I agree - eventually, what li’l donnie has declassified will be released. My question is, since the pages included are probably cherry-picked information, what other pages can the Intel Community declassify and release at the same time to give a clearer picture - and would they do that?
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Nunes and crew are behind it
They are desperate to derail Mueller in any way they can, because they are dirty , with Oligarch Rubles awash everywhere
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Trump, not two weeks ago, (entering stage left like the hysterical whiny bitch bullies like he invariably become) “Oh my Gawd !!! Robert Mueller cannot possibly do ANYTHING during the 60 days before an election !!! It would be a violation of the Constitution !!! It has always been thus, no investigation or indictments or flashy breaking news of guilty pleas within 60 days of an election. Going back to Our Founding Fathers !!!”
Donald Trump yesterday- “Fuck it, release all these classified documents on an on-going investigation. We are taking a beating on Kavanaugh. Paul Manafort plead guilty on Friday. Michael Flynn’s sentencing was announced in violation of the 60 day rule. No more Mr. Nice guy.”
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The main thing AP neglects to mention is that trump and his minions get to choose which pages to declassify, and what to redact. So if they want to declassify just the pages that support their position and redact the occasion “not”, that’s within their authority.
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“Complying with Trump Order”. There’s a report this morning that there is no “Order.” As usual, Huckabee Sanders announced that Trump declassified the docs. That’s not an Order. When Trump did the same thing with banning transgender recruits into the military, the Joint Chiefs promptly said that when they received an Order they would review it.
Is there anyone in DOJ with the cojones to say a) there is no Order; and b) if an Order is eventually issued, DOJ will not release information inconsistent with the national interest?
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“Trump made the extraordinary move Monday in response to calls from his allies in Congress who say they believe the Russia investigation was tainted by anti-Trump bias within the ranks of the FBI and Justice Department.”
another news organization might say:
The president made the extraordinary demand on Monday when a staff member suggested it might distract from the actual criminal activity of all parties involved. The DOJ had many anti-Hilary partisans, but those emails are not being released."
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WOW…these SOBs really don’t give a sweet sht about the United States do they? They don’t care if we’ve been hacked, they don’t care if there is a LEGAL INVESTIGATION into wrong doing to our country…all they care about is their perceived winning or losing and what they can do to fk the US. I never want to hear any ‘patriotic’ horsepucky out of their mouths again. Ever. Scalise? Are you fking KIDDING me?
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Be so fucking funny if in an effort to show bias in the FBI he actually uncovers a lot of so far unseen evidence of collusion.
Yeah they are all party and self over country. Almost makes me believe in execution for this shit, but jail would probably be a more painful punishment for these fucks.
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“Extraordinarily reckless” handling of classified information … now why, oh why does that sound so familiar?
Hmmm, Mr. Comey?
HRC: Has a couple of lines of relatively unimportant stuff marked Confidential (lowest of the classification levels) on a server in her own house.
GOP: Treason! Treason! Lock her up!
DJT: Throws highly sensitive intelligence material into the air like a clown at a parade tossing candy to the kids.
GOP: Transparency!
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Trump always asserts that it’s “bias” when anyone has a less-than-positive opinion of him.
- Mueller is “biased” because of those golf membership fees
- Strzok was “biased” because he didn’t want Trump to be elected
Presumably, since ~138.8 million Americans voted in 2016 and only 62.9 million voted for Trump, the other 75.8 million Americans are biased. EDIT: Actually, it’d be higher. His count of biased people would also include anyone able to vote who refused to go to the polls and vote for him. So, since 138.8m is ~55.7% of the voting-age population… that’s 186.3 million Americans biased against Trump.
His search for “bias,” such as it is, is a half-assed witch hunt.
And it’s obv not helping our political discourse when one side rejects outright the possibility that a disagreement can be rooted in anything other than illegitimate prejudice. Trumpers and foaming Foxers are constantly being told that anyone who disagrees with them has a kind of pre-existing condition. Another norm bites the dust.
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This is where the Anonymous NYT OpeEd writer is supposed to save the nation and slow this process to a crawl.
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I hope the Democrats running against Nunes and Meadows et. al. use this to bury them in the midterms.
In the case of Meadows, they should point out that North Carolina is under water, people have died, the region is facing a massive toxic clean up, and Meadows is more worried about sabotaging the investigation into Russia’s interference in our elections to protect Trump than lifting a finger to help the people he claims to represent.
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While I think this will have impact only among cognoscenti of the details, conspiracy theorists, and Trump acolytes, discussion of it in all forums should emphasize what a selective release this is. A few pages here, a few pages there. That’s the opposite of ‘transparency’: it’s obvious spinning and cherry-picking.
Let’s hope that people whose comments get relayed (Democratic Congressional voices, media, etc.) can agree on the appropriate meme: “this cherry-picked selective release” should be in everyone’s tweets, statements, and on-air comments, IMHO.
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Notice the very selective pattern of the release: a few pages here, a few pages there. Of course they know what they’re getting… and they’re being careful that only parts that can, at a stretch, be spun their way will be released, while keeping the remaining 404 whatever pages classified so that the full picture remains hidden.
“cherry-picking selective release”, people!
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Yep. Law enforcement does have a bias. They’re biased in favor of enforcing the law. When someone’s breaking it, their work begins. Of course, they can be corrupt, too. Every agency in our government needs checks and balances. Congress is supposed to be one of those checks, but the majority party has abdicated their duty and are complicit in the crimes they’re supposed to be checking.
What’s wrong about all of this is that the White House is meddling in a DOJ investigation, completely contrary to norms, and has probably gone over the edge into obstruction, an actual crime in addition to the growing roster of crimes against his cabal. If we can keep our form of government together and put the crooks in jail, it will be a testament to the strength of our democracy.
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Yeah, the magical mystical 60-day rule, invoked when convenient.
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Cherry picked items for maximum effect, no doubt. Another obvious obstructive move.
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DNI Coats is going to slow-walk this as much as possible, but what is the settled law in this situation? I’ve read that a President can declassify anything, that by releasing something it is retroactively declassified.
Are our legal protections really that weak?
I think it was Josh Marshall who wrote that our greatest vulnerability is destruction of long-held norms.
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I do not know the answer to your question. Trump is clearly guilty and is, like Nixon before him, using the normal executive powers in abnormal, corrupt ways to cover up his guilt. Besides being remembered as the Quisling President Who Was Also Incompetent, Donald Trump will be remembered as The President, Who, Like Dogs, Did Certain Things, No Matter How Unedifying, Simply Because He Can. L’Etat C’Est Moi, Baby.
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