On Saturday, President Trump decided that he couldn’t release the Democratic response to the Nunes Memo because it contained too many state secrets. Seems rather unusual given he released the original Nunes Memo despite objections from both the FBI and his own Department of Justice. And he knew he would be accused of obstruction and being non-transparent so he co-opted that right away…and in a surprisingly subtle act for the Trump White House…he sent it back to the House so they could work with the DOJ and FBI to removed sensitive material. He didn’t fall into the trap of redacting it himself and then releasing it. I wonder who pulled that string and kept him from going off in that direction.
But it is amazing that he labeled the Democratic memo as too political. This whole circus is exactly that and of course the Nunes Memo is about as partisan as they come.
And it was hilarious that the president complained that it was too long. Too long? It was a total of ten pages…he only had to read two pages a day before he made the go/no go decision (lol). Hell I write emails that long…but considering the actual intelligence reports that these are derived from reportedly run 50 – 60 pages, ten pages seems rather restrained.
So what path for the Democrats? Huddle with the FBI, the Department of Justice, redact what needs redaction, send it back to the White House and make a big deal of going through the channels. Make a big splashy noise about working with the president. Push the president back into his own corner…call his bluff. Once approved by the DOJ, the president can’t refuse to release it.
But the whole thing really is a ridiculous and probably useless pas de deux, as we said recently at: Releasing the Democratic Memo Is Essentially a Waste of Time
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