President Trump is going out in style. On his way out of the White House, President Trump declassified documents related to Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI’s investigation into the alleged links between Trump campaign officials and Russian officials during the 2016 election. Trump made the announcement in a memo sent to the Attorney General, CIA director, and Director of National Intelligence.
Townhall reports:
“At my request, on December 30, 2020, the Department of Justice provided the White House with a binder of materials related to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation. Portions of the documents in the binder have remained classified and have not been released to the Congress or the public. I requested the documents so that a declassification review could be performed and so I could determine to what extent materials in the binder should be released in unclassified form,” Trump wrote. “I determined that the materials in that binder should be declassified to the maximum extent possible. In response, and as part of the iterative process of the declassification review, under a cover letter dated January 17, 2021, the Federal Bureau of Investigation noted its continuing objection to any further declassification of the materials in the binder and also, on the basis of a review that included Intelligence Community equities, identified the passages that it believed it was most crucial to keep from public disclosure. I have determined to accept the redactions proposed for continued classification by the FBI in that January 17 submission.”
“I hereby declassify the remaining materials in the binder. This is my final determination under the declassification review and I have directed the Attorney General to implement the redactions proposed in the FBI’s January 17 submission and return to the White House an appropriately redacted copy,” Trump wrote. “My decision to declassify materials within the binder is subject to the limits identified above and does not extend to materials that must be protected from disclosure pursuant to orders of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and does not require the disclosure of certain personally identifiable information or any other materials that must be protected from disclosure under applicable law. Accordingly, at my direction, the Attorney General has conducted an appropriate review to ensure that materials provided in the binder may be disclosed by the White House in accordance with applicable law.”
The content of some documents will remain a secret and the documents will be made available to the public once the FBI completes redactions. The move comes after Senator Lindsey Graham released some transcripts from his Judiciary Committee investigation into Crossfire Hurricane. [KEEP READING: Lindsey Graham Slams Russia Probe, Releases New Documents]
