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| © Reuters / David Gray |
A binder full of documents pertaining to the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation into claims that President Donald Trump “colluded” with Russia in 2016 may yet see the light of day, but with crucial passages still redacted.
The Justice Department provided Trump with the documents on December 30, but the FBI took until this past Sunday to review them and told the outgoing president they had a “continuing objection to any further declassification of the materials.”
However, the Bureau also “identified the passages that it believed it was most crucial to keep from public disclosure,” according to a White House memo sent out to the press on Tuesday evening.
INBOX: Memorandum on Declassification of Certain Materials Related to the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane Investigation pic.twitter.com/4qONVZgBdy
— Josh Caplan (@joshdcaplan) January 19, 2021
“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 Jan. 17 submission and return to the White House an appropriately redacted copy,” the memo said. It remains unclear when the materials would actually be made public.
The order comes hours after CIA Director Gina Haspel announced her retirement, ahead of Joe Biden’s impending inauguration. One of the things the memo notes is that the FBI’s redactions were made “on the basis of a review that included Intelligence Community equities.”
Trump originally ordered the declassification of all documents related to the Russia probe in September 2018 – only to cave to the FBI and spies when they urged him to reconsider to protect “allies.” The issue basically disappeared until after the retirement of DNI Dan Coats in August 2019.
By that point, all sorts of FBI documents were already being released to the public as part of the appeals process in the trial of General Michael Flynn, charged by Special Counsel Mueller with lying to the FBI as part of the Russiagate probe. Though a number of campaign officials were jailed for process and unrelated crimes, Mueller’s final report found no trace of “collusion” with Russia in the 2016 US presidential election.
Last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee released its own documents about the Russiagate probe, declassifying interviews with the officials involved.
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