Crime-vic immig court busts OKd
WASHINGTON — The House Intelligence Committee’s top Democrat accused the White House of intentionally playing politics with classified intelligence — and using his committee’s chairman to do so.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said the White House “played a role in selectively and surreptitiously providing” documents to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes that showed Trump’s transition team had been incidentally caught up in surveillance of foreign targets.
Nunes (R-Calif.) used that information to make a big stink to the press about it, insinuating that Trump had been targeted by surveillance as the President had claimed, while admitting that the surveillance all appeared legal and above board. He also repeatedly denied it was the White House who gave him that information, and refused to share the information with the rest of his committee.
Schiff reserved most of his ire for the White House rather than his chairman in a statement released shortly after a meeting of the full Intelligence Committee. He said there was no reason that Nunes should have been the only one allowed to see the intelligence for weeks.
After mounting pressure, the White House gave Schiff and the Senate Intelligence Committee heads permission to see it late last week, and Schiff says the full committee will now be able to review the information.
“Nothing that I was shown justifies such duplicitous conduct,” he said.
The White House’s actions — and Nunes’ willingness to play along — badly damaged the credibility of the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation.
Schiff also pushed back on the idea that intelligence officials’ decision to “unmask” — or put a name to — Trump officials who were caught up in post-election surveillance was unlawful.
“Some incidental collection is unavoidable, and as long as the proper procedures are being followed, it is fully lawful. It does not constitute either wiretapping or surveillance of Americans,” he said. “When it is necessary to unmask a name to understand the significance of the communication, there is a process for doing so, which is also lawful.”
In a separate interview with Yahoo, Schiff said that White House staff initially blocked his own top staffer from reviewing the classified documents when they went to look at them last Friday, even though he had security clearance. But Trump asked to meet directly with Schiff during their time on the grounds — and agreed to let his staffer see the intelligence in spite of “grumblings” from White House staff. Schiff described the meeting with Trump as “cordial.”
Opinions on the import of the probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and allegations of Trump’s team colluding with the Kremlin were split down party lines Tuesday.
A Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Joaquin Castro, told CNN he believes some of Trump’s associates will “end up in jail” when the Russiarelated investigations are completed.
The Texas congressman wouldn’t say whom he believes could be charged with a crime or why. He says that based on unspecified evidence he has seen thus far, his impression is that some people will face charges.
A Republican congressman who was slated to meet with Trump later in the day called the probe a “brouhaha over nothing.”
Dana Rohrabacher of California complained that “What’s happening is you’ve got the fake news avalanche trying to create the impression that something sinister is happening with Russia, and that is preventing us from negotiating and getting down into a real relationship where we can actually do some good by working together with Russia.” IMMIGRATION agents are authorized to arrest undocumented crime victims and witnesses at courthouses, a Department of Homeland Security official announced Tuesday.
Court officials fear that such policies will prevent local police departments and prosecutors from doing their jobs.
But Homeland Security spokesman David Lapan told reporters that victim status shouldn’t shield someone who is subject to deportation. Witnesses to crimes shouldn’t be protected, either, he added.
“Just because they’re a victim in a certain case does not mean there’s not something in their background that could cause them to be a removable alien,” Lapan said. “Just because they’re a witness doesn’t mean they might not pose a security threat for other reasons.”
Tani Cantil-Sakauye, the chief justice of California, sent a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Homeland Secretary John Kelly blasting courthouse immigration busts last month.Chris