Will the FBI Come Clean?

Everyone knows that the FBI and the Justice Department have been obstructing justice. What we don’t know is why President Trump won’t force them to come clean by declassifying all the documents that they refuse to turn over to Congress–and the public.

I don’t think it is because he has anything to hide. In fact, it is pretty clear that the release of these documents would show that it is the FBI and Justice–not Trump–that have done something wrong. My guess is that Trump is not declassifying the documents because he is giving the FBI and Justice all the rope they need to hang themselves.

Eventually, we will see all of the documents and it will become clear that not only there was no reason for the initiation of the FBI and Mueller probes but that the initiation of FBI probe and the subsequent cover-up was likely illegal. But if Trump acts too soon to declassify the documents–and pardon some of the folks under investigation, a lot of this might get lost in the hysterical shrieks from the Republican and Democrat establishment.

More from Kimberley Strassel:

I’m told that multiple senior congressional members have repeatedly asked Justice Department leadership to affirm that the department had provided Congress everything relevant with regard to the Trump investigation. The department has said yes. Yet investigators have credible evidence pointing to the use of FBI informants against the Trump campaign earlier than July 31, and last week’s resolution requires the department to answer whether that is true, and if so, on what basis they were used.

The FBI and its media allies have waged a ceaseless campaign to lower the bar on what counts as appropriate. We are told it is OK that the government opened a counterintelligence probe into a presidential campaign. OK that it obtained a warrant to spy on a U.S. citizen. OK that it based that warrant on an unverified dossier from the Democratic campaign, and then hid that true origin from the FISA court. OK that it paid a spy to target domestic political actors.

It’s not OK. Not so long ago, the FBI would have quailed at the idea of running an informant into any U.S. political operation—even into, say, a congressman under criminal investigation for bribery or corruption. These are the most sensitive of lines. But Mr. Trump’s opponents, in government and media, have a boundless capacity to justify any measures against the president.

If it turns out that the Justice Department and FBI lied about how and when this all started, that is scandalous. Worse if it comes out that senior officials lied to Congress about whether they had complied with its demands for information. And once again, it is a reason for Mr. Trump to step in and declassify everything.

Read the entire article on the WSJ.