{"id":672,"date":"2018-02-02T22:41:18","date_gmt":"2018-02-02T22:41:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dahlman.online\/?p=672"},"modified":"2018-02-02T22:41:18","modified_gmt":"2018-02-02T22:41:18","slug":"not-very-bright-guys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2018\/02\/02\/not-very-bright-guys\/","title":{"rendered":"Not Very Bright Guys"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not Very Bright Guys<\/p>\n

Look, forget the myths the media’s created about the White House–the truth is,\u00a0these\u00a0are not\u00a0very bright guys, and things got out of hand \u2013 \u201cDeep Throat\u201d in all the President\u2019s Men<\/em><\/p>\n

The MEMO was released today. We are all now able to read a Top Secret Document. Chuck Rosenberg, former head of the DEA, US Attorney and FBI Chief Counsel; put it this way: \u201c\u2026this is the mediocre work of a first year law student.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three and a half pages long, the memo has multiple factual inaccuracies. What the memo asserts is that the FBI and the FISA courts issued a warrant to wiretap Carter Page based on the Steele Dossier and that Democratic Federal law enforcement agencies were spying on the Trump campaign without legal grounds. It does raise some real questions about what the Russians and Page were doing that caused FISA warrants to be renewed four times.<\/p>\n

Devin Nunes, the Republican Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, supposedly recused from involvement in the \u201cRussia\u201d investigation, is the \u201cauthor\u201d of this memo. It was actually ghost written by his Committee staff with some collaboration by the White House. Nunes himself never read the underlying intelligence documents. Those that have read them, state that the documentation does not support the conclusions of the memo, and leaves out a great deal of alternative information.<\/p>\n

The Democrats on the Intelligence Committee asked to attach a minority report to the memo, but they were denied: maybe in a week, they were told. So Nunes and his boys get the opportunity to play for a week without a Congressional contradiction. \u00a0To use Trumpian language this memo is really the definition of a \u201cnothing burger.\u201d So what value does this memo have, and what is the intent of the Trump Administration to put this hatchet job out?<\/p>\n

First, the memo distracts from the ongoing pressure placed by the Mueller Investigation. We are now \u201call a twitter\u201d about the memo, in the week the Mueller has determined that the President of the United States must answer questions. It\u2019s also the week that we find out the Hope Hicks was on a phone call with Donald Junior, telling him the emails about the Russian meeting will never be seen. The President was supposedly on the phone too.<\/p>\n

It has given Fox and the Freedom Caucus gang the opportunity to claim they have discovered a \u201cplot\u201d to overthrow the duly elected President, supplying more red meat for the Trump crowd.<\/p>\n

Second, it changed the subject from an empty State of the Union Address, full of symbolism but without substance.<\/p>\n

Third, it sets the stage for the ultimate Trump defense. Trump will claim that the evidence that shows his campaign was infiltrated and coordinating with the Russians, was in fact gathered \u201cillegally\u201d according to the Nunes memo. He will claim that the information gathered was the \u201cfruit of the poisonous tree\u201d (see last June\u2019s blog Fruit of the Poisonous Tree<\/a>) and therefore nothing that comes from it can be used in court. By the way, even if that were completely true \u2013 which it is not \u2013 it still could be used in an Impeachment hearing \u2013 not bound by Judicial rules.<\/em><\/p>\n

And finally, it may foreshadow the next round of attacks on the FBI and Justice Department. To the Trump Presidency, what others might term obstruction of justice, Trump declares is a defense against the illegal acts of his own Justice Department (which he claims is a partisan arm of the Democratic Party \u2013 led by Republican Jeff Sessions, Republican Rod Rosenstein, Republican Chris Wray, and previously Republican James Comey.)<\/p>\n

The Memo itself outlines the four officials who signed applications for FISA warrants against Carter Page: James Comey, Sally Yates, Andrew McCabe, and Rod Rosenstein. Their fates were: Comey and Yates fired, McCabe clearly forced out. The Memo presents a false case against Rod Rosenstein, the current Deputy Attorney General, and acting Attorney General in regards to the Mueller investigation. Trump might use that case to fire Rosenstein, then try to appoint a more \u201ccooperative\u201d Deputy AG to try to control Mueller. Should Mueller \u201cbuck\u201d a new boss, then that would create grounds for firing him.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a false document, but it could have real consequences. The real concern is not that Nunes would bring this, or that Trump would use it.\u00a0\u00a0 What is of concern is that the Republican leadership of the House of Representatives has bought into it. I\u2019m sure they realize that the document itself isn\u2019t persuasive, but they (Ryan, McCarthy and the like) are willing to accept the possible outcomes, including a slow motion \u201cSaturday Night Massacre.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many have held out hope that the \u201cdecent\u201d Republicans would see the evidence of Trump\u2019s involvement with the Russians, and turn against him. Even more, we expected that the more moderate wing of the House Republicans would distance themselves from this kind of show. They have not. The only result of that negligence is that for justice to prevail, the Republicans must lose control of the Congress. That way, whatever Mueller comes up with, even if he is fired and gone; others will have the opportunity to bring the truth of what happened in 2016 to light.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not Very Bright Guys Look, forget the myths the media’s created about the White House–the truth is,\u00a0these\u00a0are not\u00a0very bright guys, and things got out of hand \u2013 \u201cDeep Throat\u201d in all the President\u2019s Men The MEMO was released today. We are all now able to read a Top Secret Document. Chuck Rosenberg, former head of … Continue reading “Not Very Bright Guys”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nNot Very Bright Guys : Our America - Essays on Politics and American Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2018\/02\/02\/not-very-bright-guys\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Not Very Bright Guys : Our America - Essays on Politics and American Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Not Very Bright Guys Look, forget the myths the media’s created about the White House–the truth is,\u00a0these\u00a0are not\u00a0very bright guys, and things got out of hand \u2013 \u201cDeep Throat\u201d in all the President\u2019s Men The MEMO was released today. 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