Trump directed the intelligence community to quickly and fully cooperate with the Attorney General’s investigation into surveillance activities….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 24, 2019
….during the 2016 Presidential election. The Attorney General has also been delegated full and complete authority to declassify information pertaining to this investigation, in accordance with the long-established standards for handling classified information….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 24, 2019
….Today’s action will help ensure that all Americans learn the truth about the events that occurred, and the actions that were taken, during the last Presidential election and will restore confidence in our public institutions.” @PressSec
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 24, 2019
After he received Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report, Barr found more questions than answers regarding the origins of the Trump-Russia collusion investigation.
The FBI formed the investigation, known as Crossfire Hurricane, on July 26 after Australian diplomat Alexander Downer told the agency “that Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos told him Russia had damaging information on Hillary Clinton, Trump’s Democratic rival in the 2016 election.”
Barr assigned Connecticut US Attorney John Durham “to conduct the inquiry into alleged misconduct and alleged improper government surveillance on the Trump campaign in 2016 as well as whether Democrats improperly colluded with foreign actors.” Durham will work on the time before Election Day in November 2016, “including the use of FBI informants, as well as alleged improper issuance of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants.”
The Department of Justice inspector general has already started his own investigation into the “Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants against former Trump campaign aide Carter Page.”
Trump has long lashed out over the surveillance of his campaign in 2016. Other GOP lawmakers have questions as well, which these documents may provide answers. From The Washington Examiner:
The inquiry could provide clarity to questions GOP investigators have been eager to answer for more than a year, including whether the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation began earlier than July 2016; the scope of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation; the full extent of the FBI’s use of British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s unverified dossier containing salacious claims about Trump’s ties to Russia by various agencies; what role, if any, foreign intelligence agencies played; who pushed for the dossier to be included in the intelligence community assessment on Russian election interference; the full extent of the use of spies or confidential informants against the Trump campaign; and matters related to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
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Comments
It’s about time that this happened.
The irony is so very rich coming so soon after Pelosi accused the president of a cover-up (of what we know not).
Now, it will be a ‘selective’ cover up.
These will clearly be documents that the American public should never be shown and will damange our relationship with our allies.
(I should write talking points for MSNBC)
‘Allies’? We’ll just agree to disagree that the UK is an ‘ally’, allies don’t assist coups against your country.
^^^
This
Pelosi says he is releasing information to cover up his crime. What his crime is, she doesn’t say.
more democratic double speak, the democrats do Orwell proud.
She’s an obnoxious a-hole, and last time around where she was plastered across the news, she was booted out of the House Hystericalship position.
Barr better not let himself get tricked by any national security concerns, most if not all of which are bogus. The Deep State will try to hide behind them.
Let it all hang out.
The intelligence agencies, all of them, have violated and thereby forfeited the public trust.
They’ve had three years to look over this material. They should not be given another minute.
True this.. ’embarassing’ is not grounds for classifying information. Obummer in his one true good act actually created an executive order forbidding agencies from classifying information merely because its release would be embarassing for that agency. Sad that they all ignore that one good EO.
Now we know why the Democrats have been so panicky recently with their shrill demands for stuff they have no constitutional right to.
I suspect a world of hurt is a out to descend upon them.
“House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff accused Trump and Barr of trying to “conspire to weaponize law enforcement and classified information against their political enemies.”
“The coverup has entered a new and dangerous phase,” Schiff said in a statement released late Thursday. “This is un-American.””
Schiff-for-brains knows what this means except the Dems actually did weaponize this stuff. Also, Orwell would notice that releasing information is covering up information.
Projection. They are not fooling anyone.
This Cspan video is want blow this thing wide open for me. Schiff was smoking Russian smoke out his back end on things that were clearly China and North Korean. At this point I knew they has scripted the cover-up fake Russian crap.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?422656-1/representative-adam-schiff-discusses-russian-election-year-hacking
Gitmo and waterboard him until he is smart.
https://twitter.com/RepAdamSchiff/status/1131740851909083137
Yes, Schiff, because nothing says ‘stonewall’ and coverup like declassifying everything. Does anybody take this clown seriously?
I like that Trump also ordered the IC community to comply – he used the “shall promptly” term. This is potentially another way of getting rid of some mid level people if they do not comply. We can hope.
Maybe some chickens will come home to roost
Not holding my breath
Don’t care what they release, it will always be Orange Man Bad
Almost, Orange Man is Badass!
Of course all of this is limited to material related to the spying the Obama-era agencies were doing on Campaign Trump. It doesn’t obviously include investigation of other FBI/CIA/DoJ/etc crimes, such as destruction of evidence in the matter of Hillary’s e-mails.
I think you missed the importance of including the Departments of Energy, Treasury and State – think Uranium One and the Clinton foundation.
Well, the order is fairly specific about the “improper government surveillance” thing, and that wouldn’t obviously include material related to those other crimes.
Wouldn’t surprise me if Treasury and Energy had a set of ears on Trump, the FBI, and the DOJ in order to give an early warning to Hillary and to scuttle FOIA requests.
Maybe Assange is ready to release the dogs.
Let some truth rain down to wash away some of this dem filth.
What are they going to do about Wray? He is clearly corrupt and involved in a cover up.
“I’m speculating, really,” Rep. Jerrold Nadler tells Rachel Maddow last night after declaring that the reason Robert Mueller won’t testify in public is Republican questioning.
When you headed up a group of 19 angry Democrats, the last thing in the world you want is Republican questioning.
‘The FBI formed the investigation, known as Crossfire Hurricane, on July 26 after Australian diplomat Alexander Downer told the agency “that Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos told him Russia had damaging information on Hillary Clinton, Trump’s Democratic rival in the 2016 election.”’
That’s what the FBI wants you to believe, but it’s already been debunked. The ‘investigation’ began much earlier.
Ahem. Let me channel what the Dems have been spewing for the last two years.
“I don’t know why anybody would object to this investigation. I mean if nothing really was illegal, one would think they would welcome having the FBI dig up the facts behind the accusations and present them to the American people, and the sooner the better.”
Sauce for the goose… Only this time, we have a real crime being investigated.
As I’ve said before, the real key to this will be log files. The stated reason for the FISA warrants was to investigate foreign intelligence communications by the subjects, but if we see no curiosity at all in foreign contacts and thousands of unmasking and queries for Trump campaign officials, the real objective becomes obvious.
Isn’t it obvious that the Democrats acted in a seditious manner and should be tried for it?
It started with Eric Holder and his transferring guns to Mexico.
Considering obama, clinton and the rest of the gang are sweating like pigs right now, they might need this:
The 16 Best Deodorants on the Market:
https://www.allure.com/gallery/best-deodorant-reviews
“National security” my a**!
The Brits and Aussies messed up…..so anything that involves their crooked participation, won’t be released. elease it ALL….screw ‘m!
This is genius. Give the top prosecutor in the US control over the evidence he needs to declassify. Doesn’t this suggest that AG Barr is getting ready to start collecting scalps?