[palmer]

Obama may or may not have been briefed on Fast and Furious, or Lois Lerner’s doings. It’s hard to prove he had been briefed. My point is that if the Obama administration broke the law, then Obama broke the law.

[nathanbedford]

The ultimate "breaking of the law" is a criminal conviction of individuals. Obama cannot be convicted unless he was an active participant, a co-conspirator, or conceivably, a member of a criminal conspiracy or otherwise in violation of the RICO laws.

If Obama was merely briefed that the application was being made to FISA, later that the application was granted, and even later the wiretap proceeded, it is hard to attach criminal liability to him simply for that state of knowledge. He has the cover of the FISA court. If, on the other hand, someone breaks and testifies that there was a general conspiracy it might be that Obama himself could be held criminally responsible.

I am all for pursuing this as far as it will go and that is why I call for a grand jury instead of, or perhaps in parallel with, a congressional investigation.

My call for facts is prompted not out of skepticism of Trump's allegations so much but out of a desire to see this thing vigorously pursued. I have taken this position from the moment the news broke-or at least from the time Trump tweeted which may or may not mean there is new news behind the tweets.