WASHINGTON The Justice Department has succeeded, for the moment, in convincing President Donald Trump to hold off on declassifying secret documents related to the ongoing criminal investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

The White House said earlier this week that Trump had ordered the Justice Department to immediately declassify certain previously redacted portions of a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act application regarding Carter Page, a former Trump campaign adviser who was monitored by the government during the 2016 campaign. Releasing the classified documents would have marked an extraordinary intervention into the Russia investigation, which has been led by special counsel Robert Mueller since May 2017.