Shocker: James Clapper Will Avoid Charges For Perjuring Himself Before Congress, As of Today

The government that enforces our laws has declared itself immune to the very laws they inflict on the commoners.

They let the statute of limitations run out on his perjury.

Former intelligence chief James Clapper is poised to avoid charges for allegedly lying to Congress after five years of apparent inaction by the Justice Department.

Clapper, director of national intelligence from 2010 to 2017, admitted giving "clearly erroneous" testimony about mass surveillance in March 2013, and offered differing explanations for why.

Two criminal statutes that cover lying to Congress have five-year statutes of limitations, establishing a Monday deadline to charge Clapper, who in retirement has emerged as a leading critic of President Trump.

Jonathan Turley had previously warned that the government was going to let one of its Palz skate, noting they had previously made every dishonest excuse for him they could think of.

The problem is not that the perjury statute is never enforced. Rather it is enforced against people without allies in government. Thus, Roger Clemens was prosecuted for untrue statements before Congress. He was not given the option of giving the "least untruthful" answer.

Another reason for the lack of prosecutions is that the perjury process is effectively rigged to protect officials accused of perjury or contempt before Congress. When an official like Clapper or Nielsen is accused of lying to Congress, Congress first has to refer a case to federal prosecutors and then the administration makes the decision whether to prosecute its own officials for contempt or perjury. The result has almost uniformly been "declinations" to even submit such cases to a grand jury. Thus, when both Republicans and Democrats accused CIA officials of lying to Congress about the torture program implemented under former president George W. Bush, not a single indictment was issued.

For Clapper, the attempt to justify his immunity from prosecution has tied officials into knots. After Clapper lied before Congress and there was a public outcry, Clapper gave his “"east untruthful answer" justification. When many continued to demand a prosecution, National Intelligence general counsel Robert Litt insisted that Clapper misunderstood the question. Still later, Litt offered a third rationalization: that Clapper merely forgot about the massive surveillance system. That's right. Clapper forgot one of the largest surveillance (and unconstitutional) programs in the history of this country. Litt did not explain why Clapper himself said that he knowingly chose the "least untruthful answer." Litt added, “"t was perfectly clear that he had absolutely forgotten the existence of the ... program ... We all make mistakes." Of course, this "mistake" was an alleged felony offense.

Clapper will establish a standard that will be hard to overcome in the future. He lied about a massive, unconstitutional surveillance program and then admitted that he made an "untruthful" statement. That would seem to satisfy the most particular prosecutor in submitting a case to a grand jury, but this is Washington.

When a government no longer has moral authority over its citizens, it must rely exclusively on physical coercion and force, and then things get ugly quickly.

posted by Ace at 05:37 PM

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