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Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop
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There are no penalties imposed, and so it does fall into the category of a scolding. But what is scary about the order is its citation to the most damning parts of Horowitz's report.
Whatever your feelings about politics at the moment, the behavior cited by this judge and the IG is abusive. He who applies
ex parte and shades the facts to get the right to conduct surveillance on a citizen should be removed from his job.
Trump is frequently and properly flagged for normalizing an ends justify the means approach to politics. But when you hear about this sort of stuff going on, and when you consider Clapper bald faced lied to Congress about collection of domestic metadata, its clear that "by whatever means necessary" approach goes far beyond the executive branch.
I've actually heard serious, earnest people - people who follow politics - say that Clapper's lying was okay because he had to lie. The argument was that we need surveillance and what he was doing is more important than the rights of those disregarded in the process. This reminds me of the argument made for Iraq -- Sure, it was predicated on a lie, but we had to plant a flag in the Middle East... get that area under control.
These well intentioned violations never work out well. And the other side gets to use them, too. Improperly getting a warrant to conduct surveillance on Carter Page in 2016 can just as easily become improperly getting a warrant to conduct surveillance on "enemies' of the Administration in 2021, should Trump win another term (which is an even money proposition).
