Congress is pretty persnickety about protecting its turf. A instance of a federal agent coming to Capitol Hill to arrest a Congressman would evoke bipartisan outrage as Congress takes the separation of powers doctrine very seriously when it applies to them. Imagine the outrage we'll soon hear when it learns that the DOJ has tapped a phone in the congressional cloakroom. Congressman Devin Nunes of California appeared as a guest on the Hugh Hewitt radio show and dropped this bomb. The Congressman refers to it as wiretapping. Even the AP offices did not have their phones tapped rather the FBI seized the phone records. Still not every Congressman is willing to let the DOJ know who he calls on the off chance he would use a public phone.
DN: No, I absolutely do not, especially after this wiretapping incident, essentially, of the House of Representative. I don’t think people are focusing on the right thing when they talk about going after the AP reporters. The big problem that I see is that they actually tapped right where I’m sitting right now, the Cloak Room.
HH: Wait a minute, this is news to me.
DN: The Cloak Room in the House of Representatives.
HH: I have no idea what you’re talking about.
DN: So when they went after the AP reporters, right? Went after all of their phone records, they went after the phone records, including right up here in the House Gallery, right up from where I’m sitting right now. So you have a real separation of powers issue that did this really rise to the level that you would have to get phone records that would, that would most likely include members of Congress, because as you know…
HH: Wow.
DN: …members of Congress talk to the press all the time.
HH: I did not know that, and that is a stunner.
DN: Now that is a separation of powers issue here, Hugh.
HH: Sure.
DN: And it’s a freedom of press issue. And now you’ve got the IRS going after people. So these things are starting to cascade one upon the other, and you have the White House pretending like they’re in the clouds like it’s not their issue somehow.
3 comments:
I am not certain if the question (Did DOJ Wiretap Congress?) was meant to be rhetorical but I can answer the question. YES!
As opposed to just getting the phone logs as they did at AP? That interview is the only source. I would think a wiretap would have the House leadership screaming. Remember the bipartisan uproar when the FBI came to talk to Jefferson?
Nunes is making the circuit. He was also on the John Batchelor show and made it sound like a certainty. If nothing else, the DOJ would be able to figure out which representative talked to which reporter and then deduce sources. Speculation was that national security was a ruse to figure out established lines of communication between AP and Congress.
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