President Donald Trump just ordered James Comey‘s text messages to be released to the public without redaction. Along with Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, and Bruce Ohr.
Trump also just abused his power by interfering in the Russia probe.
“The president…issuing orders to DOJ in the middle of an investigation into his own campaign and associates,” CNN‘s Jim Acosta pointed out, as we all received a statement from the White House Press Secretary telling us that Trump has directed the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Justice (including the FBI) to declassify materials the House Republicans have wanted to make public.
The president…issuing orders to DOJ in the middle of an investigation into his own campaign and associates. https://t.co/ULBzaE2e4P
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— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) September 17, 2018
Here’s the statement from the Press Secretary sent to PoliticusUSA at 5:26 PM Monday afternoon:
At the request of a number of committees of Congress, and for reasons of transparency, the President has directed the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Justice (including the FBI) to provide for the immediate declassification of the following materials: (1) pages 10-12 and 17-34 of the June 2017 application to the FISA court in the matter of Carter W. Page; (2) all FBI reports of interviews with Bruce G. Ohr prepared in connection with the Russia investigation; and (3) all FBI reports of interviews prepared in connection with all Carter Page FISA applications.
In addition, President Donald J. Trump has directed the Department of Justice (including the FBI) to publicly release all text messages relating to the Russia investigation, without redaction, of James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, and Bruce Ohr.
This is not the move of a confident, powerful person who is in control of the narrative.
The President should not be directing the DoJ on its own investigation into him and or his campaign. There is supposed to be a wall up between the White House and the DoJ. Recall, if you will, the Republican freak out when Bill Clinton was seen talking to former AG (2015 to 2017) Loretta Lynch on the tarmac in Phoenix, Arizona.
Trump is trying desperately to change the subject to one his conservative warriors can win. If he has to break a few norms to get there, no biggie. The law, after all, doesn’t apply to him. Or so he thinks.
Trump is abusing his power and desperately trying to give his cult someone to chew on, somewhere to direct their relentless rage and growing impotency. Of course, they won’t care that publicizing someone’s text messages for real no reason but to send a message of warning others about private conversations being used against them by their government is obscene.
The larger story is how out of control this president is, and how much he needs to be checked by people who are willing to do their Constitutional duty.
Listen to Sarah on the PoliticusUSA Pod on The Daily newsletter podcast here.
Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.
Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
Connect with Sarah on Post, Mastodon @PoliticusSarah@Journa.Host, & Twitter.
