President Donald Trump is very close to making public documents behind the surveillance on his former campaign employee Carter Page and the Department of Justice (DOJ) official Bruce Ohr, who fed part of the Steele Dossier to the FBI, the Axios news outlet reported, citing anonymous Trump allies.
The Republicans are reportedly pushing Trump to do so in order to undermine the basis for the ongoing investigation into alleged collusion between Trump's presidential campaign and Russia. During an interview with the Daily Caller on September 4, Trump said he is "seriously" considering declassifying these documents.
READ MORE: DOJ's Ohr Testifies FBI Is Skeptical of Veracity of Steele Dossier — Report
The Daily Caller's source "familiar with Trump's thinking" said he was expecting Trump to release the documents last week, but now has changed his forecast to "this week or next." White House attorneys are currently studying the options available to declassify the documents, but are afraid it may be seen as obstruction to special council Mueller's investigation and lead to accusations against Trump, the media platform added.
Republicans claim the FBI has been abusing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to spy on a member of Trump's electoral team Carter Page, who has been under surveillance since 2014 regarding allegations of being foreign agent for Moscow. The Republicans believe the Bureau used the discredited Steele Dossier to continue their surveillance.
READ MORE: Trump Warns of Personal Involvement If FBI, DoJ Don't 'Start Doing Their Job'
According to recent revelations, after cutting ties with Christopher Steele, the author of the notorious anti-Trump dossier, the materials from his findings were fed to the FBI by DOJ official Bruce Ohr. Ohr's wife worked as a Russia expert at Fusion GPS — a company, paid by the DNC's attorney, to collect data on Trump's alleged ties with the Russian government.
The dossier has been labeled by Trump as "fake news," while the US intelligence community has urged to treat it with caution since it contained unverified assertions.