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On What Grounds Can the FBI Investigate the President as a Counterintelligence Threat?
Lawfare ^ | January 13, 2019 | Jack Goldsmith

Posted on 01/14/2019 5:43:31 AM PST by Rumierules

The New York Times reported on Jan. 11 that the FBI “began investigating whether President Trump had been working on behalf of Russia against American interests” soon after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey in May 2017. In other words, the FBI opened a counterintelligence investigation on the president. *** If indeed the FBI took the unprecedented step of opening a counterintelligence investigation directed at the president premised on his threat to national security, I hope the bureau had much stronger evidence for doing so than the Times story provided—and I hope that something of investigative substance actually turned on it. Otherwise, the step strikes me as deeply imprudent.

(Excerpt) Read more at lawfareblog.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: counterintelligence; investigation; russia
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To: Sacajaweau

Evidence of those early day “peek a boos” have surely been destroyed.


“Lack of evidence only proves the conspiracy is working!”

/s


21 posted on 01/14/2019 6:14:58 AM PST by sparklite2 (Don't mind me. I'm just a contrarian.)
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To: Rumierules

It is not imprudent it is a revolution. It is the modern democrat.


22 posted on 01/14/2019 6:18:54 AM PST by Nuc 1.1 (Nuc 1 Liberals aren't Patriots. Remember 1789!)
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To: laconic

No and it is why they must be held accountable.


23 posted on 01/14/2019 6:21:32 AM PST by Nuc 1.1 (Nuc 1 Liberals aren't Patriots. Remember 1789!)
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To: Rumierules

Well since they didn’t do it for 0bama then Trump is safe.


24 posted on 01/14/2019 6:24:34 AM PST by SkyDancer ( ~ Just Consider Me A Random Fact Generator ~ Eat Sleep Fly Repeat ~)
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To: central_va

Treason is indeed “DEEPLY IMPRUDENT”.

It is, indeed.
I have to wonder why the President is seemingly doing NOTHING to bring these people to justice. Nothing. Sessions was a disaster. The fill-in has done absolutely nothing, as far as I know, and Barr doesn’t look like he’s going to be any better. Hillary is still walking around, corrupt and free - as are all of the “Justice” department lackeys who let her off the hook and, while they were at it, set up a system to spy on the Republican candidate for President, and a backup system to cover for themselves and destroy him if they ever got caught doing so.

Every month this goes on without ANY kind of resolution on the side of good is another month that the fabric of our country is being irreparably harmed.


25 posted on 01/14/2019 6:24:54 AM PST by Pravious
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To: petitfour

Except George W disliked McCain immensely.

Well, at least I can think of one good thing about W, then.


26 posted on 01/14/2019 6:25:23 AM PST by Pravious
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To: Rumierules
Oddly enough, an FBI "investigation" of a sitting president doesn't bother me nearly as much as the illicit FISA surveillance from the 2016 campaign.

1. For one thing, a U.S. president would be the first one to tell anyone that he no longer has any personal life anyway. I imagine almost every form of communication he has is under electronic surveillance for any number of reasons.

2. When I read these reports of this FBI investigation in 2017, I go back and remember the part of Comey's testimony in June 2017 when he described a conversation with Trump from January of that year ... in which Trump told him he might ORDER Comey to have the FBI investigate him -- to vindicate him. It was Comey who told Trump that this would not be a good idea.

27 posted on 01/14/2019 6:30:18 AM PST by Alberta's Child ("In the time of chimpanzees I was a monkey.")
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To: Alberta's Child

During that meeting: “The FBI was telling the president-elect that the allegations were salacious and unverified, yet at that very moment they were presenting them to a federal court as information the judges could rely on to authorize spying.” https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/andrew-mccarthy-fbi-russia-investigation-was-always-about-trump


28 posted on 01/14/2019 6:35:15 AM PST by Rumierules
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To: Rumierules

A lot of if’s ands and buts in this analysis.


29 posted on 01/14/2019 6:35:24 AM PST by SaraJohnson ( Whites must sue for racism. It's pay day.)
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To: allendale
IIRC, it was at the last moment, just before he left office, that Obama said all agencies could share information.

What we will never know is how much information was shared BEFORE that time.

30 posted on 01/14/2019 6:37:11 AM PST by Sacajaweau
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To: Rumierules

https://www.engadget.com/2017/01/12/obama-expands-the-nsas-ability-to-share-data-with-other-agencie/


31 posted on 01/14/2019 6:38:30 AM PST by Sacajaweau
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To: Rumierules

Anyone involved in the decision to do this investigation should be fired.


32 posted on 01/14/2019 6:52:49 AM PST by Retvet (Retvet)
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To: Pravious

I am currently trying not to think about it. Watching this mess languish on and on wears one out. When we were going to get all (or some) key documents declassified and then pulled back... that was it for me.


33 posted on 01/14/2019 6:59:00 AM PST by Lagmeister ( false prophets shall rise, and shall show signs and wonders Mark 13:22)
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To: Rumierules
Because the president determines the U.S. national security interest and threats against it, at least for the executive branch, there is an argument that it makes no sense for the FBI to open a counterintelligence case against the president premised on his being a threat to the national security. The president defines what a national security threat is, and thus any action by him cannot be such a threat, at least not for purposes of opening a counterintelligence investigation.

Exactly...

34 posted on 01/14/2019 7:00:19 AM PST by Magnatron
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To: Rumierules

FBI was run by a bunch of corrupt bullies who thought their job was to protect the power of liberal ‘elites’ and their pets.

Some of those thugs are still there...


35 posted on 01/14/2019 7:02:19 AM PST by GOPJ (Replace furloughed government workers with illegals for ten bucks an hour. Show dems how it feels.)
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To: Rumierules

If the FBI did it’s job and investigated Obama he would have never been President and be living in Kenya right now


36 posted on 01/14/2019 7:03:46 AM PST by butlerweave
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To: Rumierules

I fail to see anyone asking the simple question:

If high ups at the FBI were concerned about treasonous activity in a president, any president, wouldn’t they at first go to the AG and bring the matter up, or to the VP or someone?

HOw do these people get the idea, that they have the right to go after anyone without impunity? I thought the days of J Edgar Hoover were over...


37 posted on 01/14/2019 7:07:54 AM PST by nikos1121
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To: Rumierules

The FBI secretly sitting in judgement of the president to decide if he is a threat to national security... as THEY define it. Banana republic.
And the next logical step - if they decide to, can they then lie to the president? Can they classify things away from him? Can they disobey his orders?
Trunp sets national policy, not the damned extraconstitional F troop. If a president decides better relations with Russia is where we are going, who the hell is the FBI to second guess him? The constitution CLEARLY gives that power to Congress an only Congress. Not to some obscure bureau.


38 posted on 01/14/2019 7:10:00 AM PST by DesertRhino (Dog is man's best friend, and moslems hate dogs. Add that up. ....)
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To: Rumierules
They shoulda opened that investigation about 10 years ago!

Proof of their treason against our Republic!

39 posted on 01/14/2019 7:10:28 AM PST by rawcatslyentist ("All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing")
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To: Rumierules
...as my Lawfare colleague Matt Tait noted, “[Y]ou’d much rather live in a country where elected branches are a check on the national security establishment than the other way around.”

This should be shouted from the rooftops...

40 posted on 01/14/2019 7:14:04 AM PST by Magnatron
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