Mystery solved: DOJ secretly thwarted release of Russia documents declassified by Trump

In the final hours of the Trump presidency, the U.S. Justice Department raised privacy concerns to thwart the release of hundreds of pages of documents that Donald Trump had declassified to expose FBI abuses during the Russia collusion probe.

• The previously untold story of how highly anticipated declassified material never became public is contained in a memo obtained by Just the News from the National Archives that was written by then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.

Meadows wrote in his 2021 memo that White House lawyers told him that the DOJ's last-minute concerns were not legitimate because the executive office of the president was exempt from the Privacy Act.

• Former Pentagon Chief of Staff Kash Patel, who worked as the chief investigative counsel for the House Intelligence Committee when it unraveled the false Russia narrative under then-Rep. Devin Nunes, said the DOJ’s defiance of a lawful presidential order only compounded the FBI's and department's failings during the original probe.

Tom Fitton, the president of Judicial Watch, said the documents in the binder are likely to be responsive to lawsuits his group has pending at the Justice Department and FBI for Russia probe documents and the 2021 memo from Meadows may make it easier to persuade a court to take action.

• If the documents are finally released, they will provide compelling evidence that congressional Democrats and FBI leaders who assured the public there was a Russia-Trump conspiracy actually knew what they were saying was untrue.

 

https://justthenews.com/accountability/russia-and-ukraine-scandals/mystery-solved-doj-secretly-thwarted-release-russia