President Donald Trump said he will now move forward with releasing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants that were used by the FBI to investigate his campaign.
Trump, speaking with Fox News host Sean Hannity by phone Wednesday night, said he will release the documents and “get to the bottom” of how the Russian collusion story gained traction. Trump has previously threatened to release the documents, but told Hannity he was advised not to by his attorneys.
“I do, I have plans to declassify and release. I have plans to absolutely release,” Trump said when asked about the FISA documents. “I have some very talented people working for me, lawyers, and they really didn’t want me to do it early on. … A lot of people wanted me to do it a long time ago. I’m glad I didn’t do it. We got a great result without having to do it, but we will. One of the reasons that my lawyers didn’t want me to do it, is they said, if I do it, they’ll call it a form of obstruction.”
Trump added: “Frankly, thought it would be better if we held it to the end. But at the right time, we will be absolutely releasing.”
Trump also attacked the usual suspects among his enemies, blasting former FBI Director James Comey, former CIA Director John Brennan, and Democrat House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff.
“When I said there could be somebody spying on my campaign, it went wild out there,” Trump said to Hannity. “They couldn’t believe I could say such a thing. As it turned out, that was small potatoes compared to what went on. … Millions and millions [spent] on the phony dossier, and then they used the dossier to start things. It was a fraud, paid for by Hillary Clinton and the Democrats.”
Trump indicated earlier that he was pondering a second special prosecutor to review the origins of the Russia investigation.
