Those who have had their ear affixed to news from the bottom of the Swamp have been hearing rumblings of a possible declassification of documents that could upset the midterm election applecart. At issue are the pages related to former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page and the DOJ’s Bruce Ohr. Could these documents perhaps represent a smoking gun that will exhibit enough fire-power to blow the Democrats to smithereens in November?
That is the Question
Recently a group of Republicans in the House of Representatives called on the president to put his shoulder to the wheel and get these papers out of the shadows and into the light of day. President Trump has signaled that he’s heard the rumblings and just may be working on it when he tweeted “Declassification to find Additional Corruption.” He did not, however, elaborate.
Carter Page
The FBI has long held that they were merely investigating Page’s ties to Russia, but those who back the president maintain that the wiretap on Page was simply a method used to spy on the Trump campaign. Florida Representative Matt Gaetz went so far as to say, “They [the documents] have to be declassified, Mr. President, so we can lay out for the Congress and the American people the rotten basis for the investigations that continue solely to de-legitimize the duly elected president of the United States.”
Those are some pretty startling claims.
Citing unnamed sources, The Daily Caller Foundation has published a story saying the declassification could come about sometime this week. While Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and the White House have remained mum about this, The Caller claims that a “review process is being led by Emmet Flood of the White House Counsel’s office at the urging of an insistent president.”
The possibility of a document dump before the midterm elections has naturally caused a stir of excitement in the Swamp. In a recent press conference, Representative Lee Zeldin (R-NY) said, “We are confident that the FISA application will prove that the highest levels of the DOJ and FBI failed to provide the FISA court with critically important information when they requested a warrant to spy on Carter Page.”
But Will It Matter?
While these classified documents may indeed show what Zeldin and others assert, it remains to be seen if this will ultimately matter to voters. Those on the left have proven themselves to be denialists of the first order. Does the truth still matter to these folks who despise the president with a passion? Probably not.
Still, declassifying these documents and putting them before the people is an excellent tactical move by the president. And despite claims by the New York Times Mr. Anonymous and Bob Woodward that Trump is teetering on the edge of insanity, the president has shown himself to be an exceptional political strategist. And in politics – as in life – timing is everything. If perchance, the president could get the White House lawyers to push this declassification through before the midterm elections, the Democrats will certainly have their hands full.
So while the left is busy calling for an end to the Trump Administration, there are forces at work inside the White House who just may be holding some key cards in this game of political poker – perhaps even a Royal flush. But until these documents are declassified and hit the newsstands, we can only speculate and wonder whether the people are still listening or if they have become deaf to the truth.
