House Republicans Release Secret Memo Accusing Russia Investigators of Bias
February 3, 2018 by admin
Filed under Lingerie Events
Comments Off
Earlier on Friday, Mr. Trump said top officials and investigators at the F.B.I. and Justice Department have “politicized the sacred investigative process.”
The top Leadership and Investigators of the FBI and the Justice Department have politicized the sacred investigative process in favor of Democrats and against Republicans – something which would have been unthinkable just a short time ago. Rank File are great people!
—
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)
Feb. 2, 2018
The early-morning Twitter post reinforced reports that Mr. Trump, in allowing the Republican memo to be released, is seeking to clean house in the upper ranks of the F.B.I. and the Justice Department, even at the risk of losing his own F.B.I. director, Christopher A. Wray. Earlier this week, The F.B.I. made an unusual public plea not to release the document, which could reveal classified sources and methods. Mr. Trump declassified the memo without requesting any redactions.
Trump as Optimist, Salesman or Bully: Mixing Messages in His First Year
In Twitter posts, speeches and interviews, President Trump has expressed variety in his tone and viewpoint, sometimes on the same issue.
Mr. Trump had an opportunity to block the memo, which his own top national security officials have requested because of national security concerns. The document was written by aides to Representative Devin Nunes of California, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee who has been an avid supporter of Mr. Trump.
In response to Mr. Trump’s Twitter post on Friday, Representative Adam B. Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said it is unthinkable that the top elected official in the United States would release classified information to attack the F.B.I.
No, Mr. President it’s worse than that. The country’s top elected leader has agreed to selectively and misleadingly release classified info to attack the FBI — that’s what would have been unthinkable a short time ago. https://t.co/yGMJ1Jwj5B
—
Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff)
Feb. 2, 2018
Mr. Schiff and other Democrats on the Intelligence Committee drafted their own memo, a rebuttal which they say adds context to the Republican document. Republicans on the committee voted not to release the Democratic memo, but did support a motion that all lawmakers be allowed to review it.
House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, of Wisconsin, supports the release of that second memo “in favor of greater transparency,” Mr. Ryan’s spokeswoman AshLee Strong said on Friday. “If it is scrubbed to ensure it does not reveal sources and methods of our intelligence gathering, the speaker supports the release of the Democrats’ memo,” Ms. Strong said.
Mr. Trump has consistently criticized the F.B.I. and the Justice Department while asking senior officials for loyalty. The president has also denounced the Russian investigation and called it a hoax and a witch hunt.
Newsletter Sign Up
Continue reading the main story
Thank you for subscribing.
An error has occurred. Please try again later.
You are already subscribed to this email.
Mr. Ryan told reporters on Thursday that the memo was not an attempt to undercut the Russia investigation. Instead, he described it as Congress carrying out its oversight role.
“This memo is not an indictment of the F.B.I., of the Department of Justice. It does not impugn the Mueller investigation or the deputy attorney general,” he said, referring to Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel investigating the Russian election meddling and whether Mr. Trump obstructed justice.
Advertisement
Continue reading the main story
Mr. Page was on the radar of intelligence agencies for years when Mr. Trump named him to be one of his foreign policy advisers in 2016. He had visited Moscow in July 2016 and was preparing to return there that December when investigators obtained the warrant. White House officials have described Mr. Page as a gadfly who had been “put on notice” by the campaign and whom Mr. Trump did not know.
Continue reading the main story
Share and Enjoy
Poland Tries to Curb Holocaust Speech, and Israel Puts Up a Fight
February 2, 2018 by admin
Filed under Lingerie Events
Comments Off
The current measure passed the lower house of Parliament on Friday. The move, on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, seemed planned to provoke a reaction.
It got one.
“The law is baseless; I strongly oppose it,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement released on Saturday. “One cannot change history, and the Holocaust cannot be denied.”
Yair Lapid, leader of a centrist opposition party in Israel and the son of a Holocaust survivor, wrote on Twitter, “There were Polish death camps and no law can ever change that.”
The Israeli journalist Lahav Harkov wrote a tweet simply repeating “Polish death camps” 14 times.
Poland was invaded and occupied by Germany in 1939, but unlike in neighboring countries, there was no collaborationist government in Warsaw. Roughly three million Polish Jews were killed in the Holocaust, and another three million Polish citizens died.
Newsletter Sign Up
Continue reading the main story
Thank you for subscribing.
An error has occurred. Please try again later.
You are already subscribed to this email.
Several international organizations have been quick to condemn the law, including Yad Vashem, Israel’s official Holocaust memorial; the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum; and the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles.
The United States has asked Polish officials to rethink plans to enact the bill, arguing that it is a threat to freedom of speech and to Poland’s international relationships.
But even as international condemnation poured in, the Polish Senate, took up the measure for debate late Wednesday. The body, controlled by the governing Law and Justice party, moved swiftly, ignoring all of the opposition’s amendments. The legislation passed 57 to 23, with two abstentions.
Advertisement
Continue reading the main story
But even some Law and Justice lawmakers thought it was reckless.
“How is it that nobody had foreseen that it was a terrible idea to accept this bill on the eve of the anniversary of International Holocaust Remembrance Day?” Senator Anna Maria Anders, the daughter of a Polish war hero, asked during the debate.
“We could have done it a week, two weeks later,” she said. “And now we have a terrible, terrible international crisis. The crisis is not just in Poland and Israel. The American Congress has begged Poland not to pass this bill. This is so unnecessary. Why didn’t anyone predict that this would be the reaction?”
The deputy justice minister, Patryk Jaki, responded that Poland “could not have predicted this reaction because the Israelis had never expressed any criticism in regard to this bill..”
Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council and a former Polish prime minister, suggested in a Twitter post on Thursday that the Polish government was guilty of the very thing the law was intended to fight.
“Who spreads false accusations about the ‘Polish camps’ damages Poland’s good name and interests,” he wrote. “The authors of this bill have promoted this slander all over the world, and have been successful in it as no one before them.”
Continue reading the main story