Timothy Birdnow

Well now he's done it! Donald Trump has gone and declassified those redacted documents.

According to Fox News:

"White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Trump had ordered the documents released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the Justice Department "[a]t the request of a number of committees of Congress, and for reasons of transparency."

The documents to be declassified also include all FBI reports on interviews with Justice Department official Bruce Ohr and all FBI reports of interviews prepared in connection with all other applications to surveil Carter Page.

Trump also ordered the Justice Department to release text messages from a number of the key players in the Russia investigation "without redaction" -- including Ohr, Strzok, Lisa Page, former FBI Director James Comey and former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe."

End excerpt.

Many have been puzzled by Trump's unwillingness to declassify these, despite the demands of Congress. But it need not be confusing; Trump has a keenly defined sense of timing, and he needed to wait on this to maximize the effects of this. And he had to wait so as to avoid accusations of obstruction of justice. He clearly waited to allow the wheels of justice aka the Mueller probe to wind down.

Why now? It would have been more effective to wait, but the Democrats forced his hand with their attack on Brett Kavanaugh. Trump needed to retake control of the media news cycle. He just did with this.

And whatever happened to the public's right to know? Seems the media always used to demand that, until it is their own oxen being gored.

Now we'll see how much attention this gets.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 10:41 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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