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.”
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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