WASHINGTON — Citing national security concerns, the White House on Friday formally notified the House intelligence committee that President Donald Trump is “unable” to declassify a memo drafted by Democrats that counters GOP allegations about abuse of government surveillance powers in the FBI’s Russia probe.
White House counsel Don McGahn said in a letter to the committee that the memo contains “numerous properly classified and especially sensitive passages” and asked the Democrats to revise it with help from the Justice Department. He said Trump is still “inclined” to release the memo in the interest of transparency if revisions are made.
The president’s rejection of the Democratic memo is in contrast to his enthusiastic embrace of releasing the Republican document, which he pledged before reading to make public. The president declassified the document last week, allowing its publication in full.
On Friday, White House spokesman Raj Shah said Trump discussed the Democratic document with the White House counsel’s office, FBI Director Christopher Wray and another top Justice Department official.
The president had until Saturday to decide whether to allow the classified material to become public after the House intelligence committee voted Monday to release it.
In declining to declassify the document, the White House also sent lawmakers a letter signed by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Wray, as well as a marked-up copy of the memo, laying out portions it considers too sensitive to make public. Among those passages are some that the Justice Department says could compromise intelligence sources and methods, ongoing investigations and national security if disclosed.
The document in question was authored by Democrats on the intelligence panel. They say it disputes many claims in the GOP memo, which accused the FBI and Justice Department of abusing their surveillance powers in obtaining a secret warrant to monitor former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page.