IS CONGRESS ABOUT TO DISCOVER THE TRUTH?
by Sharon Rondeau
(May 10, 2018) — On Thursday night’s FNC “Hannity” show, journalist Sara A. Carter cited an article in The Wall Street Journal by Kimberley Strassel which asks if the FBI planted an informant inside the 2016 presidential campaign of now-President Donald J. Trump.
The report came after Carter published an article detailing a Thursday afternoon meeting between congressional committee members seeking documentation from the FBI and Justice Department which has not been provided despite a subpoena, causing House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes to threaten Attorney General Jeff Sessions with a contempt of Congress citation and lawsuit last weekend.
When Carter said the word “spy” associated with the Trump campaign, Hannity stopped her and asked incredulously, “What??” after which she again cited Strassel’s report.
Carter appeared to suggest that the withheld documents may be connected to the “spy,” if one existed. Her article stated that the congressmen were seeking “information on an unnamed individual considered by the DOJ and FBI to be a very valuable source in their counterintelligence operation.”
The counterintelligence investigation was launched by the FBI in July 2016 for reasons which are as yet unclear. Its purpose is to determine whether or not anyone in the Trump campaign “colluded” with Russian operatives to help Trump win the election.
Last May 16, former FBI Director Robert S. Mueller, III was hired by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to steer the investigation given that FBI Director James Comey had been terminated by Rosenstein with Trump’s agreement.
Strassel’s article (subscription required to read entire column) stated that “The Department of Justice lost its latest battle with Congress Thursday when it allowed House Intelligence Committee members to view classified documents about a top-secret intelligence source that was part of the FBI’s investigation of the Trump campaign.”
In her article Thursday, Carter reported that a DOJ letter responding to Nunes’s request to see the classified information said that allowing him and other members of Congress to view it could “risk severe consequences, including the potential loss of human lives, damage to relationships with valued international partners, compromise of ongoing criminal investigations, and interference with intelligence activities.”
Carter included a copy of the letter in her article.
After Rosenstein allowed Nunes and House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy to view a two-page electronic communication (EC) allegedly used to justify the launch of the counterintelligence probe, Nunes said that he saw no “official intelligence” from any of the “Five Eyes” to justify it.
Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Great Britain and the U.S. comprise the “Five Eyes,” which share intelligence of world threats given their common English language.
Rosenstein had reportedly resisted production of the EC for months and was himself threatened with impeachment by Nunes, who has said that the DOJ’s claim of a “national security” risk if documentation were to be released has been repeatedly proven to be untrue.
Trump has called the “collusion” probe a “witch hunt,” while congressional Democrats and some Republicans have defended it and railed against any possibility that Trump might fire Mueller.