Meadows Says Declassification Of Russia Probe Documents Is ‘Right Around The Corner’

North Carolina Republican Rep. Mark Meadows said that important documents relating to the origins of the counterintelligence investigation into President Donald Trump’s campaign will be released soon on Monday.

In an appearance on Fox News, the House Oversight Committee member responded to the former committee chair Trey Gowdy’s comments that the FBI possibly withheld “game-changing” evidence regarding the origins of the Russia probe. Meadows said he agreed with Gowdy that former Trump campaign associate George Papadopoulos was being taped and recorded by FBI informants and that the unreleased transcript was never released to the FISA court.

“[Gowdy] has seen documents that actually I have not seen,” Meadows said. “But we have come to the same conclusion and that is, indeed, George Papadopoulos was actually taped and recorded,” saying the documents would expose exculpatory information on the question of possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

“I think the delay is over,” Meadows continued. “I think the president is serious. I’ve spoken to him recently and I think declassification is right around the corner and hopefully the American people will be able to judge for themselves.”

Meadows also said he and Papadopoulos have spoken about the possible declassification that if Trump declassifies records, “the American people will be astonished to see not only was it going on and the president was right, he was actually taped and recorded but other than that, he was not colluding with the Russians and they knew this very early on. So that could be the game changer that [Gowdy] was referring to.”

Gowdy and Meadows did not have a specific timeline for the release of the documents, but Meadows says it is “right around the corner.”