Posted on 09/27/2019 2:21:24 PM PDT by mplc51
Justice Department lawyers argued in a federal court on Friday that the DOJ never received an order from President Trump to declassify the Carter Page FISA documents.
The Trump White House said in a public statement in May that the president had given US Attorney General Bill Barr the authority to declassify the Carter Page FISA documents, however, DOJ lawyers “subsequently confirmed with the White House that there was and is no order to declassify.”
The 10-page court filing also showed DOJ lawyers argued that they shouldn’t have to answer any questions to clear up the discrepency. Discovery would “involve obviously privileged information and high level officials.”
“As set forth in the renewed motion and the Weinsheimer Declaration, DOJ did not receive a declassification order, and following the press secretary statement that the President had directed DOJ “to provide for” declassification, DOJ followed up with the White House to confirm that there was no order requiring immediate declassification or disclosure. ECF No. 52 (“Def’s Renewed MSJ”). This declaration is entitled to a presumption of good faith,” the court filing stated.
There’s more…
“Plaintiffs argue that the Court already found that the President’s “intentions” were clear and that “the Government does not address whether the Order was treated by DOJ as a declassification order from the outset.” ECF No. 53 (“Pls.’ Opp’n”) at 3. That is incorrect. In fact, the declaration plainly states: “DOJ did not receive at any time a declassification order related to the materials remaining at issue in this case.” Declaration of G. Bradley Weinsheimer, ECF No. 53-1, ¶ 4 (“Weinsheimer Decl.”). See also id. ¶ 5 (“DOJ also did not receive any order to declassify the materials . . . during the meeting the President referenced in his tweet, or at any time.”). Accordingly, DOJ never believed that the press release was a declassification order or treated it as one,” the DOJ lawyers added according to the court filing.
They probably shredded them...
Guess this response depends on the DOJ’s definition of “received.”
Still many swamp rats in the DOJ - garbage left over from the Obama administration.
Equivocating! They probably didn’t receive it from HIM personally. However, the heads of relevant departments did receive it.
Someone get the Bagpiper and explain this BS.
The order to declassify was not coming from Trump. He authorized Barr to do it. At least that’s my understanding.
Tep! Splitting hairs. How do you define “is”?
The entire US of A understood the common meaning.
Enough of this bulls**t.
The approved Release Date for these FISA Docs has been postponed for so many times, I just stopped paying attention to the event. I presumed that both parties had more to gain by the Docs being unsealed later, or not at all.
Someone get the Bagpiper and explain this BS.
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This is an outrage and needs to be cleared up immediately. Sounds like the DOJ lawyers are playing games to protect their friends. And its working.
So wait, there is no paper trail on such a monumental order? Does somebody just walk over to DOJ and asked to talk to the guy in charge of declassification and have a chat at the counter?
Shouldn’t there be an official DOJ letter-head memo from William Barr to the responsible party, and a log showing it was received by said party?
ARE YOU BLODDY FING KIDDING ME? REALLY?
If Barr gave this order verbally, then he is an idiot of monumental proportion and does not belong as AG, or is another Deep State mole like Jeff Sessions.
If he put it in writing, then the paper trail should be apparent and easy to produce.
Its not just the FISA docs that need to be declassified. We also need to see what the role of “foreign allies” was in Spygate. That too has been on the back burner for too long.
Its beginning to look like Trump has not followed up on any of this. He’s the president and his orders need to be carried out.
If Barr gave this order verbally, then he is an idiot of monumental proportion and does not belong as AG, or is another Deep State mole like Jeff Sessions.
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The two are not mutually exclusive. Barr is looking more and more like a stooge.
Excellent!!
My guess - someone in the WH was told to send the order, and didn’t.
You are correct. Giving Barr permission to declassify anything he wanted to (related to the Mueller witch hunt?) is NOT the same as an ORDER to declassify. If Trump really wanted these things declassified, he would order it done.
I do not understand why these things are not declassified.
So wait, there is no paper trail on such a monumental order?
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It is simply inconceivable that Barr was unaware of the president authorizing him to release the documents.
But it is conceivable that Barr is ignoring it.
Shitty article. Who filed a lawsuit and for what. It is like they expect us to be intimately familiar with the lawsuit discussed.
Is this a Judicial Watch lawsuit suing to have the declassified FISA documents released?
Is this the White House suing its own DOJ?
Who the hell is the Plaintiff and why are they suing. Idiot author does not even give us critical details in the article. Man, journalism is beyond dead. It decomposed into bacteria food long ago.
Nuke it from orbit just to be sure.
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