An-Najah News - A US judge has ruled that a tweet sent by President Donald Trump earlier this month did not constitute an order to declassify material linked to the Russiagate probe.

Judge Reggie Walton said the tweet appeared to order the release of new material free of any redactions, a clarification from White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows qualified as a reversal of the move. 
The judge was also critical of the administration for a lack of clarity on the question.

Walton said during Wednesday’s remote hearing, adding that “obviously, that’s not what occurred here.” “It is unfortunate that we are in this situation because, obviously, when there’s ever a reference to declassification of classified information those words spoken should be artfully spoken, so there’s no ambiguity as to what the intent was,”

Trump declared he had “fully authorized the total Declassification of any & all documents pertaining to the single greatest political CRIME in American History, the Russia Hoax” with “no redactions,” referring to a years-long DOJ probe into whether the 2016 Trump campaign had conspired with Moscow to throw the election. 

Informally known as ‘Russiagate,’ the so-called scandal largely fell apart following the investigation, which failed to substantiate claims of “collusion” and resulted in no Russia-related indictments for any member of the Trump team.

Walton’s ruling comes amid multiple Freedom of Information lawsuits spearheaded by BuzzFeed, CNN and the Electronic Privacy Information Center.