WASHINGTON, D.C. — The deep state is alive an well, says New York Post Michael Goodwin, and Friday’s release of the FISA memo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CXFnepvQamNJyuhSsVQazBO7p3-ZxVOL/view) proves it.
“Now that we know what the declassified House memo says about government misconduct, we also know what it means: The Washington swamp — the deep state — is bigger, more vicious and more dangerous to American liberty than even a cynic could have imagined,” Goodwin wrote in an opinion piece for Fox News (http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2018/02/05/michael-goodwin-fbi-memo-proves-deep-state-is-real-and-press-is-part-it.html). “Because of the memo and previous revelations, we know that swamp creatures are embedded in the top of the FBI and the Department of Justice. Some used their power to try to tip a presidential campaign based on their personal politics.”
They conducted a sham investigation of the Democratic candidate and misled federal judges to spy on at least one associate of her Republican challenger,” Goodwin continued. “To block exposure of their misdeeds, these officials falsely claimed that national security would be damaged. Add that despicable lie — issued in the name of the FBI itself — to their shameful records.”
However, Fox News legal analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano says the much-anticipated release of the controversial memo turned out to be much ado about nothing.
“The president has claimed total vindication. That’s the president being the president. … I understand why he says things like that, it gins up his base and it may help him politically, but legally it’s of no moment,” Napolitano said during an appearance of “America’s Newsroom” (http://insider.foxnews.com/2018/02/05/judge-napolitano-fisa-memo-mueller-probe-republicans-underdelivered-trump-not-vindicated). Still, says Napolitano, in fairness, he’s also calling for the Democrats’ version of the controversial memo to be made public.
“I want it to come out. I want to see who on [the intelligence] committee is spinning,” Napolitano said.
Despite Napolitano’s playing down of the memo’s importance, most lawmakers and legal analysts have gone on record in agreement with Goodwin.
The abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) by senior Obama administration officials is “worse than Watergate” House Judiciary Committee member Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) said of the matter.
“The facts contained in this memo are jaw-dropping and demand full transparency. There is no higher priority than the release of this information to preserve our democracy,” said Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), a member of the Judiciary Committee, which oversees the DOJ and the FBI, said in agreement.
“You think about, ‘is this happening in America or is this the KGB?’ That’s how alarming it is,” Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) told Fox News.
Regardless of which side you’re on, the key question in regard to FISAGate, as it’s come to be known, is what happens next?
There is a great deal of speculation that President Trump may, in response to the memo, fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversaw one of the renewals of FISA warrants on Carter Page.
However, as warned in an editorial for the National Review (http://www.nationalreview.com/article/456089/memo-released-what-should-come-next), doing so may cause a semi-collapse of his Justice Department, causing Republicans to undo the political headway they’ve have made in recent weeks.
No matter which direction the president takes, one thing is for certain. Critics on both sides of the fence will be ready and eager to pounce.
In an interview with the Washington Post (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/17/us/politics/robert-mueller-special-counsel-russia-investigation.html), former federal prosecutor Peter Zeidenberg said, “Rosenstein is in charge of the Mueller probe. He picked Mueller and has testified under oath that he won’t fire him absent clear misconduct. So if Rosenstein goes, Trump would pick a new deputy attorney general who would no doubt be much more compliant to Trump.”
But should the president choose to take that path, rest assured that Democrats will utilize the decision to call for impeachment.
“I cannot possibly imagine the president terminating Bob Mueller,” Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) said in June. “It just cannot happen.”
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