Rand Paul goes on Colbert, schools him on oversight

by Henry Rodgers

Sen. Rand Paul said he believes there is a potential problem with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, Wednesday night on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”

Colbert asked Paul if he thinks the four-page FISA memo, which alleges top officials in the FBI and Department of Justice misled a federal surveillance court in order to obtain a spy warrant against Trump campaign members, should be released to the public. Paul said he was concerned with Mueller’s investigation and that everyone can be monitored by the government at anytime.

“I’m concerned. My biggest concern is over something that Madison said at the beginning of our country, he said that ‘men are not angels’ and that’s why we need more oversight of government,” Paul told Colbert. “Our intelligence community has the authority to listen to every phone call. Everyone’s phone calls could be listened to if they wanted to. Everyone in your e-mails can be tracked.”

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The Kentucky Republican continued to quote James Madison and said he was worried about a bias in the intelligence community. Paul said he believes there should be a check and balance, “a judge and a warrant.” Paul told Colbert he believes Mueller might have too much power, mentioning the Russia probe led to the indictment of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. Rand pointed out that Flynn’s charges had nothing to do with Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

“So I think because men are not angels and women aren’t either, that there can be bias that are into the intelligence community, so we have to be very, very careful that someone gives them a check and balance and that check and a balance should be a judge and a warrant against, you know, I fought with this collection of FISA data that we should go to a judge to get to that,” he continued.

Paul also told Colbert how easy it would be to trick someone into making a false statement if you had a copy of all their prior phone conversations.

“I’m concerned that we’ve given too much power to a prosecutor who was supposed to be going after Russian collusion,” he said. “So far he’s gotten somewhat over. He recorded General Flynn and then got him to say something inconsistent with what was recorded on the phone call. Think about it from a personal perspective, if I have a thousand phone calls of Stephen Colbert, what I could learn? And then I can interview you, and if you say anything inconsistent with what you said on your private phone calls, I could put you in jail.”

Colbert quipped that if the conversation was regarding Russian sanctions “lock me up.” He did not give Rand a chance to respond.

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