This October 22 letter from 70 inspectors general in the federal government is an extraordinary rebuke of the Office of Legal Counsel in the Justice Department of Attorney General Bill Barr. By trying to block the White House whistleblower’s complaint from going to Congress, the OLC wrongly interpreted the law and weakened the whistleblower process....
Category: Trump Russia
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Trump Relationship with CIA Sinks to New Low
The Washington Examiner is generally pro-Trump in its coverage but this report from White House correspondent Rob Crilly conveys the dismay widely felt in the intelligence service about the president’s recent actions. Kevin Carroll, a former CIA case officer, said, “It’s a very troubled relationship. Trump got it off to a terrible start with comments...
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The Dangers of a Trump Loyalist as Director of National Intelligence
Last week’s appearance of Joseph Maguire, the acting Director of National Intelligence (DNI), highlighted the importance of an obscure position. Maguire deferred to the Trump Justice Department’s tortured argument for withholding a whistleblower’s complaint from Congress but insisted he was following the law, not covering up. Democrats were unconvinced. Trump ousted the previous DNI, Dan...
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The Formation of Robert Mueller’s Mind
If you talk to people who knew Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller III when he was a young man, you will hear a lot of what you already know. He was hard-working, lacrosse playing, straight arrow who served in the U.S. Marines between studying in the privileged precincts of Princeton and University of Virginia Law School....
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FBI’s Former Top Lawyer: ‘There Was No Attempted Coup’
James Baker, formerly the top lawyer at the FBI, said politics did not figure in the Bureau’s decision to investigate possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. The probe started before the Bureau received the dossier of Michael Steele, former British intelligence agent, Baker said in a live video interview on Friday....