The tables are turning on the intelligence officials who played a role in the phony Russia collusion investigation.
On Thursday, a federal judge ordered the Department of Justice to hand over the infamous memos that James Comey created during his private conversations with President Trump for review by the court and possible public release. Comey’s leaking of those memos played a role in the appointment of Robert Mueller to investigate collusion between Trump and Russia.
News outlets have been fighting a legal battle to get the memos since 2017, but the DOJ and FBI have opposed their release. The DOJ must now hand over everything to the court, including sealed arguments to the court justifying the memos’ secrecy.
DOJ ordered to hand over Comey memos
The memos first went public in a New York Times story on May 16, 2017, shortly after Trump fired Comey on May 9. In testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee that June, Comey admitted to leaking one of his memos to the press through a friend to force the appointment of a special counsel.
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Robert Mueller on May 17, 2017, just a week after Comey was fired and one day after the Times story.
Outlets including CNN, USA Today, and Judicial Watch began seeking the full memos in 2017 when their existence became public knowledge, and while much of their contents eventually became public, other information remained redacted. Then, on Thursday, Judge James E. Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that the FBI and DOJ must hand over the Comey memos.
The DOJ has justified blocking the documents’ release on the basis that their disclosure would interfere with the Mueller investigation. As recently as this month, the DOJ argued their release “would reveal information about the focus and scope of the Special Counsel Office’s investigation that have not been officially publicly disclosed, and which if disclosed now could reasonably be expected to cause…potential harms.”
However, with the conclusion of Mueller’s investigation last Friday, that argument no longer holds water. Mueller finished his probe Friday with no new indictments, and in a Sunday letter to Congress summarizing Mueller’s findings, Attorney General William Barr exonerated President Trump of collusion and obstruction of justice. Trump’s firing of Comey had kicked off the obstruction of justice part of the investigation.
In the memo that Comey leaked to the Times, Comey claimed that Trump asked him to drop the investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who later pleaded guilty to lying to investigators in Mueller’s probe about discussions he had with a Russian ambassador during the presidential transition. Comey said that he feared Trump was attempting to obstruct justice.
In an interview after Mueller exonerated Trump, Comey said that he accepted Mueller’s finding of no collusion but defended his role in setting off the investigation, saying there was “enough smoke” to warrant a probe.
Comeuppance for Deep State?
The FBI and DOJ have until Monday, April 1 to release the documents. Perhaps more significantly, the DOJ and FBI will also have to hand over documents explaining their justification for blocking the documents’ release.
CNN has been seeking the DOJ’s sealed court arguments for blocking the documents. In a February 2018 opinion, the court said it was persuaded that releasing the memos would impede Mueller’s investigation by arguments made in sealed declarations by FBI Section Chief David Hardy, FBI Deputy Assistant Director in the Counterintelligence Division David Archey, and an attorney from Robert Mueller’s office.
The court also reviewed the memos themselves. In its February 2018 opinion, the court said it was not initially convinced that the agencies demonstrated a need for secrecy, and sought more information on how the memos would impact the Mueller probe in a sealed ex parte hearing with Mueller attorney Michael Dreeben. After that proceeding, the court was “fully convinced.”
What the FBI said to sway the court has raised questions. In its complaint, CNN also noted that the FBI released the memos in redacted form to Congress in April of 2018. CNN argued that the agencies’ handing over the memos to Congress proved their argument for secrecy was “overblown,” and the network demanded to know why the agencies insisted on keeping the memos from the public for so long.
Judge Boasberg will now review the sealed documents to determine what, if anything, to release to the public.
Meanwhile, Trump is seeking to “get to the bottom” of how Russiagate started. He plans to declassify documents related to the FISA warrants the Obama Justice Department sought to spy on his campaign.
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