“Attorney General Rosenstein testified DOJ attorneys briefed him on the FISA application and told him something different than what “reports” are claiming!
Rod Rosenstein couldn’t say that he read the FISA application that he signed. He only affirmed that he had been briefed on it by DOJ attorneys.
People have been cogitating about what Rosenstein meant when he said that his understanding of the FISA application is different than what has been said in published reports. Those reports come from eyewitnesses who have read the FISA application, including Republicans in Congress.
The Conservative Treehouse suggests that this may indicate that the DOJ attorneys lied to Rosenstein. Not only that, they did it because Rosenstein answered to Trump and Trump was the target of a counterintelligence operation. In other words, they will be very difficult to prosecute.
The Conservative Treehouse writes:
First, the public information about the FISA application is: the Nunes memo; the Schiff memo; and the Grassley memo. All direct sourced from the actual application. Second, all members of the House and Senate intelligence committee have been allowed access to the “full and unredacted” FISA application since April 6th, 2018. So there is no way for Rosenstein to hide behind the customary opaque nature of this specific FISA issue to congress. In short, he can’t lie about it.
Deputy AG Rosenstein is essentially saying he was mislead by “a team of attorneys from the Department of Justice.” That’s a fanciful way of saying the DOJ-NSD briefing officials lied to him about the content of the reauthorization application.
OK, so in response we might initially say: ‘well if they lied to you, then prosecute them damnit’…. and our voices would be righteous. However, the weasels have an out that President Obama helped create….
Remember the Susan Rice, James Comey, James Clapper and Loretta Lynch meeting in the Oval Office that Rice wrote down in her inauguration day memo-to-self? Remember the “by the book” instructions.
Well, it would be “by the book” for the DOJ-NSD officials to lie to the Deputy AG about a counterintelligence operation, if the Deputy AG was within linear authority to the subject or target of the counterintelligence operation. They are allowed to lie to him.