Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe plans on declassifying more documents soon related to the investigation into the alleged Donald Trump campaign collusion with Russian actors.
Ratcliffe is coordinating with U.S. Attorney John Durham, who recently obtained a guilty plea in his review of the origins of the investigation.
“I will,” Ratcliffe said in an interview with Fox News “Sunday Morning Futures” when asked whether hell declassify more documents.
When he was a Congressman before becoming intelligence chief, Ratcliffe said he didnt believe the FBI had proper predicate to continue the counterintelligence investigation against the Trump campaign, a belief bolstered by the guilty plea from former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith and documents that Ratcliffes office has released.
“The question now is: Did the FBI have a proper predicate to begin a counter-intelligence investigation at all? And thats the issue that John Durham is looking at, and thats the issue that Im continuing to look at,” Ratcliffe said.
“I pledged to a bipartisan group of senators that I would look at all of the underlying intelligence surrounding the intelligence communitys assessment of Russias interference and this idea of Trump-Russia collusion,” he continued.
“So, Ive spent the last three months, and Ive declassified certain documents, and I plan to declassify additional documents. But Im not going to prejudice John Durhams work in connection with that, so weve had to coordinate with his office about the timing of that. But Im optimistic that Ill be declassifying additional documents soon.”
Intelligence officials have been making sure Durham has access to all the documents he needs.
“Hes looking at the same documents that I am,” Ratcliffe said. “And so our work is running on a parallel path. Now his is a criminal investigation, hes not sharing his findings or the work that hes doing. But Im coordinating with him to make sure that he has the intelligence documents that he needs to do his work.”
Some documents that might otherwise be declassified will not if it would impact Durhams wRead More From Source
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