Jerry Nadler’s Leaked Rebuttal of the Nunes Memo Is Very Weak National Review, Feb 4, 2018, Andrew C. McCarthy
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I won’t get sidetracked by the fact that Nadler’s “Dear Democratic Colleague†letter has been “exclusively obtained†by NBC News — i.e., that it was leaked to the media, whereas the so-called Nunes memo was provided to committee Democrats before publication so they could seek changes. The Nunes memo had to be subjected to a rules-based process because of classified-information issues. The Nadler memo does not seem to contain classified information; it just responds to what the Republicans have produced, which is now public record.
I don’t agree with Jerry Nadler’s politics, but he is an able lawyer. What surprises me about his retort is how weak it is.
He posits four points, the last two of which are strictly political red meat. Of the other two, one provides an inaccurate explanation of the probable-cause standard in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA); the other is an ill-conceived argument about Christopher Steele’s credibility. The latter provides a welcome opportunity to confront a wayward theory — which I’ll call “vicarious credibility†— that has been vigorously argued by apologists for the FBI and Justice Department’s handling of the Steele dossier.
Let’s take the easy stuff first — Nadler’s last two contentions.
Read more at:
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/456093/jerrold-nadler-memo-rebuttal-weak-unpersuasive
