Rudy Giuliani said Thursday that he would “love” to see President Trump declassify documents on the Russia investigation “if it could be done properly.”
“As his private lawyer, that is not something I can promptly advise on because that’s really about classification, declassifying — that’s a governmental act, not a private act and he has very good counsel in Emmet Flood and now Pat Cipollone,” Giuliani told Hill.TV’s Buck Sexton during an interview on “Rising.”
“But my own opinion is I’d love to see them, of course they’d have to be revealed properly,” he continued.
Giuliani, who joined Trump’s legal team earlier this year to manage the White House response to special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe, didn’t specify how the documents should be released to the public.
Giuliani said the Justice Department tends to generally overclassify material.
“No question,” Giuliani said. “When you look at classification, which I used to do at the Justice Department, that “C” — confidential — is put next to everything and that can be ratcheted up into classified,” he continued.
President Trump in September ordered the declassification of documents related to the Russia probe, but later delayed the release of the material after key U.S. allies raised concerns.
In July, the Department of Justice (DOJ) released a heavily redacted version of the request for a surveillance warrant on former Trump campaign aide Carter Page.
Trump has said the documents were being reviewed by the DOJ’s internal watchdog, but warned he could declassify them unilaterally “if it proves necessary.”
Trump allies have long been pushing for president to release the classified documents. Republicans argue that the documents are central to their claim of anti-Trump bias among top DOJ and FBI officials.
But the release of the documents has also raised concerns among those in the national security community who argue that doing so could compromise information.
In an interview with Hill.TV, President Trump said that he had not personally reviewed the documents, but said many commentators and lawmakers have been “begging” him to release them.
—Tess Bonn
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