Asking whether Trump is going to release the memo is like asking whether Trump is going to eat the cheeseburger.
It’s there because he ordered it. ??
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) February 1, 2018
Meanwhile, the “intellectual” wing of the Republican Party has decided to champion Carter Page as… too dumb to be an actual conspirator. As Jonathan Chait reports sarcastically in NYMag, “Republicans: If Poor Carter Page Can Be Wiretapped, Who Among Us Is Safe?”
The highest level of the Obama Justice Department was watching the Trump campaign foreign policy advisory team from the moment it was announced: https://t.co/9eklUS1ZDt
— Byron York (@ByronYork) February 1, 2018
… There were reasons for the FBI to notice Page. Described as an “energy executive,” he lived for a time in Russia, was always trying to drum up business, often in Russia, and his name popped up in a case against three Russians who in 2013 were posing as businessmen and trying to recruit Americans to become Russian agents. The Russians apparently wanted to enlist Page, who in the end was not accused of any wrongdoing and has denied any contacts with the Russians beyond ordinary business communications. For their part, the Russians came to view Page as something less than a prize; one of them was captured on a wiretap calling him an “idiot.”
So Page was no Russian agent, nor did he ever appear to be in danger of becoming a Russian agent. Nevertheless, the case put Page on the FBI’s Russia radar screen…
One reason some Republicans cite for their interest is based in civil liberties: If they’ll do it to Page today, they’ll do it to you tomorrow.
But another motivation for some Republicans is the growing suspicion that the FBI simply botched a critical aspect of the Trump-Russia investigation, that the bureau acted without sufficient reason to believe Page was a significant figure in any alleged Trump-Russia collusion…
Remember, most serious Republican national security professionals were #NeverTrump. During primaries Trump had to choose from the dregs. So he brought someone on who'd been a target of Russian recruitment for years. https://t.co/7jzSewtWq6
— mieke eoyang (@MiekeEoyang) February 1, 2018
Schadenfreude Open Thread: Neither the Best, Nor the BrightestPost + Comments (92)