Republican memo exposes abuse of power
The American people are being forced to confront a fundamental political question that was first asked centuries ago by the Roman satirist Juvenal: Who shall guard the guardians? The memo released Friday by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence is the first step in answering that question.
The memo’s central indictment is that top Obama administration officials knowingly and willfully used unverified information paid for by the Hillary Clinton campaign, some of which came from Russian intelligence, in a secret court document to justify a counterintelligence investigation of the Trump campaign during the 2016 election. This corrupt process was later the basis for a campaign to sabotage the incoming Trump administration and to fuel a witch hunt against the president.
According to the memo, high-ranking FBI officials repeatedly sought, received and renewed warrants to engage in surveillance of members of the Trump campaign during the election. These officials, including then-Director James Comey and recently removed Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, justified the warrant requests before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in part with information generated by Christopher Steele, who was working on behalf of Hillary Clinton’s campaign for the firm Fusion GPS. Steele’s main contact at the Justice Department was Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr, whose wife was also employed by Fusion GPS.
Other critical background information was revealed in text messages between FBI agent Peter Strzok and his mistress, FBI attorney Lisa Page, who discussed with McCabe the now infamous “insurance policy” against President Trump. The texts reveal a disturbing climate of anti-Trump bias among the investigators that might never have been known since, as the Roman Juvenal also said, “the common crime keeps its silence.” But that was before texting.
We now see that a network of conspirators abused government power seeking to undermine the electoral process and, failing that, to sabotage a president. The inquiry by special counsel Robert Mueller, to the extent it was based on such an effort, is fruit of the poison tree and should be suspended immediately.
Washington officials do not have the final say on what we can see. They all work for us, and we have a right to know everything they have done purportedly in our name. Ultimately, the answer to “who shall guard the guardians” must be the people themselves.