Quote:
Originally Posted by Adder
With the important caveat that I haven't read up on the details, didn't the IG conclude that the warrant was properly issued despite the misconduct?
Which is not to say I disagree with you at all here.
It one of the things that bothers me about a common criticize of Obama from the left: he should have prosecuted Bush-era people for war crimes. While I don't doubt that the things Yoo blessed at Cheney's urging (among others, perhaps) are war crimes, but prosecuting your political opponents opens a gigantic can of worms that you can't close once someone with sufficiently few scruples decides to do it for political advantage alone. Does anyone doubt that Hillary would be in jail right now had Obama set that precedent?
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The IG found that the agents made loads of errors and withheld information which would have caused the court to question whether the warrant was properly issued. But the IG stopped short of saying the warrant was improperly issued. So did the judge.
On the other point, I agree with you.
But regarding Hillary, she's a bit different. She didn't do anything illegal. The server was scrubbed, but no one has ever proved she directed her lawyers to take that action. And while maybe it could be argued that the deletion was a crime, or that the use of the private server was a crime, these aren't the kinds of "crimes" anyone should or likely would prosecute.
Yoo didn't really do anything illegal either. He gave a contorted opinion justifying torture. But it was just an opinion. The people who followed it? That's a different story, perhaps. Cheney, OTOH, flat out lied to Congress about WMD. That guy committed a crime. And I have a hard time giving that behavior a pass because, while I'm sure he thought he was doing the right thing for the country, a ton of lives were lost for no good reason, and trillions were wasted.
