President Trump in an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity said he “absolutely” has plans to “declassify and release” the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants and related documents used by the FBI to probe his campaign.
Now that Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election has concluded and found no evidence of collusion by Trump or his campaign associates, the President is reportedly open to appointing a second special counsel to investigate what led to the Russia probe in the first place.
During his interview with Hannity aired Wednesday night, the President made it very clear that he has plans, at the very least, to release the full and un-redacted FISA documents that indicate the FBI relied on the so-called “dossier” which gave birth to the Russia-Trump collusion story in the media.
"I do, I have plans to declassify and release. I have plans to absolutely release," Trump said. "I have some very talented people working for me, lawyers, they really didn't want me to do it early on."
He added that his administration will be “getting to the bottom of it" and that “this can never, ever happen to a president again.”
“That was a disgrace and an embarrassment to our country,” said Trump. “Hopefully they won't get away with it.”
As Fox News reports,
Redacted versions of FISA documents already released revealed that the FBI extensively relied on documents produced by Christopher Steele, an anti-Trump British ex-spy working for a firm funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee, to surveil Trump aide Carter Page. At least one senior DOJ official had apparent concerns Steele was unreliable, according to text messages exclusively obtained last week by Fox News.
The leaked dossier, and related FBI surveillance, kickstarted a media frenzy on alleged Russia-Trump collusion that ended with a whimper on Sunday, when it was revealed Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe concluded finding no evidence of such a conspiracy, despite several offers by Russians to help the Trump campaign. Page was never charged with wrongdoing.
(Cover Photo: Flickr / Gage Skidmore)