The Atlantic

Trump Won't Declassify Democratic Rebuttal to Nunes

The White House Counsel said the president was “inclined to declassify” the Democrats’ memo, but that “he is unable to do so at this time” because the memo contains “numerous properly classified and especially sensitive passages.”
Source: Aaron Bernstein / Reuters

The White House has opted not to declassify a memo written by Congressman Adam Schiff and his Democratic colleagues on the House Intelligence Committee until the panel complies with Justice Department and FBI recommendations to redact certain portions of the document.

The 10-page document was written in response to a memo written by the committee’s chairman, Devin Nunes, outlining alleged surveillance abuses by the Justice Department and FBI in pursuit of a surveillance order against early Trump campaign adviser Carter Page in October 2016. The FBI was, and still is, investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election, and whether the Trump campaign aided the effort. At issue is whether, as Nunes alleged, the

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from The Atlantic

The Atlantic3 min read
They Rode the Rails, Made Friends, and Fell Out of Love With America
The open road is the great American literary device. Whether the example is Jack Kerouac or Tracy Chapman, the national canon is full of travel tales that observe America’s idiosyncrasies and inequalities, its dark corners and lost wanderers, but ult
The Atlantic6 min read
There’s Just One Problem With Gun Buybacks
One warm North Carolina fall morning, a platoon of Durham County Sheriff’s Office employees was enjoying an exhibit of historical firearms in a church parking lot. They were on duty, tasked with running a gun buyback, an event at which citizens can t
The Atlantic8 min readAmerican Government
The Return of the John Birch Society
Michael Smart chuckled as he thought back to their banishment. Truthfully he couldn’t say for sure what the problem had been, why it was that in 2012, the John Birch Society—the far-right organization historically steeped in conspiracism and oppositi

Related Books & Audiobooks