President Trump essentially dared Democrats on Wednesday to investigate him when they retake the House in January and threatened to release “devastating” Justice department documents in retaliation.
“If they go down the presidential harassment track, if they want go and harass the president and the administration, I think that would be the best thing that would happen to me,” Mr. Trump told the New York Post. “I’m a counter-puncher, and I will hit them so hard they’d never been hit like that.”
In September, Mr. Trump ordered the Justice Department to declassify and publicly release documents released to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act application for former campaign adviser Carter Page, reports about the application and FBI interviews with Department of Justice official Bruce Ohr.
He also demanded the release of all text messages about the Russia investigation sent by Mr. Ohr, former FBI Director James B. Comey, former acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, and former FBI employees Peter Strzok and Lisa Page.
The president delayed releasing the documents, citing concerns from the intelligence community about compromising its capability to gather intel.
In the interview, Mr. Trump said that some documents, that would be damaging to others, shouldn’t be released.
“Some things maybe the public shouldn’t see because they are so bad,” he said. “Maybe it’s better that the public not see what’s been going on with this country.”
Mr. Trump said he is waiting to release documents regarding the Russia probe and Mr. Page for a politically strategic moment — like countering House Democrats that move to investigate him.
“It’s much more powerful if I do it then, because if we had done it already, it would already be yesterday’s news,” Mr. Trump said.
• Gabriella Muñoz can be reached at gmunoz@washingtontimes.com.
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