I'm infuriated to learn that potential evidence in the alleged interception of communications between some members of President Trump's election team has been placed out of reach of investigators.
The National Security Council cannot hand over records relating to former National Security Adviser Susan Rice’s surveillance of Americans, because they have been moved to the Obama presidential library and may be sealed for as many as five years, conservative watchdog Judicial Watch announced Monday.
. . .
Judicial Watch earlier this year filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for those documents, including of communications between Rice and any intelligence community member or agency regarding any Russian involvement in the 2016 elections, the hacking of Democratic National Committee computers, or any suspected communications between Russia and Trump officials.
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said the group will seek to find out when the records were moved, and warned of legal actions.
. . .
The Wall Street Journal editorial board has argued Rice had no reason to request the unmaskings. Since then, the House intelligence committee has also subpoenaed the intelligence community for information on unmasking requests by Rice, former CIA Director John Brennan, and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power.
There's more at the link.
I have no doubt whatsoever that this transparently duplicitous maneuver was performed precisely to hide illegal monitoring of President Trump's campaign by the Obama administration. There is no logical reason whatsoever why unmasking requests by Ms. Rice should form part of President Obama's library. To place them behind that firewall can only be an attempt to prevent them being used in investigations and (possibly) prosecutions. No other explanation seems possible.
I hope this can be overturned, and the records made available. If it can't be done under existing law, then I want Congress and the Senate to change the law to make them accessible. This maneuver was nothing more or less than an obstruction of justice. It must be overturned, or the rule of law (what's left of it, at any rate) will become nothing more than a hollow mockery.
Oh - and if the Democratic Party is so hot about investigating everything, I presume they'll put their weight behind obtaining these records as well. If they don't, all their rhetoric will be exposed as meaningless partisan political hackery . . . not that we don't already know that, of course.
Peter
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