• White House blocks release of Democrats' memo
    48 replies, posted
[url]https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/09/trump-blocks-release-of-democratic-memo-402083[/url] [quote]President Donald Trump moved Friday to block the release of a Democratic memo intended to counter GOP claims that the FBI inappropriately spied on a Trump campaign adviser in 2016. Democrats had issued their memo as a rebuttal to a Republican document that Trump declassified last week, accusing the FBI of misleading a federal judge to obtain a warrant to spy on Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. “Although the President is inclined to declassify the ... memorandum, because the memorandum contains numerous properly classified and especially sensitive passages, he is unable to do so at this time,” White House Counsel Don McGahn said in a statement.[/quote] [media]https://twitter.com/nprpolitics/status/962125986740473857[/media] [media]https://twitter.com/philewing/status/962127401961578496[/media] [media]https://twitter.com/davidshepardson/status/962124572295421952[/media]
What a load of bullshit.
:thinking:
"this memo is too wordy, the last one had like 4 pages, this one has so much more so I can't read them all."
The Nunes memo was such a wet fart on it's own, I'd imagine the rebuttal would be too obviously damaging for El Naranja Grande's thin skin. So of course the WH blocks it.
[QUOTE=Sableye;53121013]"this memo is too wordy, the last one had like 4 pages, this one has so much more so I can't read them all."[/QUOTE] Also today it was confirmed that Trump doesn't read his daily intelligence briefing [url]https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/breaking-with-tradition-trump-skips-presidents-written-intelligence-report-for-oral-briefings/2018/02/09/b7ba569e-0c52-11e8-95a5-c396801049ef_story.html[/url]
#releasethememo
Wow, color me surprised! I totally wasn't expecting this!
"Accidentally" leak the memo instead if they're gonna keep blocking the release.
[QUOTE=GoldenDargon;53121038]"Accidentally" leak the memo instead if they're gonna keep blocking the release.[/QUOTE] No don't. Trump & friends will just use a leak as ammo for their "Democrats are traitors" schtick.
[QUOTE=GoldenDargon;53121038]"Accidentally" leak the memo instead if they're gonna keep blocking the release.[/QUOTE] What exactly are the legal ramifications of doing this? Assuming it is obvious that some individual was in charge of the leak.
[QUOTE=Revenge282;53121062]What exactly are the legal ramifications of doing this? Assuming it is obvious that some individual was in charge of the leak.[/QUOTE] perfectly legal afaik, asking for permission to release it is just a formality I believe
[QUOTE=Revenge282;53121062]What exactly are the legal ramifications of doing this? Assuming it is obvious that some individual was in charge of the leak.[/QUOTE] You should ask Nunes since he has tons of experience leaking documents :^)
[QUOTE=Revenge282;53121062]What exactly are the legal ramifications of doing this? Assuming it is obvious that some individual was in charge of the leak.[/QUOTE] Speeches in Congress are protected from any and all prosecution, it has been suggested that the Democrats just read their memo out in Congress
[QUOTE=GoldenDargon;53121038]"Accidentally" leak the memo instead if they're gonna keep blocking the release.[/QUOTE] No need to pretend it was an accident. Read it into the Congressional record. Sit there in the Capitol and read it on the floor, CSPAN rolling and stenographers typing it all down. That is completely, incontrovertibly legal - US Constitution, Article One, Section Six: "and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place." This has been done before - in '71, Senator Mike Gravel read the Pentagon Papers, a leaked DOD document that was considered a military secret, into the congressional record, as Nixon was preventing the publication of them in newspapers and was pursuing legal charges against the leaker (it fell apart due to Watergate). As part of the independence of the branches of government, the only body able to punish a congressperson who abuses this ability is Congress itself, which may choose to impeach the representative or senator. I doubt that would happen in this case because a bipartisan Congressional committee voted to release the memo, albeit contingent on normal executive-branch review.
[QUOTE=gman003-main;53121081]No need to pretend it was an accident. Read it into the Congressional record. Sit there in the Capitol and read it on the floor, CSPAN rolling and stenographers typing it all down. That is completely, incontrovertibly legal - US Constitution, Article One, Section Six: "and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place." This has been done before - in '71, Senator Mike Gravel read the Pentagon Papers, a leaked DOD document that was considered a military secret, into the congressional record, as Nixon was preventing the publication of them in newspapers and was pursuing legal charges against the leaker (it fell apart due to Watergate). As part of the independence of the branches of government, the only body able to punish a congressperson who abuses this ability is Congress itself, which may choose to impeach the representative or senator. I doubt that would happen in this case because a bipartisan Congressional committee voted to release the memo, albeit contingent on normal executive-branch review.[/QUOTE] How exciting to think that we can get to use Nixon era tactics on a president in 2018! /s I hope they do just that though.
The Democrats' memo is ten pages long compared to Nunes' four, and it is supposedly full of [I]a lot more[/I] classified information than Nunes' memo was, as it substantially mines classified materials to prove why the investigations are legitimate, the FBI isn't corrupt, and Nunes is full of shit. The Dems expected that it would need considerable redacting. If Trump is asking for an extension on his homework because five days aren't enough time for the smartest guy in the government to read ten pages, that's not the worst thing he's done this...week. Nunes' memo was mainly a bunch of nothing inflated into being a big raging nothing, so the Dems had every reason to bring big guns out to firmly discredit it. But if the Executive really refuses to let the memo come out even slightly, then the Dems should be ready to go nuclear and read the memo into the record. Let the sunshine disinfect.
[QUOTE=Bob The Knob;53121018]Also today it was confirmed that Trump doesn't read his daily intelligence briefing [url]https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/breaking-with-tradition-trump-skips-presidents-written-intelligence-report-for-oral-briefings/2018/02/09/b7ba569e-0c52-11e8-95a5-c396801049ef_story.html[/url][/QUOTE] The way they say 'breaking with tradition' like it's an unimportant ceremony instead of a fundamental part of the job
Memo, about to be released with confidential information still in it that the FBI is warning is still in it and hasn't been able to brief anyone about: Cleared to release to the public. Memo, about to be released with confidential information still in it that the FBI has looked through and cleared for release: Rejected due to classified information concerns. Yes, yes. This is definitely some flawless logic from a very stable genius.
[QUOTE=Firgof Umbra;53121184]Memo, about to be released with confidential information still in it that the FBI is warning is still in it and hasn't been able to brief anyone about: Cleared to release to the public. Memo, about to be released with confidential information still in it that the FBI has looked through and cleared for release: Rejected due to classified information concerns. Yes, yes. This is definitely some flawless logic from a very stable genius.[/QUOTE] Honestly, nothing more to say than this. All this talk about "transparency" that Trump and the GOP used to attempt to validate their bogus memo, and yet they block the Democratic memo under the [B]exact[/B] under the pretense that they were deferring to the judgment of the FBI, despite violating those [B]exact same concerns[/B] for their own. I'd like anybody who argued that the GOP just wanted the democrats to go through the same process they did to immediately come forth and admit that this is bullshit, that they know it's bullshit, and that they knew it was always [I]going[/I] to be bullshit. To be clear: I am not saying the Democrats' memo should have been released, only that the GOP's fabrication [B]should not have been[/B]. Neither should have come forth, for the exact same reasons -- they are nonsense non-stories created for strictly partisan purposes that attempt to politicize and weaponize the Department of Justice. It's dangerous and inappropriate.
[QUOTE=Bob The Knob;53121018]Also today it was confirmed that Trump doesn't read his daily intelligence briefing [url]https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/breaking-with-tradition-trump-skips-presidents-written-intelligence-report-for-oral-briefings/2018/02/09/b7ba569e-0c52-11e8-95a5-c396801049ef_story.html[/url][/QUOTE] in a normal job you get fired for being this incompetent.
[QUOTE=Bob The Knob;53121018]Also today it was confirmed that Trump doesn't read his daily intelligence briefing [url]https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/breaking-with-tradition-trump-skips-presidents-written-intelligence-report-for-oral-briefings/2018/02/09/b7ba569e-0c52-11e8-95a5-c396801049ef_story.html[/url][/QUOTE] We all know the only daily "briefing" Trump cares about is this one: [img]https://radio.foxnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/foxandfriends-300-New.jpg[/img]
[QUOTE=Big Dumb American;53121241]We all know the only daily "briefing" Trump cares about is this one: [img]https://radio.foxnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/foxandfriends-300-New.jpg[/img][/QUOTE] Just put a big "Last Night's Fox and Friends Transcript" as the title of the briefing. If he asks why it's different from what he watched, say that he missed a showing while he was working. Bam, fixed.
It’s always a one-way street with republicans. They build the foundations of bad governance.
[QUOTE=Last or First;53121244]Just put a big "Last Night's Fox and Friends Transcript" as the title of the briefing. If he asks why it's different from what he watched, say that he missed a showing while he was working. Bam, fixed.[/QUOTE] If only Trump actually worked. [quote]On Tuesday, Trump has his first meeting of the day with Chief of Staff John Kelly at 11 A.M. He then has "Executive Time" for an hour followed by an hour lunch in the private dining room. Then it's another 1 hour 15 minutes of “Executive Time” followed by a 45-minute meeting with National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster. Then another 15 minutes of “Executive Time” before Trump takes his last meeting of the day—a 3:45 P.M. meeting with the head of Presidential Personnel Johnny DeStefano—before ending his official day at 4:15 P.M.[/quote] Just to be clear, that's a five hour workday, with three and a half hours of it devoted to watching television. Trump's average work day only has an hour and a half of actual "work."
[QUOTE=Big Dumb American;53121257]If only Trump actually worked. Just to be clear, that's a five hour workday, with three and a half hours of it devoted to watching television. Trump's average work day only has an hour and a half of actual "work."[/QUOTE] Holy shit. I don't think a President needs to be ready and alert 24/7, but this is fucking embarassing. "Executive Time?" It's framed like a part of a toddler's schedule--right alongside "me time," "playpen time," "nap time..." You might ask, "well what should it be called?" and to that i say, it shouldn't be there. 11 AM to 4:15 PM is literally less time each day than i spent at my last part-time job stacking boxes. That's a good 10 hours of waking free time in a day, he shouldn't be taking 2/3 more of his "work" time for himself.
[QUOTE=Revenge282;53121062]What exactly are the legal ramifications of doing this? Assuming it is obvious that some individual was in charge of the leak.[/QUOTE] the contents of the memo are about the FISA process which is one of our higher secrets so not only would leaking it be a bad idea, it would also signal to the intel community that the democrats can't be trusted either.
[QUOTE=Sableye;53121416]the contents of the memo are about the FISA process which is one of our higher secrets so not only would leaking it be a bad idea, it would also signal to the intel community that the democrats can't be trusted either.[/QUOTE] Except the intelligence community already okayed this memo?
[QUOTE=Alice3173;53121440]Except the intelligence community already okayed this memo?[/QUOTE] As I understand it the FBI and DOJ are [I]very[/I] concerned about portions of the memo being revealed because they're just dripping with classified info, processes, and source information. If we are to believe... basically everybody (House Dems, House Repubs, White House, the FBI/DOJ), the memo has enough classified info in it that being released unredacted would be very damaging to sources and systems used by law enforcement and intelligence. [URL="https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/gop-mulling-ban-on-the-use-of-politically-funded-information-in-surveillance-requests/2018/02/09/6830ad5c-0dcf-11e8-95a5-c396801049ef_story.html"]From the WaPo coverage of the story,[/URL] [QUOTE]President Trump will not immediately agree to release a Democratic memo rebutting GOP claims that the FBI abused its surveillance authority as it probed Russian meddling in the 2016 election, but he has directed the Justice Department to work with lawmakers so some form of the document could be made public, the White House counsel said Friday night. In a letter to the House Intelligence Committee, White House counsel Donald McGahn wrote that [B]the Justice Department had identified portions of the Democrats’ memo that it believed “would create especially significant concerns for the national security and law enforcement interests” if disclosed. McGahn included in his note a letter from Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher A. Wray supporting that claim.[/B][/QUOTE] Now, you are pedantically right if you want to point out that the [I]intelligence[/I] community is [I]not[/I] the same as the DOJ and the FBI; intelligence and law enforcement are two different arms, yes. However, unless you're suggesting that the intelligence community is so pissed at Congress and Trump that they're willing to throw the FBI/DOJ arm under the bus for the sake of publicly fucking the GOP memo to death, I don't think we can say that the the Democrat memo has been "okayed" by anyone but the House Intelligence Committee so far. [U]Everybody[/U] expected the memo to undergo redaction before being released. It's just a matter of how much is left, and how much of the redaction is bullshit and how much of it is justified, and that's if the Trump administration even allows it to be released at all.
[QUOTE=elixwhitetail;53121478]As I understand it the FBI and DOJ are [I]very[/I] concerned about portions of the memo being revealed because they're just dripping with classified info, processes, and source information. If we are to believe... basically everybody (House Dems, House Repubs, White House, the FBI/DOJ), the memo has enough classified info in it that being released unredacted would be very damaging to sources and systems used by law enforcement and intelligence.[/QUOTE] Ah, alright. My mistake then. I'd been under the impression that the intelligence community in general had approved of the memo in response to Nune's propaganda as a necessary measure.
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