By AFP Staff
Whatever one may think of the current president, inserting a spy directly into Donald Trump’s presidential campaign was next-level Big Brother tactics when it comes to federal law enforcement. Now, Congress is ramping up its oversight, as it is constitutionally obliged to do, and is demanding more details about this intelligence operation dubbed by some as “Spygate,” which actively spied on the leading contender for the highest office in the land.
Washington daily newspaper Politico reports today that the Justice Department has caved to demands from the so-called “Gang of Eight”—eight top senators and congressmen—to probe the spying operation and make sure it was legal.
The Gang of Eight includes Reps. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.), and Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), and Sens. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Richard Burr (R-N.C.), and Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).
“The Department and FBI are prepared to brief members on certain questions specifically raised by the Speaker and other members,” an unnamed Justice Department official told Politico. “The Department will also provide the documents that were available for review but not inspected by the members at the previous briefing along with some additional material.”
Surprising to no one, the mainstream media has done its best to downplay the implications of law enforcement spying on presidential campaigns, but, when it comes to Trump, all logic goes out the window unless, of course, it’s prefaced with an “I hate Trump, but.”
Even top Republicans in Trump’s own party have been hard-pressed to defend him.
House Speaker Paul Ryan went so far on June 6 as to defend the FBI for using a paid informant to spy on Trump officials.
Thankfully, a few sounder minds have come forward to blast the operation.
“There is no defense today for Paul Ryan siding with the FBI and Department of Justice against those of us in the Congress fighting for transparency and accountability,” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) was cited by Politico as saying on Fox News on the evening June 6. “We need the speaker to be an institutionalist for the Congress, not to be a defender of the deep state.”
The informant in question was outed recently as being Stefan Halper, a professor from Cambridge University. Halper is deeply tied in with the deep state, having taught American foreign policy for decades. He is also director of the university’s Department of Politics and International Studies. Since 2012, Halper has received over $1 million for overt and covert work he has done for the U.S. government.
