Flashback: Dem Dared Trump To Declassify Docs, Didn't Think He Would
Be careful what you ask for. You just might get it.
Someone should remind Rep. Eric Swalwell of just that very thing because now it may come back to bite him in the backside. He once dared President Donald Trump to put up or shut up when it came to accusing members of the Obama administration of breaking the law.
According to an April 2017 Politico article, the California Democrat publicly blasted the president for pointing fingers at Susan Rice for unmasking the names “of Trump transition aides who were caught up in U.S. surveillance of foreign targets.”
Swalwell said at the time, “If the president is going to accuse members of the Obama administration of breaking the law, he should prove it.”
“If the president wants to say that Susan Rice committed a crime, he has the power to declassify. No one else does. So, he could actually show us where the crime was. I don’t expect he will, because I think this is just more obstructionism,” he added.
And he continued to throw barbs. “If he has evidence that she committed a crime, he actually can show us what his evidence looks like. Right now, he has a credibility problem because he’s been proved wrong a lot on Russia.”
Swalwell made those statements as a member of the House Intelligence Committee.
Democrats have certainly stuck together on this front. The same Politico piece quotes California Rep. Adam Schiff, also a Democrat, backing Swalwell’s comments in support of the Obama administration and Susan Rice: “Schiff echoed Swalwell in urging Trump to stop accusing people of crimes without providing the evidence to back up those charges — referencing Trump’s baseless claim that Obama ordered a wiretap of Trump Tower in the run-up to the presidential election.”
“If he’s going to make accusations of criminality against anyone, he needs to show evidence to support that kind of a charge. Obviously, that’s not something he was either able or willing to do with respect to his accusations against Obama. It’s not something I expect he’s going to be able to do with Susan Rice either,” Schiff said.
Swalwell is singing a different tune now that the White House has issued a release stating the president is going to do just what he and Schiff both encouraged him to do over a year ago.
The White House Press Secretary’s office issued a statement on Tuesday saying they were declassifying documents relating to FISA court applications in the Russia investigation.
“At the request of a number of committees of Congress, and for reasons of transparency, the President has directed the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Justice (including the FBI) to provide for the immediate declassification of the following materials: (1) pages 10-12 and 17-34 of the June 2017 application to the FISA court in the matter of Carter W. Page; (2) all FBI reports of interviews with Bruce G. Ohr prepared in connection with the Russia investigation; and (3) all FBI reports of interviews prepared in connection with all Carter Page FISA applications.
“In addition, President Donald J. Trump has directed the Department of Justice (including the FBI) to publicly release all text messages relating to the Russia investigation, without redaction, of James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, and Bruce Ohr.”
It looks like we will soon find out just who did what, when and how. Ouch, liberals surely must be smarting over this. Swalwell is certainly not amused.
Lawless. He is absolutely lawless. @realDonaldTrump is the subject of an investigation. Using his power to selectively release classified information is an abuse of power. His days of unchecked abuse are numbered. Tick tock. We will just mark this as another exhibit. https://t.co/9qbxhiRY5B
— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) September 17, 2018
I’m not sure just how Swalwell thinks this is an abuse of power, especially since he specifically asked the president to do what he just did.
This is an exciting development in the drama that has surrounded the president since he took office. I’m going to enjoy reading about the content of these released documents and watching the reactions to come from the left.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
