Government transparency: President Donald Trump has made it one of the defining principles of his administration.

From declassifying records related to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy (Nov. 22, 1963) and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (April 4, 1968) to releasing records concerning Crossfire Hurricane, intelligence abuses, and COVID-19, President Trump has consistently argued that Americans are capable of handling the truth – even when that truth may be politically inconvenient.

Yet one historically significant document remains hidden: the FBI's FD-302 summarizing former President Barack Obama's December 2008 interview in the Rod Blagojevich investigation.

For nearly 18 years, the Obama and Biden administrations, together with career Department of Justice officials, kept that document from public view.

Even Rod Blagojevich's defense team was never permitted to review Obama's FBI interview during the prosecution of the very case for which it could have been relevant.

That alone should concern anyone who believes in transparency and equal justice under the law.

The Blagojevich investigation centered on the appointment of the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President-elect Obama after his election to the presidency.

During Blagojevich's trial, labor leader Tom Balanoff testified that Obama communicated his preferences regarding the appointment through intermediaries.

Obama, however, publicly maintained that he never discussed the Senate appointment with Blagojevich and expressed confidence that no representatives of his were involved in any deals concerning the seat.

Those competing accounts cannot both be correct.

The FBI interviewed Obama for approximately two hours.

Agents documented that interview in an FD-302.

The Department of Justice knows what that report says. The American people do not.

If the FD-302 confirms Obama's public statements, it will reinforce the government's longstanding position and finally put years of speculation to rest.

If, however, it materially differs from testimony presented at trial or from the public record, those differences deserve careful public examination.

Either outcome advances transparency and strengthens public confidence in our justice system.

The obvious questions are these:

• Why did the Obama administration never release the document?
• Why did the Biden administration continue to keep it hidden?
• Why did career DOJ officials continue defending that secrecy long after the prosecution ended and President Trump ultimately granted Rod Blagojevich a full pardon?

Those decisions belong to the past.

Our nation's 47th commander in chief and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche now have an opportunity to write a different ending.

Releasing Obama's FD-302 would not prejudge anyone's conduct.

It would simply allow the American people to examine one of the final significant records from one of the most consequential political prosecutions in modern American history.

Trump has repeatedly argued that government should trust the American people with the truth. Releasing Obama's FD-302 would be entirely consistent with that principle and would demonstrate that transparency does not depend on whose name appears in the file.

• Previous administrations chose secrecy.
• This administration can choose transparency.

Release Obama's FD-302.

Let the American people decide what the historical record reveals – and why the Obama and Biden administrations chose secrecy over transparency.

From 2007-2010, Mark Vargas served as a civilian in the Office of the U.S. Secretary of Defense, traveling to Baghdad, Iraq, 14 times. Follow Mark on Twitter: @markavargas. Read more Mark Vargas Insider articles — Click Here Now.