A highly classified memo that details FISA warrant abuse by the Obama Administration, specifically the Justice Dept. and FBI, has been released by the House Intelligence Committee to all members of the House. The vote to release it was along party lines. Dems voted en masse against the release. Rep. Steve King calls it "worse than Watergate". Rep. Matt Gaetz says it's "jaw-dropping" and should be released to "preserve our democracy". Others claim that, if proven true, there is enough alleged criminal activity to send people to jail. Dems poo poo the memo as an attempt to discredit the people investigating Trump. Hard evidence that a sitting Administration used the Justice Dept. and FBI in an attempt to derail an opposition candidate for President is far scarier than fantastical claims that Russia somehow interfered with the 2016 Presidential election. It's the kind of thing done in s-hole democracies. Hopefully some Patriot will leak it to the public. I mean, what's one more leak of classified information. The Russians and Chinese probably laughed their asses off when they read the memo.
I err on the side of open government. Release the memo. If some parts have real national security concerns, they can be redacted, but the memo in general should be released.
I'm hoping this isn't a nothingburger. Both sides tend to exaggerate when it comes to nailing the other side on something.
If I had a share of Google stock for every scandal a Republican decried as "worse than Watergate" but wasn't really worse ... or even comparable to Watergate ... I'd sell it an buy a nice island somewhere. If it is indeed a scandal worse than Watergate, we should make as much information public as possible as soon as possible ... so long as the release doesn't hinder prosecution. People need to be jailed. Then we need Hollywood to make a movie about it... I'm thinking Morton Downey Jr. and Will Ferrell for important roles.
With Watergate, you had a President and people directly under him breaking into an office and stealing files in order to gain information needed to swing an election his way. Here, you have the possible collusion of a candidate (Clinton), a sitting President, heads of intelligent agencies (Brennan, Clapper, Comey, McCabe), and perhaps foreign operatives (Awan) all conspiring to rig an election and/or overturn the results of the election. We aren’t talking about one guy that breaks the law. We are talking about systemic corruption at the highest levels of power throughout the US government. This is potentially 50 times more serious than Watergate.
Release it. The fact that the memo is a mere 4 pages long and the vote to release it was 100% along party lines (NO DEFECTIONS?) leads me to believe that this is politics, not some revelation. Afterall, the memo has now been shared with the House and no leaks? That's a first. Keep in mind, the FISA rules that would have led to this "worse than Watergate" behavior were just rubber stamped to continue last week by the party now crying foul.
I think the use of a derivative of the word "potential" on a website mostly devoted to athletic fandom is most appropriate. Personally, the word "potential" excites the hell out of me every year during football and basketball recruiting. Alas, I still carry scars from unfounded excitement of what would eventually be unrealized potential of Anthony Byerly, Jason Burleson and Bryan Pickryl.
If the memo is released and it's not all it's cracked up to be, then the Dems can point fingers and say "I told you so". But, we'll never know until it gets out in the public domain and everybody gets to read it. I think there's plenty of evidence that Obama weaponized several government agencies, including the IRS.
Ted Poe (R-Tex) taking a similar position. He has personally asked Trump to delay signing the newly-reauthorized surveillance law (Section 702) in light of the HPSCI's "FISA abuses" memo and has urged for the public release of the memo. Poe was already on record as wanting stronger privacy measures in Section 702.
Maybe they should tie the release of said memo to the release of a certain funky haired President's taxes?
Yes that is a good idea. Require release of a tax return that is not required by law to obtain a memo regarding illegal behavior by the United States Justice Department. Newsflash - Donald J Trump was elected President. No tax return is going to change that.
He promised to release his returns. But hey, you'd lose your mind expecting that guy to keep his vows/promises/word/contracts.
You cannot seriously think the two are equivalent. If you do, then you believe it is okay for the justice department to violate the law as long as it serves your party. That is scary. I believe Trump was under audit by a rogue IRS also guilty of illegal behavior. Did they find anything?
On the first point: No they are not the same thing at all. If vows made during a campaign had legal force ... it would be bizarre and revolutionary. On the issue of the Russia investigation issues with Trump, so far as I know they are under investigation and unresolved. I have no idea about his tax audits (I memory serves that was self-disclosed by Trump as excuse for not releasing his tax returns after saying he would?).
The Obama administration used different agencies as political weapons against opponents and individual citizens. How any democrat can support that boggles my mind. But then again, the DNC rigged the primary and robbed liberals of their votes for Sanders. Liberals simply have no principles.
