Another judge orders review of Russia-probe related document
Source: Politico
Another judge orders review of Russia-probe related document
Court wants to see memo on March 2017 conversation in which Trump complained to NSA about Russia probe
03/06/2020 06:13 PM EST
A federal judge in Washington has ordered the National Security Agency to turn over to her a memo that details an unusual conversation in which President Donald Trump pleaded with former NSA chief Adm. Mike Rogers to take action to rebut news reports about collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said in a ruling Friday that she needs to read the memorandum — written by Rogers’ deputy, Rick Ledgett — in order to decide whether it can be entirely blocked from release in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.
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“In light of the ... arguments and legal principles, making a responsible de novo determination of NSA’s exemption claims requires in camera review,” Kollar-Kotelly, an appointee of President Bill Clinton, wrote.
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The watchdog group pressing for the memo’s release, the Protect Democracy project, contends that the privilege was waived after special counsel Robert Mueller included a summary of the conversation in his report that was published last year.
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Historically, in camera review by judges in Freedom of Information Act cases is unusual, although the preeminent transparency statute explicitly authorizes such assessments. The back-to-back rulings this week suggest that some judges are increasingly unwilling to take at face value representations from the Trump administration about the contents of documents being withheld in FOIA cases. Kollar-Kotelly ordered NSA to give her access to the Ledgett memo by March 13.
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Read more: https://www.politico.com/amp/news/2020/03/06/judge-russia-probe-document-123083
Trump pleading for Rogers to do something about the Russia collusion probe, but in a conversation he thought would never see the light of day. This is going to be BAD if released to the public. The judge suspects the classification is over-broad; I’m sure it is.
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