Dem lawmakers slam Trump’s declassification of Russia documents as ‘brazen abuse of power’

Democratic congressional leaders sent a letter to leaders of the intelligence community on Tuesday urging them not to declassify documents related to the Russia investigation without first briefing the Gang of Eight, a bipartisan group of House and Senate leaders.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and the ranking Democrats on the House and Senate Intelligence committees wrote in a letter Tuesday that Trump’s decision to direct the White House counsel to work with the Justice Department to declassify the documents was highly irregular and a “brazen abuse of power.”

{mosads}The documents in question relate to a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant for the surveillance of Carter Page, a former adviser to the Trump campaign, who Trump says was illegally investigated based off of phony intelligence gathered via an unverified dossier authored by Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence official.

“The involvement of the White House Counsel, or any component of the White House, is highly improper and profoundly troubling,” the members wrote.

“President Trump and the White House should not be given access to any sensitive law enforcement or national security information related to an ongoing federal investigation examining conduct by the President, his campaign, or his associates,” they added.

The letter was addressed to several Trump administration officials, including Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray.

Democrats’ warnings come a day after White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced the declassification process was underway, stating that it had been undertaken “at the request of a number of committees of Congress and for reasons of transparency.”

“The Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are already working with the Director of National Intelligence to comply with the President’s order,” the Justice Department said in a statement Monday evening.

Former Attorney General Eric Holder, who served during the Obama administration, ripped the move Tuesday in a tweet, calling it an “abuse of power.”

“This is an especially dangerous abuse of power by this President,” Holder said. “He places his self interest above the national security interests of the country.”