Trump gives Attorney General Barr the power to declassify intelligence information
President Trump gives the attorney general the power to declassify intelligence information related to the Russia investigation.
Last week, President Trump conferred on Attorney General Bill Barr the authority to declassify documents relevant to his inquiry into what we can collectively call “the Russia investigation.” This includes not only “Crossfire Hurricane,” the counterintelligence probe formally opened by the FBI in late July 2016, but all of the relevant investigative threads, including those pursued by other intelligence agencies — such as the CIA’s collaborations with foreign intelligence services, beginning in 2015.
In other words, the public is about to learn a lot more about decision-making during the Obama administration. As night follows day, the Democrat-media complex went apoplectic. Gone are the days when the press always wanted more information because it perceived its role, vouchsafed by the Constitution, to be the public’s eye on government.
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Much of the mainstream media is now in an all but openly declared partnership with one of our two major political parties. Consequently, when a Republican administration is in power or being questioned, classified leaks are the order of the day. When a Democratic administration is under the microscope, we get lectures on the wages of compromising intelligence secrets, especially methods and sources.
So, naturally, we are treated to hysterical reports that the attorney general — whose Justice Department cannot enforce the law effectively unless it can entice cooperation from reluctant sources — is going to expose covert operatives gratuitously, ensuring that no courageous spy or foreign intelligence service will ever risk cooperation with the United States again.
Barr started his government career working for the CIA. As much as any AG in the history of the country, he grasps the nexus between covert intelligence-gathering and national security. Frankly, he grasps it better than the president does. He understands the inter-agency “equities” in our trove of defense secrets — not least, the commitments made to sources and foreign intelligence agencies, the assurances of confidentiality in exchange for cooperation. He is less apt than our mercurial president to direct a sweeping declassification order that would disregard these concerns.
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