White House press secretary Sarah Sanders signaled Monday that President Trump could be open to releasing an unredacted version of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act application used to surveil Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, something Republicans are pushing for as they investigate whether the FBI leaned too heavily on Democrat-funded dossier on Trump as part of its decision.
A redacted version of the application was released over the weekend, and when asked whether Trump might push his Justice Department to release the entire document, Sanders said Trump wants transparency, but also wants to avoid directing the process as much as possible.
“The president wants transparency in this process,” Sanders said on Fox News. “I think what you can see even just from the information that has been released is that the president’s been right all along, that this is a total waste of time and certainly a waste of taxpayer money.”
“This campaign had nothing to do with Russia, but it had everything to do with a great message to defeat Hillary Clinton,” she said.
When asked why Trump isn’t involved in the process, Sanders indicated that he could become involved at some point.
“That remains to be seen,” she said. “The president would like this to operate independent of him, but he certainly has asked for the Department of Justice to be transparent in this process, and if there are questions which clearly there remain to be some, we hope that they’ll step up and help answer those questions.”
