Before everyone goes TOO far off the deep end, the congressman mis-spoke when he said “tapping”. This was still discussing the obtaining of the AP phone records, not actually tapping lines. What the congressman was referring to is the fact that some of those phone records were records of calls between AP reporters and phones in the congressional cloak room. So those records could possibly show that certain congressmen were in touch with AP reporters, but ostensibly could not show what was discussed. That does not make it any better, but probably keeps it from reaching the “I” word...
Yep. But FR is going full tin foil today.
Will anyone be surprised if we learn they did more than obtain records? #taping
If one is investigating leaks, what would be the purpose of only tracking
phone numbers and not phone conversations? You can bet these conversations were recorded.
Just to clarify, the obtained phone record showed only who’s calling whom at what time?
No actual content was included?
His sentence is a little confusing. For sure they have the record that reporter A spoke to Congressman B. But do they have the transcript of what was said?
It’s very hard to believe that they obtained phone records without also tapping the phones. In the case of the House telephone, how would they know which congressman made the call and was it passing “secrets”? There are 435 members of the House and any one of them could have placed a call.
The purpose of the investigation stated was that it was to identify who was passing confidential information. Without knowing the content of the calls, how would DOJ be able to put together a case against anyone?
If they did tap, then they also heard House members calling their girlfriends (or boyfriends), talking with their donors, passing on stock tips to their relatives, etc. They would have gained a lot of info that would be useful in future campaigns, an opportunity almost too good for them to pass up.
You can bet that more than a few House members are frightened about this.
Several people have been saying "tapping" today, including two or three talk show hosts. No tapping AFAIK either, but there definitely been several using the word today.
If I were Speaker of the House, I would be retaining the best Constitutional lawyers in the country and kick some Executive Branch A$$. This is beyond the pale. This is a Declaration of War on the Legislative Branch.
I’m sorry, but it would be a violation of commie Standard Operating Procedure if they did not use all possible means against their conservative foes.
I would be shocked if they did NOT utilize all the capabilities of the NSA, FBI, DoD, and every other arm of government to wiretap and attack us.
The technical capabilities of the fedgov are just this side of magic. I know because I helped develop them.
Now we have an entirely domestic phone call where one end is inside Congress? And nobody cares anymore because it's a Democrat who's doing it?
-PJ