Judge considers whether Trump's tweets should open up government's dossier probe
By JOSH GERSTEIN 11/17/2017 04:33 PM EST
A federal judge is considering whether President Donald Trump’s own tweets could force the federal government to reveal more information about its efforts to verify the claims in the controversial privately compiled dossier about Trump’s alleged ties to Russia.
Trump has taken to his favorite social media forum to denounce the so-called dossier as “fake” and “discredited,” while also calling repeatedly for investigators to make public details about who funded creation of the document containing accurate, inaccurate and unverified assertions about the president.
U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta heard arguments Friday in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit testing whether Trump’s public statements foreclose the government’s ability to refuse to even confirm that officials attempted to verify the claims in the so-called dossier. The lawsuit was filed by this reporter along with a pro-transparency group, the James Madison Project.
“When the president says Mr. Comey — former director Comey — brought the dossier to me, isn’t that an acknowledgement that the FBI possesses the dossier?” the judge asked, referring to comments Trump made in a New York Times interview.
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https://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2017/11/17/trump-russia-dossier-tweets-247428
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Will keep an eye out on this one.