Republicans will not rest until they have obliterated the sacred independence of our Department of Justice and made it a tool of oppression to be wielded by the Executive Branch or whoever controls Congress. If there’s one thing I remember from history class, it’s the critical importance of guarding the checks and balances between our three branches of government: executive, congressional, and judicial.
Consider an alternative universe where the Republicans had managed to take control of the DOJ before our recent election. In that universe, there is no Trump-Russia investigation today and there are no checks on the President. I am convinced that if that scenario ever played out, Trump would manufacture some excuse to install himself as a strongman in the image of Putin or (dare I say?) Kim Jong Un – the leaders he appears to most idolize (and who, in fact, remain in power because they control the courts in their countries). We must do everything we can to protect the constitutional foundation of our three branches of government and never enter that unthinkable, alternative universe.
So . . . Let’s flip the House in 2018! Get out the vote! Don’t be shy about talking to your friends and family. Ask them if they’ve registered. If they haven’t, then personally walk them through the process. (vote.gov) And in November, drive them to the polls!
Asked about lawmakers obtaining additional FISA records related to the Russia investigation, one former senior FBI official said it was “hard to put into words” how “damaging it could to be to national security if details about the US’s most sensitive intelligence-gathering process leaked out.”
“It would be catastrophic,” they added. “Look at the damage that’s already been done.”
The immediate concern, said former CIA operative Glenn Carle, is that turning over information related to FISA records could compromise sources and methods.
“Congressional oversight is not operational control, it’s policy control,” Carle said. “So it’s not really appropriate for an oversight body and its members to have detailed knowledge of sources and methods, because they are not trained in how to handle that.”