9/17/2018 Trump to declassify documents relating to Russia investigation, Carter Page FISA warrant - CNNPolitics

Trump orders documents relating to Russia

investigation, Carter Page FISA warrant
declassified
By Sophie Tatum, Kate Sullivan and Laura Jarrett, CNN
Updated 7:52 PM ET, Mon September 17, 2018

Washington (CNN) — President Donald Trump ordered the declassification of various documents and text messages
related to the Russia investigation that both the House Intelligence and House Oversight committees have
requested.

The order included selective portions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act application on Carter Page and
"all FBI reports" prepared in connection with the FISA warrant request, according to a statement Monday from
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders.

The President also ordered the Justice Department to release all text messages related to the Russia investigation
from former FBI Director James Comey, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, former FBI agent Peter
Strzok, former FBI lawyer Lisa Page and Bruce Ohr, a Justice Department o cial. Trump has singled out all of
those individuals in the past with withering criticism, often on Twitter.

"When the President issues such an order, it triggers a declassification review process that is conducted by various
agencies within the intelligence community, in conjunction with the White House Counsel, to seek to ensure the
safety of America's national security interests. The Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are already
working with the Director of National Intelligence to comply with the President's order," a Justice Department
spokesperson said in a statement.

A source familiar with the declassification process confirmed to CNN that the public release will not happen
Monday night.

Democrats on Capitol Hill immediately decried the order.

"President Trump, in a clear abuse of power, has decided 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," said House Intelligence Committee ranking member Adam Schi in a statement. "With respect to
some of these materials, I have been previously informed by the FBI and Justice Department that they would
consider their release a red line that must not be crossed as they may compromise sources and methods."

Conservatives in the House of Representatives have been outspoken in calling on Trump to declassify materials
related to the Russia investigation for weeks, even though they acknowledged they are not sure whether the
documents will help or hurt their arguments about improper conduct in the probe.

"We don't know, which is why we need to see them," said Rep. Jim Jordan, an Ohio Republican who's a member
of the House Freedom Caucus and a leading critic of the Russia probe, when asked last week what he believes the

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9/17/2018 Trump to declassify documents relating to Russia investigation, Carter Page FISA warrant - CNNPolitics

declassified materials will show. "Transparency is a good thing, and the American people need to know what's in
there."

Trump's allies on Capitol Hill have for months championed the narrative that the FBI and the Justice Department
wrongfully obtained a surveillance order on Page, a Trump campaign foreign policy aide, under the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act. Their main argument focused on memos authored by former British intelligence
agent Christopher Steele, who Republicans believe harbored anti-Trump bias they claim was not fully disclosed in
the FISA application or its renewals.

Their latest e ort could backfire and upend the narrative House Republicans have spent months crafting, should
the declassified documents confirm the FBI had more than the dossier to justify the surveillance of Page and Ohr
was working appropriately in reporting leads in the Russia probe.

The FBI released redacted versions of the FISA warrant applications in July, which showed that the agency did
raise concerns that Page was a target of Russian recruitment and might have been working with the Kremlin. Page
has denied the allegations. A footnote also disclosed a political motivation behind the Steele dossier and said the
person behind it was likely looking for information to discredit Trump's campaign, but Trump did not order the vast
majority of that portion of the October 2016 FISA declassified Monday.

Some 30 members of Congress have reviewed largely unredacted versions of the highly sensitive FISA
applications, but several of the most vocal members of the current declassification campaign have not.

CNN's Manu Raju contributed to this report.

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