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MARK MEADOWS SAYS DOJ TRIED TO REDACT RUSSIAGATE MATERIALS 'MINUTES' BEFORE
BIDEN SWORN IN

By Daniel Chaitin
December 9, 2021 - 9:32 PM




GET HOME DELIVERY OF THE MAGAZINE. SUBSCRIBE TODAY!

A frantic declassification blitz of Russiagate documents played out in the West
Wing up until the final minutes of the Trump administration, according to a new
book.

In his new book The Chief's Chief, former White House chief of staff Mark
Meadows offers a behind-the-scenes look at his efforts to personally ensure
"sources and methods" were protected in adhering to President Donald Trump's
push for declassification of documents related to the FBI's Crossfire Hurricane
investigation on the eve of Joe Biden's Jan. 20 inauguration.



Meadows describes how a frustratingly slow process to get these records
declassified, despite previous orders from the commander in chief to get
relevant notes, memos, and emails, was met with hurdles right up until the very
last minutes of "Trump Time," as he called it.

MARK MEADOWS SUES NANCY PELOSI AND CAPITOL RIOT PANEL MEMBERS

"The DOJ or the FBI would consistently push back when he asked for the remaining
documents to be declassified," Meadows wrote. "In these final weeks, when the
President's request was once again ignored, he demanded that these documents be
brought to the White House and I personally went through every page, to make
sure that the President's declassification would not inadvertently disclose
sources and methods. DOJ had finally allowed key documents to be declassified
and yet minutes before Joe Biden would be sworn in, they were trying to redact
information they had just provided."


Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows speaks on a phone on the South
Lawn of the White House. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

There remains an air of mystery about the documents covered by Trump's
eleventh-hour declassification memo — only a smattering appears to have been
revealed in scattered media reporting. The memo spoke of a binder of materials
related to the Crossfire Hurricane investigation that Trump said the Justice
Department provided to the White House at his request on Dec. 30, 2020.

"I hereby declassify the remaining materials in the binder. This is my final
determination under the declassification review and I have directed the Attorney
General to implement the redactions proposed in the FBI’s January 17 submission
and return to the White House an appropriately redacted copy," Trump said.

There were prior FISA-related instructions, which came in the form of tweets and
a White House press release, that a judge ruled in May 2020 did not constitute
formal declassification orders. Trump tweeted again about authorizing the "total
Declassification" of Russiagate documents in October 2020, after which the
Department of Justice argued there was no order and Meadows submitted a sworn
declaration in which he said Trump indicated to him that his statements on
Twitter were not "self-executing declassification orders." A judge then accepted
the White House statement as rescinding Trump's tweets.



JOHN DURHAM SAYS EVIDENCE SHOWS MICHAEL SUSSMANN LIED WHEN PUSHING TRUMP-RUSSIA
CLAIMS

Kash Patel, a top Pentagon official at the end of the Trump era who also served
as a top investigator for the House Intelligence Committee, said during an
interview on Fox Business on Jan. 20 that "99%" transparency had been achieved.
Patel also claims there was a declassification wish list that was sent to the
White House by members of Congress. He told RealClearInvestigations that the
list included a classified House Intelligence Committee report that criticized
the analytic tradecraft in the Obama administration's 2017 intelligence
community assessment’s conclusions about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s
motivations in the interference campaign leading to the 2016 election.

This is all being examined by special counsel John Durham, who to this day is
investigating the origins and conduct of the Russia inquiry that Republicans
have long criticized as being a drawn-out campaign to drag the 45th president.
John Ratcliffe, who was Trump's final director of national intelligence, says he
delivered roughly 1,000 pages of material to Durham that he recently predicted
would support criminal charges.



Durham's investigation has resulted in multiple people being charged and one
guilty plea so far. Beyond prosecutions, the special counsel is anticipated to
release a report at the conclusion of his yearslong investigation.

Meadows mentions how Trump would often gripe about Durham's progress and said
the West Wing "had no visibility into this investigation being conducted by the
Department of Justice and could only wait, along with the rest of America, for
the verdict."

After the Biden administration took over, some Republicans, including the House
Intelligence Committee's Rep. Devin Nunes, expressed doubt that the Justice
Department would release a report from Durham even though a DOJ official said
the agency "agrees" with an order by former Attorney General William Barr
regarding transparency for the review when he made Durham, then the U.S.
attorney in Connecticut, a special counsel  — a designation that provided him
extra protection to continue his work following a change in administrations.



CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Meadows says he believes there is no good reason for Durham's report to get
buried.

"I am confident that President Trump's order will provide much needed clarity
and remove any excuse for the final Durham report to remain in a classified
vault," he wrote in his book.







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