"No one is above the law," Speaker Nancy Pelosi

Nancy Pelosi's full remarks as she called for an impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump
USA TODAY

Nancy Pelosi Finally Goes All In on Impeachment

"Donald Trump's conduct revealed his 'betrayal of his oath of office, betrayal of our national security and betrayal of the integrity of our elections',” Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi Announces Formal Impeachment Inquiry of Trump- Faced with new allegations against President Trump and administration stonewalling, Democrats have ended months of caution. (The New York Times reports.)

WASHINGTON. DC – Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Tuesday that the House of Representatives will launch an official impeachment inquiry into President Trump.

Here are her remarks as delivered:

Good afternoon. Last Tuesday, we observed the anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution on September 17.

Sadly, on that day, the Intelligence Community Inspector General formally notified the Congress that the Administration was forbidding him from turning over a whistle blower complaint. On Constitution Day. This is a violation of law.

Shortly thereafter, press reports began to break of a phone call by the President of the United States calling upon a foreign power to intervene in his election. This is a breach of his constitutional responsibilities.

The facts are these: the Intelligence Community Inspector General, who was appointed by President Trump, determined that the complaint is both of ‘urgent concern and credible,’ and its disclosure, he went on to say, that it ‘relates to one of the most significant and important of the Director of National Intelligence’s responsibilities to the American people.’

On Thursday, the Inspector General testified before the House Intelligence Committee, stating that the Acting Director of National Intelligence blocked him from disclosing the whistle blower complaint. This is a violation of the law.

The law is unequivocal. The DNI, it says, the Director of National Intelligence ‘shall’ provide Congress the full whistle blower complaint.

For more than 25 years, I have served on the Intelligence Committee – as a Member, as the Ranking Member, as part of the Gang of 4 even before I was in the Leadership.

I was there when we created the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. That did not exist before 2004.

I was there ever earlier in 90’s when we wrote the whistle blower laws and continue to write them, to improve them to ensure the security of our intelligence and the safety of our whistle blowers.

I know what their purpose was, and we proceeded with balance and caution as we wrote the laws. I can say with authority, that the Trump Administration’s actions undermine both: our national security and our intelligence and our protections of whistle blowers – more than both.

This Thursday, the Acting DNI will appear before the House Intelligence Committee.

At that time, he must turn over the whistle blower’s full complaint to the Committee. He will have to choose whether to break the law or honor his responsibility to the Constitution.

On the final day of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, when our Constitution was adopted, Americans gathered on the steps of Independence Hall to await the news of the government our Founders had crafted.

They asked Benjamin Franklin, ‘What do we have: a republic or a monarchy?’ Franklin replied: ‘A republic, if you can keep it.’

Our responsibility is to keep it.
Our republic endures because of the wisdom of our Constitution, enshrined in three co-equal branches of government, serving as checks and balances on each other.

The actions taken to date by the President have seriously violated the Constitution – especially when the President says, ‘Article II says, I can do whatever I want.’

For the past several months, we have been investigating in our Committees and litigating in the courts, so the House can gather ‘all the relevant facts and consider whether to exercise its full Article I powers, including a constitutional power of the utmost gravity — approval of articles of impeachment.’

And this week, the President has admitted to asking the President of Ukraine to take actions which would benefit him politically. The action of – the actions of the Trump Presidency revealed the dishonorable fact of the President’s betrayal of his oath of office, betrayal of our national security, and betrayal of the integrity of our elections.

Therefore, today, I am announcing the House of Representatives is moving forward with an official impeachment inquiry. I am directing our six Committees to proceed with their investigations under that umbrella of impeachment inquiry.

The President must be held accountable. No one is above the law.

Getting back to our Founders – in the darkest days of the American Revolution, Thomas Paine wrote: ‘The times have found us.’ The times found them to fight for and establish our democracy. The times have found us today, not to place ourselves in the same category of greatness as our Founders, but to place us in the urgency of protecting and defending our Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic. In the words of Ben Franklin, to keep our Republic.

I thank our Chairmen – Chairman Nadler, Chairman Schiff. Chairman Nadler of Judiciary. Chairman Schiff of Intelligence. Chairman Engel of Foreign Affairs. Chairman Cummings of Oversight and Chairman Cummings I have been in touch with constantly. He is a master of so much but including, Inspectors General and whistleblowers. Congressman Richie Neal of the Ways and Means Committee. Congresswomen Maxine Waters of the Financial Services Committee.

And I commend all of our Members, our colleagues for their thoughtful, thoughtful approach to all of this – for their careful statements.

God bless them and God Bless America. Thank you all.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-impeachment-inquiry/transcript-nancy-pelosi-s-speech-trump-impeachment-n1058351

National Security Agency Whistle Blower Crows from the Safety of Hong Kong - One Veteran Officer Responds

Edward Snowden reveals himself as a whistle blower, will seek asylum in Iceland?  He criticizes the work of the NSA while speaking to the media, from Hong Kong.  Maybe there's an iceberg the Icelanders can float him on, where he'll eventually melt into the ocean.

From DonD in Wake Forest North Carolina:  "Let's see. This guy joins the Army, then is upset that the Army teaches one to kill, rather than perform humanitarian acts. He joins the CIA, and gets upset again, this time because the CIA may want him to collect intelligence information. He later discloses his version of what the CIA expected of him which, if true, is a violation of a non-disclosure agreement he would have had to sign."

Iceberg Alert - can we reserve one for Snowden?  

What's Snowden trying to accomplish?  He's putting innocent people at risk by creating doubt about our nation's ability to collect data for national security purposes.  

Honestly, Americans who believe any electronic communications are secure must still believe in the tooth fairy. Moreover, electronic surveillance began with the passage of the Patriot Act, enacted under President George Bush after the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington DC.  The work of the National Security Agency (NSA) must rise above the political rhetoric of the moment and focus on tracking terrorists. Any attempt by politicians, like the pompous Senator Rand Paul, to curtail the surveillance of electronic communications must be carefully evaluated in light of the new normal world we live in.  Citizens can't hire enough public safety people to protect innocent people from terrorism; but we can monitor patterns in electronic communications to pick up patterns that may prevent tragedies.

In response to the Snowdon whistle blower disclosure, a retired Army officer, whose career included assisting international diplomats, writes this op-ed article, used here with his permission:

DonD  Wake Forest, NC

Let's see. This guy joins the Army, then is upset that the Army teaches one to kill, rather than perform humanitarian acts.

He joins the CIA, and gets upset again, this time because the CIA may want him to collect intelligence information. He later discloses his version of what the CIA expected of him which, if true, is a violation of a non-disclosure agreement he would have had to sign.

Next, he works for NSA as a contractor, where he must sign a non-disclosure agreement, but again gets upset, this time with an intelligence organization that collects communications information.

He says he has heroes, Daniel Ellsberg and PFC Bradley Manning, both of whom gained notoriety by disclosing classified information. For the latter, that series of disclosures has put several individual lives at peril. I'm surprised he didn't claim Jonathan Pollard as a hero, as well.

For those who think this is heroic behavior, this individual was custom made to be recruited by a foreign intelligence service, and the old KGB would have had him working for them in a heartbeat. The hook, in Snowden's case would have been a psychological weakness for personal recognition, while assuring him that his actions in no way would be damaging to the US.

I do agree with those who want a more fulsome public dialogue as to the limits of NSA's work, but having gotten there with public disclosure of sensitive methods of collection to a foreign entity cannot be supported.

Thank you Don.  I can't imagine anyone wanting to interfere with the important NSA intelligence work, when all the agency is trying to do is to protect innocent people from becoming victims of terrorism.