There’s an interesting aspect to an Andrew Weissmann statement on MSNBC that almost everyone is missing. Before watching the brief excerpt, let me put the comments into context. Remember, the Intelligence Branch uses intelligence silos to protect themselves; however, the Intelligence Branch also violates those silos when ever they want.
First, Andrew Weissmann comes from the DOJ-National Security Division (DOJ-NSD). More specifically, in that division Andrew Weissmann was in charge of the section that used FARA (Foreign Agent Registration Act), or FARA-951 as a weapon against their political enemies.
The only targets Weissmann ever selected for FARA investigations were political opposition. You might also remember it was Weissmann who led the Mueller team, and in that position Weissmann went after every target (Flynn, Rafiekian, Manafort, Papadopoulos, Phares, even Rudy Guiliani etc.) with accusations of FARA violations.
Second, the DOJ-NSD had no inspector general oversight.
During the Obama administration the DOJ-NSD exempted themselves from DOJ Inspector General review. In 2015 the Office of the Inspect General (OIG) requested oversight and it was Deputy AG Sally Yates who responded with a lengthy 58-page legal explanation saying, essentially, ‘nope – not allowed.’ (PDF HERE) All of the DOJ is subject to oversight, except the NSD.
There is a very specific reason for this intentional avoidance of oversight as we found out through the Carter Page FISA warrant. The DOJ-NSD is the weaponized mechanism against domestic political opposition inside the DOJ. [Sidebar: I would not be surprised to find out the DOJ-NSD operatives used their FARA authorities to control and threaten political opposition around Washington DC, using lobbying investigations as leverage/blackmail.]
As the current story is told a whistleblower in the intelligence community told Tucker Carlson his communication was intercepted by the NSA. By the NSA originating standard, the same standard they claim to uphold publicly, the NSA has a foreign intelligence mission; and their data collection is supposed to be in a silo related to foreign intelligence gathering. If an American is picked up ‘incidentally‘ by the NSA collection, that information is supposed to remain inside that silo.
However, as you watch this MSNBC segment, notice how casually Andrew Weissmann says that Tucker Carlson should have gone to the DOJ (Main Justice) with any concerns about his communication being intercepted by the NSA. Listen carefully to how Weissmann frames what Carlson “should have done” (prompted):
Unfortunately for Democrats, CPL was also a scumbag, freak, an egotistical weirdo, and severely sketchy.
Essentially, what Nancy Pelosi is doing is expanding the federal law enforcement mechanism of the legislative branch into specific areas where they can investigate political opposition armed with legal authority.
The American Federation of Teachers (AFT), a national union led by hard-line leftist Randi Weingarten, has announced adding $2.5 million to a legal fund specifically intended to fight parents for control over education curriculum.
With the potential for cooperation from states, what I call “