Trump orders declassification of documents in Russian investigation "White House"

US President Donald Trump ordered to declassify the documents of the Department of Justice, the FBI and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence regarding Russia’s alleged interference into the US presidential election in 2016, according to a White House press release published on Monday.

According to the press release, the President has directed the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Justice (including the FBI) to provide for the immediate declassification of the following materials: (1) pages 10-12 and 17-34 of the June 2017 application to the FISA court in the matter of Carter W. Page; (2) all FBI reports of interviews with Bruce G. Ohr prepared in connection with the Russia investigation."

The President also ordered "to publicly release all text messages relating to the Russia investigation, without redaction, of James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, and Bruce Ohr".

On September 7, twelve Republican congressmen appealed to President Donald Trump to declassify documents related to the FBI investigation of Russia's alleged interference in the US elections in 2016. The lawmakers believe that the top secret documents, which became the basis for the investigation of allegations of collusion between Trump's campaign headquarters and the Russian authorities, should be made public.

These documents in particular include the FBI surveillance application dated October 2016, which concerns Carter Page, who was at the time an adviser to the campaign headquarters, as part of the FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act).

As the FBI claimed, Page established relations with Russian officials, including Russian intelligence officers." However, it turned out later that the FBI had received permission to track down Page on the basis of an unsubstantiated "dossier" compiled by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele.

Trump repeatedly accused the FBI and the Department of Justice of unreasonable actions during the investigation of Russia’s alleged interference in the election campaign in the US in 2016. He also repeatedly rejected suspicions of any unlawful contacts with Russian officials. The head of the White House calls this an example of "political witch hunts". Moscow also more than once refuted the accusations of trying to influence the course of elections in the US.