Everyone is talking about The Nunes memo, possibly because the bigger implications of what it reveals — something like an attempted coup. Explosive. Corruption at the highest level.
Big Claims:
Bigger than Watergate. Tip of the Iceberg. More Memos to come.
This thread covers the most interesting things I’ve read. First up, some very provocative talk. Further down, elected Reps. speaking I presume in careful legally vetted words. Lastly, some Democrat replies. In the middle, a diversion about the role of the media — also a part of the Deep State. h/t David. Roger. Scott of the Pacific. Charles. Pat. RAH. others… Thanks.
THE RIGHT’S SPIN: Watergate X1000: What The MSM Is Hoping you Ignore About the FISA Memo,
by Lucian Wintrich:
With the release of the memo, we finally have proof that … the Clinton machine, powered by the Obama Administration, using the DNC as its main appendage, funded the creation of a false dossier, that they simultaneously leaked to the press and sold to the FBI, and then pressured top government employees to turn that into a FISA warrant, and more broadly into what the MSM refers to as the “Russia Investigation”.
Hillary Clinton, her campaign, and the DNC manufactured a completely false dossier, which led to the United States government, under the Obama administration, spying on Trump staffers. The DNC paid for the Steele dossier and then used their Obama administration contacts to say that it’s grounds for an investigation. … The information from the ongoing investigation … was then illegally leaked to the press in an attempt to steer public opinion toward the impeachment of now elected President Trump. …
These supposedly neutral government agencies acted and functioned as wings and branches of the DNC.
The Hill: The FISA memo is a ‘deep state’ bombshell
The Nunes memo is out, and it is a stunning rebuke of the prevailing Democrat narrative on Trump-Russia collusion. It shows, beyond reasonable doubt, that extreme abuses of authority and bad faith were instrumental in getting the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) to approve a counterintelligence warrant that circumvents normal 4th Amendment processes for an American citizen.
This is a deeply concerning development, one for which there must be accountability at the government level, and a complete rethinking of the entire Russia collusion storyline that has news coverage for over a year.
There can no longer be any doubt — oppo research was used to weaponize the intelligence collection process on behalf of one American political party against the other during a presidential election.
It gets worse. We now know that, despite the highly dubious provenance of this dossier, senior DOJ and FBI officials never once, in three renewals of the FISA request, told the secret court about the dossier’s origins.
It defies belief and common sense that seasoned lawyers and investigators like James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok and Bruce Ohr would have missed the massive significance of this omission. The much more likely explanation is that they felt they could get away with it, and stopping Trump was more important than fulfilling their oaths to uphold and defend the Constitution.
Daniel Greenfield calls it a coup
A clear and simple fact emerges from the memo.
Top figures in the DOJ and the FBI, some loyal to Obama and Hillary, abused the FISA process in the hopes of influencing or reversing the results of an election by targeting their political opponents. The tool that they used for the job came from the Clinton campaign. Using America’s intelligence services to destroy and defeat a political opponent running for president is the worst possible abuse of power and an unprecedented threat to a democratic system of free, open elections.
We have been treated to frequent lectures about the independence of the DOJ and the FBI. But our country isn’t based around government institutions that are independent of oversight by elected officials. When unelected officials have more power than elected officials, that’s tyranny.
A Justice Department that acts as the Praetorian Guard for a political campaign is committing a coup and engaging in treason. The complex ways that the Steele dossier was laundered from the Clinton campaign to a FISA application is evidence of a conspiracy by both the DOJ and the Clinton campaign.
h/t Pat
For those who want the key background points, the excellent Ross McKitrick sums up the story so far in an 11 page PDF. h/t commenter Ross (not the same Ross)
The media is part of the deep state
Things would never have got so far down the well if the media were not part of the campaign team for one side of politics. Thanks to commenter Pat for the video of Newt Gingrich speaking from a few days ago. The comments are at 4:45 and 6 minutes, but the opening comments are interesting too.
Youtube: 7mins44secs: NEWT GINGRICH FULL ONE-ON-ONE INTERVIEW WITH SEAN HANNITY (1/31/2018)
4mins49secs: “The elite media is part of the deep state. The elite media group has survived by being in collusion with the senior bureaucracy, the city of Washington, the senior reporters, the senior bureaucrats, the senior lobbyists, they all hang out together, they all talk to each other, they all compare notes.”
6mins28secs: “The elite media in the United States is not neutral. They’re not referees. They’re the offensive wing of the other team. You saw this in some of the clips you had, some of which are frankly outrageously anti-Trump in a way that is almost bizarre. These are folks who are so deeply hostile to what Donald Trump is trying to accomplish that they are fully as much a part of the opposition as is Nancy Pelosi or Chuck Schumer and that’s part of why you’re getting this unbelievably biased coverage.”…
The bottom line
What does it mean at the bare minimum? The Republican Reps are talking about the spying issue, presumably waiting for more pieces of the puzzle to pick up the more sweeping implications. This presumably is the strongest point (legally).
Rep. Jim Jordan
That’s it? Top brass at FBI/DOJ take “salacious & unverified”(your words, not mine) partisan funded dossier to get secret warrant from secret court to spy on private American on rival campaign. Doesn’t bother you? Bothers me. And more importantly, it bothers the American people. @Jim_Jordan
FBI doesn’t tell the court that the DNC/Clinton campaign paid for that dossier. And they did that FOUR times. @JimJordan
Representative Mark Meadows explains:
Via The Last Refuge, h/t RAH
What this issue is all about: whether the Department of Justice and FBI, under President Obama, abused their surveillance authority against American citizens and political opponents. Put another way: was the Obama DOJ weaponized to spy on the Trump campaign?
Remember, in general, the DOJ and FBI spying on American citizens should automatically be met with MAJOR skepticism. That’s what the Fourth Amendment is designed to protect against. When those American citizens are ALSO political opponents? It should raise even more red flags.
If any Department of Justice, Republican or Democrat, put their thumb on the scale for the sake of politics–it would undermine the very fabric of who we are as a nation. Americans deserve the truth, one way or the other.
Last point: If you remember anything from this news cycle, remember: your right as an American to privacy from your government spying on you is critical. It is foundational to who we are as a Republic. Never take that right for granted, no matter the political party you belong to. (link)
Sundance at the last Refuge reminds us that the DOJ are portrayed as an independent fourth branch of government but they are not. The DOJ and FBI are part of the Executive Branch and they are accountable to congressional oversight.
Replies from the Democrats:
The Democrats claim this is only about stopping the Muller investigation.
Is there a better answer out there? Judge for yourself:
Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, slammed the release of the memo, saying it was “reckless and demonstrates an astonishing disregard for the truth.”
Democrats say the memo is a “dud” and an “outright bust” that won’t undermine the Russia probe, while some pundits have gone as far as calling it a “nothingburger”.
“Republicans have overplayed their hand, and they have created a frenzy about this memo,” Democrat senator Jackie Speier, a member of the House intelligence committee, told Politico.
“Because the person who is a person of interest here is the president of the United States and in his mind this was going to derail the investigation. It’s not going to derail the investigation.” –– The Australian
The News has Democrats claiming important information was removed from the memo in order to make it look bad. Not sure how removing information can make an existing fact look bad, but I’m sure leaks will fill that in.
Looks like someone started draining a swamp.