President Donald Trump is flexing his executive power to declassify secret documents in the Russia investigation, an extraordinary move he says will ensure that "really bad things" at the FBI are exposed.
But the decision, made against the backdrop of Trump's spiraling outrage at the special counsel's Russia investigation, may expose sensitive sources and methods and brush up against privacy law protections, experts say.
The order is likely to further divide the president from the intelligence agencies he oversees and raises new concerns that Trump is disclosing government secrets for his own political gain. Critics of the move say the president has a clear conflict by trying to discredit an investigation in which he himself is a subject.
"This radical policy choice is not being made on traditional policy grounds. It's being made on conflicted grounds," said David Kris, a former Justice Department national security division head. "That's problematic."
In a letter Tuesday to Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray, four top Democrats called Trump's action "a brazen abuse of power."
Trump appeared unconcerned Tuesday by the national security implications of the order, tweeting about a supportive congressman and saying, "Really bad things were happening, but they are now being exposed. Big stuff!" At the White House he said he wanted "total transparency," insisting again that the Russia investigation is a "witch hunt."
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