CENTRAL VIEW for Monday, September 24, 2018

Spygate: Sedition, coup d’etat or what?

On September 17, 2018, President Trump ordered the declassification and publication of these documents: "...(1) pages 10-12 and 17-34 of the June, 2017 application to the FISA court in the matter of Carter W. Page; (2) all FBI reports of interviews with Bruce G. Ohr prepared in connection with the Russia investigation; (3) all FBI reports of interviews prepared in connection with all Carter Page FISA applications; (4) public release of all text messages relating to the Russia investigation, without redaction, of James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, and Bruce Ohr..."

On September 18, 2018, Senators Schumer and Warner and Congresspersons Pelosi and Schiff wrote to the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), the Deputy Attorney General of the U.S. (DOJ), and to the Director of the FBI urging those officials to disobey this direct order from President of the United States.

Clearly, some dictionary definitions are needed: Sedition: "Incitement of resistance to or insurrection against lawful authority." Coup d’état: "The violent overthrow or alteration of an existing government by a small group."

While the September 18, 2018, letter signed by Schumer, Warner, Pelosi, and Schiff does not advocate the violent overthrow of the Executive Branch of government (coup d’état), the letter might well be prima facie evidence of (drum roll) Sedition. The full text of the possibly seditious letter can be found at: https://www.democraticleader.gov/newsroom/6518-3/. We report. You decide.

In several places, the letter from the Democrat Gang of Four suggests that they, and possibly the entire Gang of Eight (which would include four Republican members), have entered into a secret verbal agreement that the DNI, the DOJ, and the FBI would not share certain intelligence with the President of the United States.

Wait. Hold the phone. We taxpayers are paying out billions to the Intelligence Community to collect intelligence and provide that intelligence to the President and to the National Security Council. Have these senior members of Congress cut a deal with the U.S. Intelligence Community to hide intelligence reports from the President of the United States?

Meanwhile, one must wonder why Schumer, Warner, Pelosi, and Schiff would venture so perilously close to being charged with Sedition. Hitherto, none of them have shown much concern about protecting "sources and methods." Could it be that the documents President Trump has ordered declassified would reflect badly upon Schumer, Warner, Pelosi, and Schiff? Or, would the documents reflect badly on some of the senior officials in the Obama Administration’s Department of Justice and the FBI?

Ultimately, President Trump has the authority to sort through these documents to determine which parts of them necessarily protect "sources and methods" and which parts of them are being hidden as a CYA exercise by the Department of Justice, the FBI, Schumer, Warner, Pelosi, and Schiff.

Then, there is the possibility that DOJ Deputy Director Rosenstein and/or FBI Director Wray will refuse to obey President Trump’s lawful order. Consequently, we might see some firings. In the end, however, the public will get to see what the DOJ and the FBI have been doing with regard to the surveillance of the Trump presidential campaign and about any attempts to subvert the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.

©2018. William Hamilton.

Nationally syndicated columnist, William Hamilton, is a laureate of the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame, the Nebraska Aviation Hall of Fame, the Colorado Aviation Hall of Fame, and the Oklahoma University Army ROTC Wall of Fame. In 2015, he was named an Outstanding Alumnus of the University of Nebraska. Dr. Hamilton is the author of The Wit and Wisdom of William Hamilton: the Sage of Sheepdog Hill, Pegasus Imprimis Press (2017). "Central View," can also be seen at: www.central-view.com.

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