On today’s BradCast: That mighty “thud” you heard on Friday morning? It may have been the release by Donald Trump and U.S. House Republicans of their long-awaited, much-ballyhooed, self-generated memo, which they promised would expose “worse than Watergate” crimes and wildly biased partisan “witch hunt” activities by the FBI and DoJ as part of their investigation into whether Team Trump worked with Russia to undermine the 2016 Presidential election. It did none of those things. But it does expose them as hypocrites when it comes to U.S. surveillance policies. [Audio link to show posted below.]
The three-and-half page memo was released on Friday despite the strenuous objections of Democrats and Trump appointees at the FBI and DoJ who shared “grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo’s accuracy” before its release. Trump didn’t care. The document, made of partial, cherry-picked facts, is meant to suggest the FBI inappropriately obtained a secret warrant (and three renewals for it) from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) to spy on Carter Page in late 2016. Page was a Trump campaign volunteer who had long been on the radar of the intelligence community after being cited in intercepts from Russian intelligence agents discussing him as an asset as early as 2013.
The newly declassified memo is the work of U.S. House Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes (R-CA) and his staff, who may or may not have worked with the White House itself on the effort, but it ultimately appears to do little to bolster their argument that Republican Robert Mueller’s Special Counsel probe is in some way compromised by Democratic partisans. (Even Shepard Smith of Fox “News” seems to agree.)
It does, however, underscore concerns about the manner in which Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants are obtained in the secret FISA Court, where there is no adversarial opposition to the secret case offered by the Government. All of which begs the question as to why Nunes himself voted just two weeks ago against FISA reforms advocated by civil libertarians on the Right and Left, and in favor of extending and expanding the controversial surveillance law for another 6 years. It also begs the question as to why Trump signed that FISA extension without reforms to the process that he and Nunes are now claiming to be so troubled by. Again, that was all just two weeks ago! [My conversation on that matter on this show, two weeks ago with former DoJ attorney Elizabeth Goitein — after Nunes and the House passed the bill, and just before Trump signed it — is right here.]
Then, as the cable news channels continue to devote nearly 24/7 to political intrigue and food fights, a reminder that a fish rots from the head down. To that end, the petty cruelty of Donald Trump is permeating its way into executive branch agencies, polices and behavior with nowhere near the media sunlight it deserves. We cover a number of the under-reported recent stories of how his cruel, hard-line immigration policies are ripping families apart and hurting real people, right now, and at least one federal judge who drew a hard line in the sand this week against at least one aspect of those policies.
Finally, as promised earlier this week, a disturbing story about Diebold, the makers of ATMs and (formerly) of computer voting, registration and tabulation systems, and a newly-issued warning that their ATMs are being hacked to spit out cash in a scheme called “jackpotting”. But while the security built into their machines that contain thousands of dollars of actual cash may not be great, you needn’t worry about the security of their systems used to cast and count our votes in at least one-third of the country this year in our upcoming 2018 midterm elections, right? After all, neither Trump nor Nunes nor the rest of the Congressional Republicans appear to be too concerned about it, so why should you be?…
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[audio:http://bradblog.com/audio/BradCast_BradFriedman_NunesMemoFISAFail_CrueltyOfDonaldTrump_DieboldJackpotting_020218.mp3]
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The right is desperate to quell the Russian investigation. I suspect the movers in this pursuit hope to put a definite question mark on Mueller and his pursuits. Perhaps it would be best to let both of these things go, as the most likely outcome will be wasted taxpayer dollars.
Thomas Sanchez @ 1:
So, you’re suggesting that a specious attempt to tar a legitimate criminal and counter-intelligence investigation should both be dropped because tax dollars are wasted?
Should we also stop any and all criminal investigations because the people being investigated may not like being investigated? Really?
(Don’t forget, Nunes was also a member of the Trump Transition team which is also being investigated.)
No, what I am really saying is the left (which is really the MSM – the dems have no leadership so they following whatever the MSM tells them to do) is still so butt-hurt from the election – an election they corruptly tried to steal (and should have, hence the butt-hurt) – that they can get past their Trump Derangement Syndrome to have any other platform than “We Hate Trump”. It is truly pathetic but in keeping with their true nature. Trump is winning and the MSM aka Democrats can’t stand for it
As far as Nunes, the whole truth may yet come out, but the memo is a good start in exposing these cockroaches to the transparency of light.
Now, my fellow tree huggers at https://www.treeservicechesapeake.com/ would appreciate a shout-out.
Carry on sir