President Trump said Wednesday evening of foreign intelligence on election opponents that "it's not an interference, they have information—I think I'd take it," to ABC's George Stephanopoulos. "If I thought there was something wrong, I'd go maybe to the FBI—if I thought there was something wrong. But when somebody comes up with oppo research, right, they come up with oppo research, 'Oh let's call the FBI.' The FBI doesn't have enough agents to take care of it. When you go and talk, honestly, to congressmen, they all do it, they always have, and that's the way it is. It's called oppo research."
It is true that most congressmen and presidential candidates do opposition research, but they pay American staff to do it and use legal search functions, they are not getting their research from illegally hacking into emails or from foreign agents.
"When foreign governments are offering to 'help' a particular candidate, it's not because they want to have a beer with them at some point. They want to be able to change our policies — including ones that make it easier for them to do things against the interests of the U.S.," wrote former FBI special agent Asha Rangappa on Twitter. "When such help is accepted and kept hidden, it becomes a source of liability for the candidate/officeholder. This means that the foreign government then has LEVERAGE over a person who ends up in a position of public trust."
Not even Trump-pal Senator Lindsey Graham could fully defend the president. "I believe that it should be practice for all public officials who are contacted by a foreign government with an offer of assistance to their campaign—either directly or indirectly—to inform the FBI and reject the offer," he said before launching into a Twitter thread accusing Democrats of also engaging with foreign nationals for campaign research by paying former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele for a dossier of information on the Trump campaign. However, a 2018 report by a Republican-led House committee noted that merely paying a foreign citizen for opposition research is within the boundaries of the law.
Former Senator Rick Santorum, meanwhile, defended the president's words by saying that he didn't mean what he said. The president was just speaking "colloquially," explained Santorum.
"He has, sort of—as we all do, filler words that don't mean what they say, like, 'I think,'" Santorum said on CNN. "So I took the president for his word that he would do both, which I think, I don't think that's necessarily inappropriate as long as he refers it to the FBI. As far as looking at the information, maybe he should and maybe he shouldn't and I don't think it's a crime in looking at the information as long as you refer it to the proper authorities."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi commented on the president's interview at her weekly press conference Thursday morning, but did not change her tune on avoiding impeachment chatter.
"Yesterday the president gave us evidence that he does not know right from wrong, it's a very sad thing," she said, "for the president to be so cavalier, to disregard any sense of ethics about who we are as a country, that's an assault on our democracy."
“Sen. Graham on Trump comments: It's a mistake”
ReplyDeleteNo. I quote from the Torah.
“A single witness may not validate against a person any guilt or blame for any offense that may be committed; a case can be valid only on the testimony of two witnesses or more [lit. three]. If a man appears against another to testify maliciously and gives false testimony against him, the two parties to the dispute shall appear before the Lord, before the priests or magistrates in authority at the time, and the magistrates shall make a thorough investigation. If the man who testified is a false witness, if he has testified falsely against his fellow” (Deuteronomy 19:15-18).
“If a case is too baffling for you to decide, be it a controversy over homicide, civil law, or assault—matters of dispute in your courts—you shall promptly repair to the place that the Lord your God will have chosen” (Deuteronomy 17:8).
See https://www.wsj.com/articles/pelosi-trump-giving-green-light-to-foreign-election-meddling-again-11560431928
“ “The outrage some of my Democratic colleagues are raising about President Trump’s comments will hopefully be met with equal outrage that their own party hired a foreign national to do opposition research on President Trump’s campaign and that information, unverified, was apparently used by the FBI to obtain a warrant against an American citizen,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) said in a statement.”
See https://www.wsj.com/articles/contempt-and-the-court-11560465663
“That’s Mr. Cummings’s real objective, though it serves the additional purpose of bolstering Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s obstruction theme. House Democrats this week voted to empower committee chairmen to go to court against witnesses who “defy” subpoenas. Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler is molding all this into his case for opening a formal impeachment case against President Trump. The oversight vote is the latest example of Democrats abusing their powers and degrading serious tools like contempt. Mrs. Pelosi & Co. continue to insist their actions are all about legitimate oversight, yet with each new subpoena and vote they demonstrate they are instead about politics and theater.”
Bravo to SCOTUS, doing the job of Deuteronomy 17:8. Yes SCOTUS will follow rules of Deuteronomy 19:15-18. The DOJ under William Barr is wonderful, God bless him and his staff. SCOTUS with Kavanaugh etc will stop the unhinged Left. God bless SCOTUS and their staff. This blog helps me to get this far in SCOTUS 18-9390. Thanks DT for allowing my posts.
are you saying Graham is wrong and that Trump can never errr?!
ReplyDelete