White House reporter Will Weissert of The Associated Press recently wrote an excellent piece about how President Donald Trump’s administration may go down in history for creating and keeping fewer records than any of its modern predecessors. This will make it more difficult for historians to piece together the events of this administration, and for future policymakers to rebuild what this administration breaks.

Equally important is the administration’s efforts to politicize the intelligence and declassification process. This will similarly corrupt historical accounts — it’s also a recipe for disaster.

Declassifying only favorable information

Trump administration officials routinely tout the importance of transparency. But so far its efforts have focused on releasing information that scores political points. This includes declassifying a low-confidence intelligence assessment on the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic (while simultaneously silencing health agencies), the Jeffrey Epstein client list, political assassination records, and the Biden administration’s implementation plan for its domestic counterterrorism strategy.

The declassification of the counterterrorism implementation plan is especially notable because it is, to date, the only document that has been declassified by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s Director’s Initiatives Group.

DIG was established to declassify documents that are in the public interest, but it seems to be more interested in responding to declassification requests from White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller’s legal group, America First Legal. AFL asked Gabbard to declassify the Biden counterterrorism implementation plan because AFL argued it gave the Biden administration cover to carry out a “censorship agenda targeting its political and social opponents.”

Gabbard was already on it — even though it’s unlikely many would agree with AFL’s characterization of the document, or think its declassification was a priority.

At the same time Gabbard is prioritizing Miller’s pet declassification requests, information is increasingly difficult for the public to obtain because Freedom of Information Act offices are being gutted across the government.

Pressuring intelligence officials

It typically takes a long time to get a document released under FOIA, even when offices are fully staffed. So when the Office of the Director of National Intelligence fulfilled my FOIA request — releasing a document that completely undermined the Trump administration’s justification for invoking the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans to a Salvadoran prison — in just seven calendar days, many speculated what could have prompted its quick release.

As national security journalist Marcy Wheeler pointed out, “That kind of response only happens when people within an agency want something to be released.” When Michael Collins, the head of the National Intelligence Council who authored the memo, was fired, my assumption was that the administration had been displeased with the declassification.

Not so.

It was Gabbard’s own chief of staff, Joe Kent, who pushed for the document to be declassified because he thought, inconceivably, that it vindicated the administration. This came after Kent pushed for Collins’ office to redo an earlier assessment, apparently trying to generate a report that could not be “used against the DNI or POTUS.”

I’m glad the document was released and wish the quick turnaround was more representative of the average FOIA experience. But I’m troubled that it was declassified in a misguided attempt to provide political cover, and that its initial creation may have resulted from inappropriate political pressure.

We should be asking if Gabbard knew of, or sanctioned, Kent’s efforts in this matter — especially in light of the fact that Gabbard is taking over control of the production of the President’s Daily Brief, which has been called “the most highly sensitized classified document in the government.”

How valuable — and how dangerous — might the daily brief become if it is shaped to reflect Trump’s worldview, rather than a more objective one?

Real risks

It is concerning that the administration might be trying to shape intelligence that fits a predetermined agenda, and there is historical precedent to worry about cherry-picking intelligence to fit a desired policy outcome.

The George W. Bush administration famously promoted debunked intelligence to support its plans to invade Iraq. The intelligence wasn’t sound, but it served as a prop to support a war that the administration seemed intent on starting almost immediately after invading Afghanistan.

Early evidence indicates that the Trump administration may view declassification and intelligence through a similar Machiavellian lens. History warns this will have predictably dire consequences.

None of this is to say the Trump administration shouldn’t declassify information. Of course it should. But we must have a systematic approach to declassification that promotes resources the government already has, like the National Declassification Center, which can help multiple agencies quickly declassify records on timely topics. This gives us a better overview of policy debates, options, and risks. Otherwise we may walk blindly into a self-created crisis.