Judge Napolitano White House/FBI FISA Documents Release with Fox

Judge Andrew Peter Napolitano who served as a New Jersey Superior Court Judge from 1987 to 1995 spoke on Fox News Tuesday to discuss the upcoming release of FISA documents as requested by the White House. The files hold sensitive correspondence between agents in the field and FBI investigating the 2016 US Election interference by Russia early in the election cycle and prior.

Judge Napolitano appears in numerous publications including the Washington Times, Reason, and Fox News where he is a Senior Analyst. The Judge sat down with Fox to elaborate on the importance of the FISA documents and whether or not the White House will be successful in having them released.

Judge Napolitano: There are a lot of documents which, formerly classified or never classified, still can’t be made public for other reasons under the law, so document evidencing what went to a grand jury, documents evidencing the thought process as a prosecutor says they’re figuring out a case and they send texts messages or emails to each other, documents that are the result of confidential or undercover sources, so don’t expect these documents to come out today because, just like the last time the President ordered this stuff declassified, dozens of pairs of eyes have to look at each document before it can come out because some things even the president can’t order public, he can order declassified what he wants by but the statute keeps these things secret, if it’s an ongoing criminal investigation and the revelation of these documents would interfere with it, then it can’t be revealed.

Fox Host: Because members of Congress ask for this stuff is going to go to their committees first, right?

Judge Napolitano: That’s what makes it very interesting, you remember one Senator Feinstein release 6000 pages about torture on the floor of the United States Senate the CIA didn’t want it out the other Democrats didn’t want it out President Obama didn’t want it out, a member of Congress can take to the floor anything and release it with impunity no matter what the law says.

Now I don’t know if the members of the House Intelligence Committee will do that, they can lawfully do it if they don’t do that then each document has to be scrutinized before it can be revealed to the public.

Fox Host: Does the President know when he’s getting?

Judge Napolitano: I don’t think so Brian, I doubt that the President has seen these materials, in fact, I doubt that any one person has seen all of them, so it’s it’s a bit of a gamble. The President is frustrated and we all understand that a lot of us share his frustration of how and why and by whom did all of this start was the FISA court duped? Was this really a political undercover hit job under the guise of an intelligence operation? He feels that by revealing these documents that we may get an answer.

Fox Host: We already know a lot, what we know already is disturbing.

Yes, I fear that revealing these documents is going to reveal confidential sources and the way the Intelligence Community works, I’ve been a critic of the intelligence community but I also respect a lot of them risked their lives to get this information for us and that cannot be made public without damage and harm to them.

The full interview can be seen here: