Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Matt Whitaker discusses John Ratcliffe replacing Dan Coats.

Whitaker is former acting Attorney General. He also discusses the status of AG Bill Barr's continuing reviews into prior DOJ and FBI misconduct. Whitaker says Ratcliffe will look at the combined intelligence apparatus for systemic issues and failures for how the investigations were started and the FBI and CIA engagements with other countries.

Whitaker summarizes U.S. Attorney John Durham's focus on the origin of the intelligence operation against Trump as candidate and "prosecuting any anyone that needs to be prosecuted."

Very quietly, tucked into a sting of declaratives the teeny-tiniest sentence crammed to compression so tight that it's barely noticeable and overlooked by the interviewer, Whitaker says that U.S. Attorney John Huber is reviewing "anything related to Comey's memos and the like." Sonic Boom. And you cannot see the jet that made the earth shake.

The president can declassify anything. He merely has to say it and it's automatically declassified. Documents are another matter. If any department has an issue with declassification they can stop it. Departments have been producing declassified documents with heavy redactions, half the text blacked out. It turns out they're protecting themselves from embarrassment  not protecting the United States.

Trump turned over his declassification authority to Barr. Dan Coats was a known inhibitor of declassification, a known Department protector from embarrassment. Now Coats is gone. It's expected this week will be a filled with unhappy surprises for people in Departments that attempted a silent coup.


Joe diGenova is confident that declassified documents will begin to made public starting Wednesday July 31.  [Telephone interview]








3 comments:

edutcher said...

I believe the phrase is, “Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time”.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Too slow.

ampersand said...

Dan Coats is one of those slimeballs that moves from government job to paid lobbyist and back again. He's been in D.C since 1976 He is the essence of a swamp rat.