Trump Announces Declassification of Russia Collusion, Clinton Email Probe Documents

U.S. President Donald Trump listens during a phone call with Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, in his conference room at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., on Oct. 4, 2020. Tia Dufour/The White House via AP

President Donald Trump announced in a Twitter post late on Tuesday he has authorized the “total” declassification of all documents relating to the Russia collusion and Hillary Clinton email probes.

“I have fully authorized the total Declassification of any & all documents pertaining to the single greatest political CRIME in American History, the Russia Hoax. Likewise, the Hillary Clinton Email Scandal. No redactions!” he wrote at around 8:40 p.m. ET. He did not elaborate on the nature of the documents.

Later, he wrote that he “can’t believe these con men are not yet being PROSECUTED,” referring to former FBI officials.

Earlier this week, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said that Trump, while he was being treated for the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus in the hospital, authorized him to declassify the information.

“This morning we’ve already had a couple of discussions on items that he wants to get done,” Meadows said an interview with Fox News. “Candidly, he’s already tasked me with getting declassification rolling in a follow-up to some of the requests that Devin Nunes and others have made,” he said, referring to Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee.

Meadows also didn’t disclose what documents Trump was working on declassifying.

It came as House Republicans said they would fight efforts from U.S. intelligence agencies to block the disclosure of classified information surrounding the probe into whether Russia colluded with Trump in the 2016 election.

Nunes told Fox that he would not rule out an overhaul of the entire intelligence community.

“We want every damn bit of evidence that every intelligence agency has, or it’s maybe time to shut those agencies down,” the California Republican said. “Because, at the end of the day … our liberties are more important than anything else we have in this country. And they have been stampeded over by these dirty cops.”

Nunes said that memos from Christopher Steele, who authored the controversial and discredited Steele dossier about Trump, should be published. Steele, a former UK intelligence officer, was hired by Clinton’s campaign to come up with alleged links between Russia and Trump.

Top Democrats and the former Obama administration’s CIA director, John Brennan, cried foul over the recent developments.

Rep. John Ratcliffe, (R-Texas), is sworn in before a Senate Intelligence Committee nomination hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on May 5, 2020. Andrew Harnik-Pool/Getty Images

Brennan told CNN that current Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe is selectively declassifying information to boost Trump ahead of the November election. Ratcliffe made a decision to declassify notes written by Brennan after he briefed former President Barack Obama on intelligence related to Russian security service saying Clinton approved “a proposal from one of her foreign policy advisers to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by the Russian security service.”

“John Ratcliffe is anything but an intelligence professional. It is appalling his selective declassification of information. It is designed to advance the political interests of Donald Trump and Republicans who are aligned with him,” Brennan said.

Democrats accused Ratcliffe of spreading disinformation from Russia. However, Radcliffe told news outlets that such claims are false.

“To be clear, this is not Russian disinformation and has not been assessed as such by the intelligence community. I’ll be briefing Congress on the sensitive sources and methods by which it was obtained in the coming days,” he said to Fox News.

Ivan Pentchuokov contributed to this report.