Thursday, February 01, 2018

Too little, too late!

Angelo Codevilla writes at The American Spectator,
Suddenly the agencies that were out to get him want Trump to protect them and maybe even keep them from going to jail.

The Intelligence agencies’ pressures on President Trump to block the House of Representatives’ decision to release a summary of the FBI’s highly classified misdeeds are instructive comedy. The House’s decision shows what no one should ever have doubted: the FBI, CIA, etc. are not the source of authority over America’s secrets. They merely administer secrets and clearances on behalf of the one and only authority over the Executive Branch: The President of the United States. He clears them — not the other way around. Congress, as a co-equal, popularly elected branch of government, may hold or release such information as it chooses, and pay such attention as it chooses to the President’s opinions. Thus far, the Constitution.

...No president can tell Congress what to tell or not to tell the American people, or not to subpoena your documents, or not to put you in jail if you don’t comply. Maybe if you had not slapped your lawful boss around with your pretense of “independence,” if you had come to him confessing your sins and humbly asking his indulgence, you might not be in this fix. Now you are asking for a “get out of jail” card, which he probably can’t give you even if he wanted to.

The reason is political. Despite your, the Democratic Party’s, and the media’s dogged efforts to deep-six the facts concerning your misdeeds, nothing is going to put these black cats back into the proverbial bag. They are coming to light through the whistle-blowers among you, working with journalists on the media’s periphery, and with substantial Republican elements. At this point, the more you protest “National Security,” the fewer people believe you and the more you anger.

...At this point, your retreats are being covered by ever fiercer fire from a decreasing number of officials and media people. But that ferocity makes it impossible for your opponents to let you off the hook. For the rest of us, this is a spectacle.
Read more here.

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