Thursday, March 28, 2024

Russiagate vs Watergate

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Watergate is ancient history to most American voters.
Apparently, it has also been forgotten by some of those who lived it. Carl Bernstein was the Washington Post Reporter who was made famous by the “worst political scandal of the 20th century.” Now he dismisses the greatest political scandal of the 21st century as ushering the darkest days of America since McCarthy.
Bernstein wasn’t condemning the actions of the FBI, Justice Department or the Democrats. No, in fact he called the Nunes memo a “disingenuous partisan document.”
Bernstein went on to say, “In the whole Cold War, the Russians were not able to do what Putin has done through Donald Trump to destabilize the U.S. and its Democratic institutions."
Really? If the allegations made through the Nunes memo are true then the damage done to our democracy through the corruption of the FBI and Justice Department did far more to endanger our great Democracy than even Nikita Khrushchev could have envisioned (look him up). And it’s not Putin or Trump that did the damage. It is the Democrat Party machine and their weaponization of our American law enforcement and intelligence agencies against any and all political opponents.
Let’s review.
Bernstein’s Watergate scandal involved illegal activities undertaken by members of President Nixon’s administration. Those illegal activities included bugging the offices of political opponents. Nixon and his closest aides also ordered investigations of activist groups and political figures using the FBI, CIA and IRS as political weapons. The scandal resulted in the indictment of 69 people with trials or pleas resulting in 48 being found guilty.
What the Nunes memo claims is that the Clinton campaign with the support of the Obama Administration paid for a dossier about President Trump that was then used to support a “legal” effort to wiretap Trump’s telephones.
The problem is the dossier has been largely discredited. Yet according to the Nunes memo that memo was used to petition the FISA Court (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) for legal authority to tap an American citizens phone. The memo also claims the petition left out key facts about the FISA application that were material to the courts decision to authorize the surveillance. Facts like the dossier was paid for by the opposition party. Facts like the dossier was never independently corroborated.
At this point one could question why the FISA court judge, whoever that might have been, didn’t question the application. The identity of the judge is not to be released for security reasons, but that individual would have to been living on a different planet not to know Trump was a Presidential contender.
We may never know who the judge was or why that individual didn’t question the documents supporting the application.
What we do know is that given the tainted nature of the FISA Court application the entire matter is legally flawed.
Think of it like you are charged with a crime but never read your Miranda rights. The result is your case is thrown out. Those laws are written to protect us from abuse by the government.
This scandal is another case of how easy it is for the party in power to abuse that power. It is no different than Watergate. It’s just another party at another time in our history trying to hang onto their power any way they can.
It is also time to end this ridiculous “Russia Conspiracy” probe. It has been a year with no evidence and only a handful of people being indicted for such heinous crimes as “lying to the FBI.” Apparently, the FBI can lie and distort the truth with impunity.
That is not how our American justice system is supposed to work and all of those who were involved in this scandal need to be removed from office and permanently barred from public service. They need to lose their government pensions and many need to go to jail for breaking the laws they were charged to uphold.
Future government employees need to understand they are not above the law. It was true for the Republicans involved in Watergate and it must also be true for the Democrats involved in this scandal.

In My Opinion, Bill Forhan, Opinion / Columnists

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