John Kelly’s presence comes despite previous White House assurances that no member of the president’s team would attend the Justice Department gathering. | Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images In reversal, Kelly will join lawmakers in briefings on FBI informant

White House chief of staff John Kelly will attend two briefings at the Justice Department on Thursday about an FBI informant who interacted with the Trump campaign in the 2016 election — ensuring that President Donald Trump will have a high-level emissary there for a discussion of sensitive evidence connected to his associates.

Kelly’s presence comes despite previous White House assurances that no member of the president’s team would attend the Justice Department gathering.


It's unclear if the briefings will include documents or details about the informant's work for the FBI or whether they'll cover the intelligence community's reluctance to share the highly classified information with members of Congress. Trump allies in Congress spent the day Wednesday expressing doubts that the Justice Department would provide substantive information, though the Justice Department has declined to reveal what it will share.

At the first briefing, Kelly will join Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, FBI Director Christopher Wray, and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats to brief two top House Republicans who have demanded information on the informant: Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes and Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy.

Nunes and Gowdy have been invited to the second briefing, as well, along with the House and Senate leaders of both parties, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, and the leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

It’s unclear why Nunes (R-Calif.) and Gowdy (R-S.C.) are receiving a briefing separate from the subsequent one with other lawmakers. But the two chairmen have demanded information from the Justice Department about the FBI’s use of an informant who interacted with at least two members of Trump’s foreign policy team in 2016, amid an investigation into the campaign’s contacts with Russians.

Democrats have accused Nunes, in particular, of trying to unearth facts about the Russia investigation in an effort to help protect the president from the investigation being run by special counsel Robert Mueller. Kelly’s presence at the meeting is certain to reinforce that perspective, especially after White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders assured reporters that “no member of the White House staff” would attend.

Rudy Giuliani, one of Trump’s lawyers, has also publicly insisted that the president should learn the facts about the informant’s role in the campaign, telling POLITICO that it’s important for Trump to obtain “exculpatory” evidence — though he hasn’t been charged in the ongoing investigation.

“He wants them to turn over the information that exists about the informant to the House and Senate committees,” Giuliani told POLITICO. “All the memos they have. That’ll indicate what the informant found. Then those should be made available to us on a confidential basis. We should be at least allowed to read them so we know this exculpatory evidence is being preserved.”

The first briefing for Nunes and Gowdy is set for noon, while the following briefing for the broader pool of members is slated for 2 p.m.