FBI/GOP/JAMES COMEY/JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/RUSSIA INVESTIGATION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump moved on Monday [9-17-18] to immediately release a tranche of former FBI Director James Comey’s text messages and declassify 20 pages of a surveillance application that targeted former campaign adviser Carter Page, Trump’s latest offensive against a Russia investigation that has ensnared associates and has consumed his attention for much of his presidency. The breadth of the order came as a surprise and landed amid a full-court White House effort to shore up the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh, as he defends himself against a sexual assault allegation. Trump demanded that the FBI produce 20 pages of the surveillance application — which Republicans on Capitol Hill have suggested would help show anti-Trump bias at the highest levels of the FBI. Trump also called for the release of senior Justice Department official Bruce Ohr’s notes related to the Russia probe. Ohr was a key conduit to the FBI for information provided by Christopher Steele, a former British spy who investigated Trump’s relationship with Russia during the 2016 campaign and produced a dossier of damaging allegations — which Trump has derided as false.”
–Kyle Cheney, Josh Gerstein and Darren Samuelsohn, “Trump orders declassification of surveillance application, release of Comey texts,” Politico, September 17, 2018 11:30 pm