I am wondering if it is possible that President Trump knows full well how high the Swamp is all around him, not just outside his administration but throughout his administration. If so, I am wondering if it is also possible that he believes that if there is any hope of exposing the anti-Trump, anti-American conspiracy still at work against him and the nation, the only accessible proof lies outside normal government channels, maybe outside Washington itself.
That’s ridiculous, the automatic reply is. He’s the president, isn’t he?
All the president has to do is unredact and release the deepest darkest secrets of the Swamp to neutralize its powers: the FISA applications, the Page-Strzok convos, the “lost” Clinton emails (which, of course, are not lost at all but closely held by NSA), and on and on to the Saudi-Bush-9/11 everything, the POW/MIA archives, the whole of the Kennedy assassination files, the works.
Imagine, though, for a moment, some of the various reasons that he might not do so, not right away or not ever. He might be persuaded that the all-encompassing totality of American betrayal by top and even revered officials for generations would utterly destroy the American people’s faith in their government; he might think he needs to hold something of great value close to his own vest as leverage to get out of this town alive. Another possible reason is that he might not, as a practical matter, have the power to do so.
The latter reason is not really in the the realm of fevered imagination. For unknown reasons, Trump gave the powers of declassification to Attorney General Barr. We have reason to believe other presidential powers that would normally be his have been curtailed. We have heard reports of presidential orders issued but not executed. We know of many instances where federal legal action is warranted and the wheels of justice do not turn even one notch.