According to Representative Dave Joyce (R-OH14) the House Intelligence Committee will hold a vote on the release of the four page Nunes memo that reveals systemic corruption within the DOJ and FBI including the unlawful use of FISA-702(16)(17) data searches which were part of an elaborate DOJ-FBI surveillance program on the political campaign of Donald Trump.
Additionally, Chad Pergram reported that Chairman Devin Nunes met with Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte to discuss the best process to release the memo. There are generally two ways it could be done, the HPSCI vote is the most likely.
As more people have become aware of the back-story to the campaign surveillance, FISA-702 issue, and the unlawful conduct of the FBI and DOJ, there is also a great deal of misinformation. Few people have followed the entire story as it unfolded and that has led to large numbers of people mistakenly thinking the process for revealing the classified intelligence -at the heart of the issue- can be easily released.
There are also multiple media voices taking advantage of people with limited understanding of the year-long process. Glenn Greenwald published an article today claiming there were “Four Easy Ways” the Nunes memo could be revealed. That article by Greenwald is intentional disinformation targeted to cloud the larger issues and create chaos. A deconstruction of Greenwald’s ridiculous arguments is HERE.
It is essential the process is followed that allows the larger story to come out without providing the use of political cover by those who are intent on hiding the corruption.
Once the House Intelligence Committee votes to declassify the four-page memo, the White House, National Security Adviser (H.R. McMaster) and National Security Council will have five days to review the content. The White House will likely have a brief review by the NSC and the Office of Legal Counsel of the content, and then issue approval for the release.
There are poorly informed voices who claim President Trump can arbitraritly declassify the Nunes memo. That is false. The White House (the executive branch) does not own the document. The Nunes memo is owned by the Legislative Branch, and specifically by the House Intelligence Committee. The Executive Branch can request the memo, but they cannot demand it without following a process. Therefore, without submission, the executive branch cannot declassify it. There is an inherent constitutional separation of power.
Secondly, while it might seem like a good idea for President Trump to declassify the Nunes memo, if given by the Intel Committee, it would not be prudent to do so. Within this classified document Donald Trump is the subject of adverse action outlined therein.
The President was the target of the unlawful action by the DOJ and FBI as reportedly outlined within the Nunes memo. Because the memo contains details of FBI and DOJ surveillance, Donald Trump (now POTUS) is both the victim and the head of law enforcement in charge of investigation the illegal action that created the victim.
In addition, to being both the victim and charged with the legal authority over the FBI and DOJ, there are downstream ramifications due to Special Counsel Robert Mueller investigating President Trump for “Obstruction of Justice”.
White House lawyer Don McGahn would clearly instruct Trump (victim) to stay the hell away from this investigation. There is an inherent conflict. Any exceptional action taken by POTUS could be construed as interference, including violations of the separation of powers.
Therefore the best route as constructed by Nunes and Goodlatte would be for the House to vote to declassify, pass on to the Executive for review, and then President Trump grants approval for the request of the House (legislative branch).
By law, all attempts by the legislative branch to declassify intelligence information must be given to the executive branch for review in advance of release. This is because the executive branch needs to see if any current intelligence operations might be compromised by information not known to the legislative branch.
The National Security Council and any impacted offices of the intelligence information (CIA, NSA, FBI, DOJ, U.S. DoS, DOD, etc.) review, provide opinion, and sign off prior to executive approval and release.
It is not just this declassification that goes through this process, all declassification goes through this process. In this example, presumably, the President has no adverse reason to block the declassification request and it is likely all approvals will happen quite quickly.
After the White House approves of the HPSCI request, the Memo then becomes public.
That’s when Democrats will attack the memo as being authored and misrepresented by Chairman Devin Nunes. This is the politics.
If/when this happens (highly likely it will), Chairman Nunes will then request the entire House of Representatives be given the opportunity to see the underlying FISA documentation that led to the summary.
The underlying FISA documentation likely includes the DOJ/FBI FISA application as presented to the FISA court; again, likely to include the “Clinton/Steele Dossier”. Additionally, the FISA-702 raw data will include the “searches” on Trump officials that led to the upstream collection of information and the subsequent “unmasking” of Trump officials.
Releasing the underlying FISA documentation that proves the Nunes FISA memo will likely follow a similar path as the Nunes memo itself. Again, this is a process and within each of these processes there are revelations as to the scope of the corruption and conspiracy therein.
And this is just Devin Nunes.
Behind Nunes the Senate Judiciary Committee, Chuck Grassley, is investigating the Steele Dossier and the FBI use therein. Also there’s the House Judiciary Committee, Bob Goodlatte, focused on the DOJ corruption. Nunes, Grassley and Goodlatte are bolstered by Inspector General Michael Horowitz who is providing the year-long investigation evidence into politicization of the DOJ and FBI.
The entire enterprise of exposing the corruption and conspiracy has just begun. CTH readers are well ahead of the entire storyline, but for the rest of America -including a massive part the voting electorate- they have no idea what is coming.
tic… tic… tic… tic…
The storm clouds gather looks like a big one.
@kitt: You know what? I bet the Russians did it.
@Bill… Deplorable Me: I know nothing of Obamas ancestors as its been sealed.