On Monday, President Trump ordered that various documents and text messages related to the ongoing Russia investigation be declassified. Justifying this order, Trump cited “reasons of transparency.” Although increased government transparency is a laudable goal, Trump’s actions aren’t motivated by transparency and are instead an example of Trump playing games with classified information for personal gain. It’s a short-term bet that will have long-term consequences.
Trump ordered that the Justice Department and Office of the Director of National Intelligence begin the process of “immediate declassification” of certain parts of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act application, known as a FISA warrant, that allowed surveillance of former campaign aide, Carter Page. Trump also ordered the release of unredacted text messages “related to the Russia investigation” from James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Bruce Ohr, as well as Peter Strzok and Lisa Page.
Championing the push for declassification, Trump tweeted, “Really bad things were happening, but they are now being exposed. Big stuff!”
There are a couple of problems with the president’s actions here.
First, Trump is not doing this out of any commitment to transparency. Instead, he is allowing for the release of information against his “enemies” that have been the subject of presidential vitriol as an act of retribution. Calling this a move for greater transparency detracts from real calls for government transparency that would serve the interest of the people, not the narrow interests of the man in the Oval Office.
[Adam Schiff: ‘Clear abuse of power’ for Trump to have Russia-related documents declassified]
Besides, Trump’s previous actions have made it quite clear on where he stands on sharing information with the public (starting with his refusal to release his tax returns).
Second, Trump is releasing this information over the objections of intelligence officials. The documents that Trump wants released likely contain information that sheds light on both the FISA process and on how the intelligence community operates, including confidential sources. While greater information about these processes is generally good, it should be released in a responsible manner that doesn’t potentially jeopardize law enforcement or intelligence gathering.
Third, since there is an open and ongoing investigation into the Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign by releasing information that is part of the campaign, that action may find its way into a case for presidential obstruction of justice. That wouldn’t do Trump or the GOP any favors.
The release also shows that Trump, even now, has an unclear game plan. Instead of carefully thinking through the implications of his actions or how the might work against him, out of frustration, Trump seems to be grasping in the dark for anything that might help him in the moment – and the release may well help Trump in the short term by focusing the media spotlight on FBI bias likely giving Republicans a boost in the midterm elections.
In the long term, however, his actions likely do irreversible damage to Republican credibility on pushing for real transparency, cautioning against presidential overreach, and set a precedent for releasing classified information as a political weapon that will likely bite back in the future.
Perhaps most importantly, the ordered release also can easily be understood as a presidential attempt to undermine the Muller investigation and, in doing so, eats into the best hope for clearing up the Russia collusion mess: an untainted investigation that determines Trump was not at fault and that there really was no collusion.
