President Donald Trump met with the FBI Director Christopher Wray, Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Jesse Panuccio, and members of the White House Counsels Office to discuss the Democrat memo on the FISA surveillance scandal and hours after that meeting the president decided he would not declassify the information in the memo.
According to White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah, the president consulted the Director of National Intelligence and the Justice Department to “assess the declassification request and provide him recommendations.”
House Intelligence Committee Ranking Democrat Adam Schiff jumped on Twitter to voice his opinion before the president had made the decision to hold the memo back.
Have you seen the new GOP hashtag? It's quite a doozy:
ReleaseTheMemoNoNotThatMemoInTheInterestofFullTransparencyNotThatMuchTransparencyWhatDoWeDoLetsHaveAParade
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) February 7, 2018
A letter denying the declassification request, with a classified attachment, was transmitted back to the House Intelligence Committee just before 8 p.m. EST.
The Democrats sent a very political and long response memo which they knew, because of sources and methods (and more), would have to be heavily redacted, whereupon they would blame the White House for lack of transparency. Told them to re-do and send back in proper form!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 10, 2018
“Although the President is inclined to declassify the February 5th Memorandum, because the Memorandum contains numerous properly classified and especially sensitive passages, he is unable to do so at this time,” White House Counsel Donald McGahn said in a letter to House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes. “The President has directed that Justice Department personnel be available to give technical assistance to the Committee, should the Committee wish to revise the February 5th Memorandum to mitigate the risks identified by the [Justice] Department.”
It was expected that the memo crafted by Democrats would contain unreleasable information in an attempt to trap the president into appearing to favor Republicans. While Trump followed the same process with the Feb. 2 GOP memo as he did with the Feb. 5 Democrat memo, the press will likely see bias where only national security concerns exist.
Panuccio attended the meeting as Associate Attorney General Rachel Brand, 3rd in the Justice Department’s chain of command, announced her resignation Friday.
White House Counsel Donald McGahn’s letter to the House Intelligence Committee [full text]
Any time the President can piss of the democrats (even more!) I’m happy!
Derrell – While I cannot say whether the memo should have been released or not, I do reject your thought process. What should be done is what’s “right,” whatever that is.
This should not be like sports teams, nor should this be about revenge, or shadenfreud. There are reasons to think that the Nunes’ memo is false, and that the FBI makes impartial decisions, and also reasons to think that the FBI has made biased decisions. The truth of what happened doesn’t depend on what team you’re for – it depends on what actually happened.
For example, there’s a good argument that the Justice Department’s decision to not prosecute Clinton was the right decision. If you have “team-think,” then you won’t consider that. Here’s the evidence for that conclusion:
This article is written by a former military prosecutor and a current reserve U.S. Army Judge Advocate.
Why Intent, Not Gross Negligence is the standard in Clinton case
https://warontherocks.com/2016/07/why-intent-not-gross-negligence-is-the-standard-in-clinton-case/
I am not a fan of Hillary Clinton. I’m Christian, conservative, against abortion, pro-Second Amendment, against identity politics, and mostly a fiscal conservative. Nonetheless, I’m very concerned that a great many Republicans are acting irrationally, and it’s going to cause a backlash against the Republican party – Ben Shapiro expressed this concern if Trump won way back in early 2016.
Let’s start thinking like mature adults, and consider both sides of a question – and if you do that, you’ll find out that a number of conspiracy theories about Clinton probably aren’t true. (She was, however, guilty of the e-mail server issue – my point there is that the law was (probably) fairly applied in that case).
Bill – I got over hoping people of opposing core principles can EVER come to an equitable consensus long ago! (One always gives in to the other!) I suggest you review; the Overton Window phenomenon, the core definition of the term “Conservative”, and compare the principles the democrats seem to stand on to those of Americanism.
Briefly, the Overton window demonstrates how, thru a range of reactions, policies are moved by argument and consensus regarded as; popular, sensible, acceptable, radical, or unthinkable. “Conservative”, defined clinically; the desire to keep things as they ARE. The term represents no principles of its own but rather is relative to time and place. If I wanted to keep things the way they are, Today, that means I don’t care about the original intent of the Constitution – we have moved unnervingly far from what it meant (and STILL means) when written. (Some think this “progression” is a good thing; I DO NOT because I see CLEARLY where it is taking us!).
The democrats have worked, from the very beginning of this Nation, to tear down the principles of Americanism established in our Declaration of Independence (the principles that cling to the Laws of Nature and the Creator of that Nature). The Democrats embrace socialism (socialism is no different from communism except in how it is implemented – socialism by the consent of the governed (the vote) and communism by violent revolution) and a collective mentality.
In 1776 Adam Weishaupt established the Illuminati and if you investigate the planks (principles) he wrote they are exactly the same as those of Communism and therefore the same principles of socialism. All of them have the same purpose – a singular world government in the hands of the elite with the intent to dispose of most of the human race and enslave the remained – all in the name of the “common good” – “can’t we all just get along?”. The Bible says; except those days were shortened no man would be left alive!
If you compare where this country was, in terms of Freedom and Americanism, over just the past 100 years you will find it has moved far, far to the left. This has been done progressively (by moving policy as far as the popular or sensible range – according to the Overton Window – would allow. Here is how it works; the left says, we want this policy. The right says, that is too radical – be sensible. So they compromise. The right get’s its sensibility and the left moves policy a tiny little bit to the LEFT. And so it goes until one day the right compares the sensibility of consensus to where policy actually is and finds itself a socialist democracy!!
The only JUST and Righteous purpose of Government is to protect our RIGHT to protect our lives and our property. Period. This is not a point ANYONE can argue because anything other than that purpose is LEGALIZED THEFT!!! RIGHTS DO NOT COME FROM GOVERNMENTS!!!
Hillary is a murdering, LYING, Criminal-bitch. But she is not the head of the Snake, nor is Obama, Nor is the Council on Foreign Relations; These are all under something even more evil. You are a Christian? We wrestle not against principalities and powers, against flesh and blood, but against spiritual wickedness in high places! There is indeed conspiracy at work. Nothing happens in politics except that someone MAKES it happen! So why are we so far off the mark of the Freedom our founders stood for? Is it thru happenstance or was it planned!
Finally, I have ZERO tolerance for Collectivism. Your comments REEK with collectivism – that I see plainly. Teams? There is only Truth and Lies! I stand with the Truth which cannot be compromised! All the evidence that justifies or exonerates the evil doers are lies! The usurpation of power in a Constitutional Republic is TREASON AGAINST ITS CITIZENS!!! I do not give her a pass just because someone says, oh, her intent was not this or that! She broke the LAW!!! She must meet JUSTICE!!
I will fight communism with my last drop of BLOOD!
The Intelligence committee is lead by the Republicans, and has both Republicans and Democrat members. That committee voted unanimously to release the Democrat memo that responds to Nunes’ memo. Among the people on the committee are Trey Gowdy.
So, I don’t think this is just politics – if it was, Trey Gowdy would not have voted for it.
Also, Devin Nunes chaired that committee, but I read he has stepped down from that position. What is that about?
There are things to think about here. I hope they do redact whatever information is an issue and the memo is released. I want to know what’s going on.
For many of our citizens self-interest controls reason.
One significant thing our country has lost is our ability to think logically. Meaning, for the most part, our discourse has devolved into a rhetorical battle between two camps armed with only opinion. Whether it is between Republican v. Democrat or Conservative v. Progressive, the watchword for both is “don’t confuse me with the facts, I’ve already made up my mind.” And the media’s predilection to categorize “pundits” into either side only serves to further obfuscate the issue.
We need to throw-off the blindfolds which bind our vision to false issues and return to the basic principals which helped our Founders develop rules which guide us. It was Benjamin Franklin who said on the steps of the Convention Hall in Philadelphia that the members have given us a Republic, that is if we can keep it. We must constantly fight for liberty or else freedom is in danger of being lost and once gone it can never be retrieved. Just ask the people of North Korea how freedom is valued.
The Rule of Men seeks to have one king with all others subjected to that ruler.
The Rule of Law seeks to have all men treated equally.