Archive for 2019

OPEN THREAD: Did anything happen today?

JAMES FREEMAN: Mueller and the Obama Accounting: The former President now owes the country an explanation for the historic abuse of government surveillance powers.

The Mueller report confirms that the Obama administration, without evidence, turned the surveillance powers of the federal government against the presidential campaign of the party out of power. This historic abuse of executive authority was either approved by President Barack Obama or it was not. It’s time for Mr. Obama, who oddly receives few mentions in stories about his government’s spying on associates of the 2016 Trump campaign, to say what he knew and did not know about the targeting of his party’s opponents. . . .

It’s time for this lawyer and alleged passionate defender of the Bill of Rights to explain the actions of his overzealous and overreaching executive branch. If he didn’t find out about the wiretapping until after the fact, when exactly did he learn about it and how did he respond?

What has always seemed clear is that Mr. Obama never actually believed the now-discredited claim that the Trump campaign worked with Russia to rig the 2016 U.S. elections. . . .

If Mr. Obama never bought into the collusion conspiracy theory, then the question is why he endorsed or allowed the use of federal surveillance tools against the party out of power—a direct threat to the democratic process that is at the heart of our country’s greatness.

Mr. Obama might have room to deny any knowledge of the details of the surveillance abuses, given the story his FBI director told Congress—if anybody could believe that story.

The absolute bare minimum that Mr. Obama owes this country is an explanation of the actions of his government in spying on a presidential campaign.

Put him under oath.

UPDATE: McConnell: Mueller memo ‘conclusively’ exonerates Trump — but not Obama.

BONUS POINTS FOR THE BEST SUGGESTED PHOTO CAPTION: Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham warned House Democrats about over-playing their hand on Trump-Russia collusion. And check out the news photo of Nancy Pelosi and Jerrold Nadler, which just begs for a creative caption.

 

HEH:

IT JUST GETS BETTER, AS AVENATTI INVOKES “DUE PROCESS” IN POST-ARREST STATEMENT: “I am highly confident that when all the evidence is laid bare in connection with these cases, when it is all known, when due process occurs, that I will be fully exonerated and justice will be done.” Oh, sure, now he likes due process.

JON GABRIEL: Schadenfreude Monday Continues. “It was a fun news weekend watching the collapse of the flimsy Russian conspiracy theory. On Friday, Mueller cleared Trump of collusion and left the issue of obstruction unresolved. Then, Sunday morning, Attorney General Bill Barr revealed there’s no reason to fall down the obstruction rabbit hole. Stick a fork in it; the Mueller probe is done. ‘Don’t worry,’ media dead-enders said, ‘the real action is happening at the SDNY District Court!’ As of Noon Monday, the SDNY had weighed in — by arresting unhinged Trump critic Michael Avenatti.”

Related:

NOW COMES THE COUNTER-REVOLUTION: Remember Stefan Halper, the Nixon/Ford/Reagan White House aide who became a Cambridge professor? Margot Cleveland of The Federalist presents an excellent analysis of the evidence that the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane was not the first Trump-Russia collusion investigation. BTW, Margot, the answer to your concluding question almost certainly is: John O. Brennan.