WRONG AGAIN
Government secrecy protects sources and methods, but it can also protect liars and conceal abuse of power.
So it's concerning that Rep. Adam Schiff, DBurbank, has pushed through an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that will conceal evidence related to certain military deployments within the U.S. Schiff's amendment states that “any information obtained by or with the assistance of a member of the Armed Forces,” except when specifically authorized, “shall not be received in evidence in any trial, hearing, or other proceeding in or before any court, grand jury, department, officer, agency, regulatory body, legislative committee, or other authority of the United States, a State, or a political subdivision thereof.”
This will stymie future investigations of the decision by congressional leaders to decline the assistance of the National Guard on January 6, as well as the Biden administration's actions or inactions at the southern border.
Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-New York, who serves on the Armed Services Committee, called the amendment “un-American” and said it “will fundamentally and irreparably erode Congress' constitutional oversight responsibility.”
Schiff first introduced the amendment in 2020 when then-President Donald Trump was talking about sending the U.S. Army to stop the fiery riots in multiple cities. The amendment would have kept any evidence obtained by the military out of criminal court.
Now, however, the intent behind the amendment may be different. A Republican majority is expected to take over the House, and with that majority comes subpoena power.
House Armed Services
Committee member Rep. Jim Banks, R-Indiana, accused Democrats of “already trying to tie our hands.”
Charles Stimson, manager of the National Security Law Program at the Heritage Foundation, criticized the amendment as “the opposite” of “good governance and transparency.”
A spokeswoman for Schiff called the amendment's critics “Republican conspiracy theorists.”
Speaking of conspiracy theories, Adam Schiff is the man who said in March 2017 that he had personally seen “more than circumstantial evidence” that President Trump and his team had colluded with Russians to influence the 2016 election.
That was a lie, but as chairman of the secrecy-shrouded House Intelligence Committee, Schiff was able to continue to repeat this lie for years, intentionally misleading Americans about the then-president of the United States.
In March 2019, when the Department of Justice released a summary of special counsel Robert Mueller's final report, the nine Republicans who served with Schiff on the intelligence committee signed a letter formally calling for Schiff to step down as chairman.
“Your willingness to continue to promote a demonstrably false narrative is alarming,” they wrote. “The findings of the Special Counsel conclusively refute your past and present assertions and have exposed you as having abused your position to knowingly promote false information, having damaged the integrity of this Committee, and undermined faith in U.S. government institutions.”
The Republicans' letter slammed Schiff for “repeated public statements, which implied knowledge of classified facts supporting the collusion allegations.” The lawmakers then hinted broadly that these statements “occurred at the