'Off the charts': National security experts sound the alarm after Trump moves to selectively declassify the Carter Page FISA application

Trump called for the immediate declassification of certain portions of the Page FISA application, some of which appear to include information about confidential sources and methods.
The release of FISAs like this is off the charts," wrote one former Justice Department official.
Another former federal prosecutor from the Southern District of New York called Trump's decision an "incredibly dangerous move that sets a really troubling precedent."

Former law-enforcement officials and national security experts sounded the alarm on Monday, after the White House announced that President Donald Trump had ordered the immediate declassification of select portions of an FBI application to surveil a former Trump campaign aide.

The warrant to monitor that aide, Carter Page, was granted under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The Department of Justice (DOJ) released the application, with significant redactions, earlier this year amid heightened cries from Trump and his Republican allies that the FBI had planted a spy within his campaign to cripple it during the 2016 election.

On Monday, Trump demanded the declassification of several pages of a June 2017 application to renew the Page FISA warrant, as well as FBI interviews and reports connected to the surveillance.

David Kris, the former assistant attorney general for national security and an expert on FISA, didn't mince words when he reacted to the news.

The FISA process is arguably one of the most sensitive and secretive methods that the US government uses when it comes to gathering foreign intelligence.

The application process that goes into obtaining a FISA warrant targeting a US person involves multiple levels of authorization from senior FBI and DOJ officials, as well as permission from a FISA court judge.

Trump asked the DOJ and FBI to declassify pages 10 to 12 and 17 to 34 of the Page FISA application.

One of those sections appears to relate to the time period that Page worked on Trump's campaign as a foreign policy adviser.

Trump did not ask the DOJ and FBI to declassify subsequent portions of the document that detail Page's activities and Russian efforts to recruit him as an agent before he joined the campaign.

The president also did not order the declassification of another part of the document that details information Page provided to the FBI during an earlier interview, or sections that go over Russia's attempts to recruit New York City residents as intelligence assets.

Christopher Steele BusinessInsider

Pages 17 to 34 of the application, which Trump moved to declassify, deal with Page's possible coordination with Russian government officials on activities designed to influence the 2016 election.

Crucially, several parts of this section appear to contain information about confidential sources that Steele used while compiling his dossier, as well as Steele's own history as an FBI source.

Several top congressional Democrats, like House Intelligence Committee ranking member Adam Schiff and minority leader Nancy Pelosi, also warned that the declassification and release of some materials Trump requested could endanger sources and methods.

Elie Honig, a former federal prosecutor from the Southern District of New York, called Trump's decision an "incredibly dangerous move that sets a really troubling precedent."

"To say you're going to throw open the information in a FISA warrant for plainly political purposes is incredibly reckless," he added.

Kris echoed that view.

'Off the charts': National security experts sound the alarm after Trump moves to selectively declassify the Carter Page FISA application

Enhance Your Pulse News Experience!

JOIN OUR PULSE COMMUNITY!